American Revolution Roundtable of the Backcountry: January 17, 2014

Please join us for the next meeting of the

 

American Revolution Roundtable of the Backcountry

 

on Friday evening, January 17, 2014

 

in the Montgomery Room of the Burwell Building at Wofford College.

 

Our speaker, Scott Hodges, an historian from Darien, Georgia will present Andrew Pickens in first person, using letters, diaries, and documents of the time period. 

 "General Andrew Pickens was an enigma in the truest sense of the word.  Born out of the turmoil of the American Revolution, he was known to the Cherokee as "Skyagunsta" or the "Wizard Owl".  This once consummate Indian fighter would become a successful Indian trader and planter along the South Carolina backcountry in the mid-18th Century.

 

At the very outset of the Revolution, he would align himself firmly on the side of the Patriots when he took part in the first land battle south of New England at Ninety-Six, in November 1775.  When the British took Charleston, in May 1780, Pickens, now Colonel of a backcountry militia regiment, became known to Lord Cornwallis, the British commander, as "the most dangerous man in South Carolina".  Known to his fellow Patriots as "the Hero of Kettle Creek," he was instrumental in the defeats of the British at Augusta, Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, and in assisting General Green at the Siege of Ninety-Six, as well as many other skirmishes in the back country.

 

A defender of "Liberty" in both Georgia and South Carolina, Andrew Pickens was a true "Firebrand of the American Revolution".  Hear his story in his own words from letters, diaries, and documents of the time period.  A display of artifacts and items from the colonial period accompanies this program."

 

Schedule: Dessert & coffee: 6:30-7:00, Program: 7:00 – 8:00 pm

 

Cost: $5.00 per person 

 

If you plan to attend, please contact me or Juanita Pesaro at PesaroJB@Wofford.Edu not later than Wednesday, January 15.