Beneath the swaying shade of lush live oaks laced with Spanish moss, the chiseled bust of Thomas Heyward Jr. looks out on the Old House Plantation property in Jasper County, along a marsh.
This is where the founding father was born and buried – his childhood home. Heyward would go on to practice law, sign the Declaration of Independence, and fight in the Revolutionary War.
“We might call him a Renaissance man,” says Smittie Cooler, the chairman of the Jasper County 250 Committee, formed to celebrate the anniversary of the nation’s birth.
“But he was also very focused on liberty and at a time when he was called to do that.”
Thomas Heyward Jr.
Cooler’s cousins now own the property where Heyward once grew up. The plantation house built by his father, Daniel, is long gone. But it was a sprawling, 16,000-acre estate where rice was grown by enslaved Africans. Daniel Heyward was one of the largest slave owners in the South.
Hundreds of years later, along the marsh, wide brimmed hats bob between tall blades of cordgrass, as archeologists trudge through pluff mud and sift through artifacts.
Cooler says there used to be a wharf here, and a tidal rice mill. The archeologists are trying to piece together the property’s past. And they’re looking for evidence British troops once stayed at Old House.
“We think the officers may have stayed in the house,” says Cooler. “There was also a significant camp around the area.”
The year was 1779 and Thomas Heyward Jr., a captain of artillery in the South Carolina Militia, had just helped fend off the British in a battle at Port Royal. The British troops retreated to Savannah, Ga. and regrouped before continuing their march north to seize Charleston.
Cooler says hundreds of British soldiers crossed the Savannah River near Purrysburg, S.C., where they launched a surprise attack. The Swiss, Protestant colony had become a headquarters for patriots who fought back.
“I think the British overestimated the loyalty of South Carolinians to the crown,” says Cooler.
While the patriots retreated, Cooler says journals indicate exhausted British troops went out their way to stay at the Old House Plantation before heading to Coosawhatchie.
“It’s sort of like going around your elbow to get back to touch your nose,” says Cooler. “It’s not a direct line at all from Purrysburg to Coosawhatchie.”
By then, Daniel Heyward had passed away.
Battle of Coosawhatchie
Roughly 10 miles from Old House, along S.C. Highway 462, the tiny town of Cossawhatchie touts its role in the Revolutionary War. A train blares by one of the community’s two historical markers. Today, fewer than 100 people live here.
In early May of 1779, Cooler says British forces far outnumbered patriots as they moved into Coosawhatchie. But this Euhaw neighborhood, as old-timers call it, was scrappy.
Cooler says friends, families and neighbors came together to form local militias to help fight the British. But the patriots were overwhelmed as they tried to take a stand on a ridge at Tulifinny River.
Instead of retreating, one of the patriot commanders disobeyed orders and went on the offensive. Three men died and eight were wounded.
Still, Cooler says this lesser-known battle was somewhat of a victory for the patriots because their resistance wore down British troops and delayed the march to Charleston.
“That was the epitome of local militia and larger efforts collaborating in this common goal, to oppose the British,” says Cooler.
“And here we are, 250 years later, living under the umbrella of liberty.”
The British did make their way to Charleston in May of 1780. There, Heyward commanded an elite militia artillery company in a fight for the city. But Charleston ultimately fell to the British and Heyward was captured as a prisoner of war.
During his confinement, Heyward famously rewrote the lyrics to the British national anthem, “God Save the King.” Instead, he wrote and sang, “God Save the Thirteen States”.
Celebrating 250
While the nation prepares to honor America’s 250th birthday on July 4, Jasper County is marking the occasion on July 27 as part of a statewide celebration.
Cooler says the Old House Plantation will host storytelling, trolley tours, campfire talks, and interactive exhibits. To learn more, go to Jasper250.com.
