GADSDEN, CHRISTOPHER (1724-1805)

This article appears in Volume V11, Page 384 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FRA-GAE

GADSDEN, CHRISTOPHER (1724-1805) , American patriot, was born in Charleston,

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

Carolina, in 1724. His father,

Thomas

Gadsden, was for a time the king's collector for the port of Charleston. Christopher went to school near Bristol, in England, returned to America in 1741, was afterwards employed in a counting

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

in Philadelphia, and became a merchant and planter at Charleston. In 1759 he was captain of an artillery company in an expedition against the Cherokees. He was a member of the

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

Carolina legislature almost continuously from 176o to 178o, and represented his province in the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 and in the Continental Congress in 1774-1776. In February 1776 he was placed in command of all the military forces of South Carolina, and in October of the same
year was commissioned a brigadier-general and was taken into the Continental service: but on account of a dispute arising out of a conflict between state and Federal authority resigned his command in 1777. He was

lieutenant

LIEUTENANT

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of his state in 1780, when Charleston was surrendered to the British. For about three months following this event he was held as a prisoner on parole within the limits of Charleston; then, because of his influence in deterring others from exchanging their paroles for the privileges of British subjects, he was seized, taken to St

Augustine

AUGUSTINE, SAINT (354-430)
AUGUSTINE, SAINT (d. c.613)

, Florida, and there, because he would not give another parole to those who had violated the former agreement affecting him, he was confined for

forty

FORTY

-two weeks in a

dungeon

DUNGEON

. In 1782 Gadsden was again elected a member of his state legislature; he was also elected

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

, but declined to serve on the ground that he was too old and infirm; in 1788 he was a member of the convention which ratified for South Carolina the Federal constitution; and in 1790 he was a member of the convention which framed the new state constitution. He died in Charleston on the 28th of August 1805. From the time that Governor

Thomas

Boone, in 1762, pronounced his election to the legislature improper, and dissolved the

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

in consequence, Gadsden was hostile to the British administration. He was an ardent leader of the opposition to the Stamp Act, advocating even then a separation of the colonies from the

mother

MOTHER

country; and in the Continental Congress of 1774 he discussed the situation on the basis of inalienable rights and liberties, and urged an immediate attack on General Thomas Gage, that he might be defeated before receiving reinforcements.

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