"Drawing extensively upon Gadsden's writings and letters, Christopher Gadsden and the American Revolution ... recreates the ... life of South Carolina's foremost patriot during the American Revolution and illuminates further that major episode in American history. The book contains all the known details of Gadsden's personal life as well as a thorough analysis of his political and military careers"--Jacket.

A study of the lives of Christopher Gadsden (1724-1805) and Henry Laurens (1724-1792) is much more than a look at the contributions of two important, though largely neglected, heroes of the Revolution. Indeed, in these two lives, one can trace the development of the Revolution in South Carolina. Either Gadsden or Laurens, sometimes both, figured prominently in every major development in South Carolina between 1760 and 1783.

Letters and writings of Christopher Gadsden, an American Revolutionary leader. Born in Charleston, S.C., educated in England, later returned to Charleston (1746) and became a wealthy merchant. At the Stamp Act Congress (1765) he was one of the first to urge colonial union against England's policy of taxation. Gadsden served (1774-76) in the Continental Congress and favored independence. In the struggle over the South Carolina constitution in 1778 he was a radical, favoring separation of church and state and popular election of senators. He was captured when the British took Charleston (1780), and imprisonment by the British broke his health. He later helped to secure ratification of the Constitution and still later opposed the Jeffersonians. -- Columbia Enc.