GIDEON GIBSON
Gideon Gibson, Patriot,
helped To Bring courts to Backcountry
Did you ever hear the story
of Gideon Gibson of Mars Bluff and how the first circuit courts were
established in South Carolina? It's an old story which dates back
before the war of the Revolution when this was a part of the South
Carolina backcountry and when all the colonies were subjects of the
British crown.
The year was 1750 and the
only court of civil and criminal jurisdiction was in Charleston, except
the courts of justices of the peace which had jurisdiction only in
civil cases as high as 20 pounds current money. The result was a
great handicap upon the people wo lived some distance from Charleston,
as did the people of this or any other section of the Peedee.
Roads and ferries were few, and even short distances were therefore
extremely great. According to Bishop Gregg in his HISTORY OF THE
OLD CHERAWS the people were "worn out by the law's delays, insulted by
the insolence of office and ruined by costs and expenses most
unreasonably incurred and cruelly exacted."
But that wasn't the greatest
evil. Because the Court of Justice was too far away to carry
small offenders to it, petty disorder became common place and a scourge
to decent, law-abiding citizens.
Under these conditions the
South Carolina Regulators, similar to the Red Shirts [See Wade Hampton's
Red Shirts - *See Hampton's Legion below] of a
later day,
came into being and Gideon Gibson of Mars Bluff was one of the foremost
of them.
In the year 1752, the
inhabitants of the Pee Dee about the mouth of Lynches Creek filed a
petition, stating that they had to travel about 200 miles to the seat
of
government, that trade and commerce among them were greatly obstructed
for want of a county court to hear and determine all causes,
civil
as well as criminal; 'that the frontier is same back country, had
become a dwelling place of many evil disposed persons, such as horse
thieves and other felons who had escaped from North Carolina and other
parts, others co-habitating with their neighbors wives and living
in a most lascivious manner, while they had no means to suppress
them. They requested that an act be passed dividing Craven County
which included all this section of South Carolina, and that their
section, which by their own description would have included what is now
Florence County, be established as a distinct county with 12 or more
justices authorized to hear and determine all cases without fee or
reward.
But they didn't get their
county. The committee named by the council to consider the matter ruled
that since there were no fit towns for the establishment of a seat of
county government in the territory indicated, no such county should be
established but that instead a court should be established at
Georgetown for the greater convenience of the people. The court
at Georgetown was, however, not established and the inconveniences to
the people of the back country continued. For nearly half a
century this condition prevailed. The Regulators organization was
composed of a high type of citizen. Their aim was to suppress the
disturbers of the peace by promising speedy punishment to them.
They had asked for the establishment of a court and had been
refused. They now sought the regulation of their difficulties by
this armed organization called the Regulators. The government, of
course, sought to suppress them.
Again in 1767 a petition went
from the upper and interior parts of Craven County to the government
for a redress of grievances. And still again in 1768, another
petition went citing the grievances of the people and urgently
requisition that the government give to them the consideration and
conform to the wishes of the people for a court nearer than the
distant Charleston. The request was summarily disposed of by the
Council, to use their own words, "after mature deliberation, by
determining that I would not be necessary to take any notice of the
same"
It was here that Gideon
Gibson stepped into the picture. In less than a month after the
final rejection of the petition by the Council, Gibson had advanced a
type of argument the government could not ignore. He was a man of
property and influence whose home was near Mars Bluff. He was a
man also of fierce determination, an acknowledged leader of the people
who was "as he was intent upon vindicating the rights of the
people." A magistrate by the name of Weaver; issued a warrant of
distress to execute on the chattels of some of the Regulators, and a
constable, George Thompson, called in 13 other men to assist
him. Gideon Gibson arose to meet the challenge. He was the
leader of the Regulators, and he and his band met the constable's party
near Mars Bluff in a pitched battle. One of the constable's men
was killed and Gibson's brother was wounded.
The government was
alarmed. Gideon Gibson had made more impression upon the
hard-headed government heads in Charleston than had the petitions
signed by many of the people. He had attacked the problem direct,
with the supporting power of gunpowder. The government did not
understand, and didn't try to understand that the Regulators were men
of fierce patriotism, law abiding, fair minded citizens who had taken
arms only after they had exhausted all means of getting much needed
relief by peaceful methods. An order was issued that they
disperse
and return to their homes, promising "His Majesty's gracious pardon
for the misdemeanors committed, excepting those person concerned in the
outrages and daring violence committed by Gideon Gibson and other upon
George Thompson, a lawful constable."
In the meantime, Governor
William Bull sent a Colonel Powell, who belonged to the Pee Dee
Regiment
of His Majesty's militia to Mars Bluff, they found 15 men of Captain
Weaver's company, and the day following they were reinforced by 20
others. But they heard disturbing things from the people around
Mars Bluff. Gibson, they were told, was guarded by a large
company of men, and if he'd just speak the word, he could easily get
300 more within an hour's time. As Colonel Powell listened to
these reports from the people of Mars Bluff, he saw the need for more
reinforcements, and so he sent orders to five company captains to join
him at Mars Bluff with 20 men from each of their companies to assist in
taking Gideon Gibson.
In the meantime, Colonel
Powell had been told that Gibson would surrender himself, so Powell
sent a letter to Gibson inviting him to meet with him in the woods
where they might be alone and talk the matter over. The meeting
day was Sunday and for an hour and a half the two men talked and
reasoned together. Powell knew he had the power of the government
behind him, while Gibson knew that behind him was the power of right
and
the people. The outcome of the conference was a promise from
Gibson that on the next day at 8 o'clock; he would surrender himself at
an appointed place to Mr. Pinckney, the provost marshal. When the time
for his surrender came, Gibson was not there . Instead, he had
sent a letter which explained that since the agreement made on the
previous day, he had altered his decision and would not surrender.
The 100 reinforcements Powell
had ordered from the five companies had not arrived and Powell
was
becoming anxious. But by noon they did arrive and drew themselves
up about a half mile from the home of Captain Weaver. Colonel Powell
and Provost Marshal Pinckney went immediately to meet them, but upon
their arrival they found instead of 100 men as requested, about
300 or more.
Colonel Powell stood before
them and immediately began declaring what was expected of them,
Gibson was to be taken, dead or alive. His followers, the Pee Dee
Regulators who had defied the government, were to be destroyed.
Resistance to the government must come to an end. His Majesty had
proclaimed it, and he read the proclamation in their hearing.
Powell was their commanding
officer and had a right to expect obedience of them, but the men had
their own speech to make. Gideon Gibson, they said, was one of
them and had sought their protection, and protect him they would.
They began a recitation of the evils to which the absence of county
courts had subjected them. Here were a people who understood the
meaning of justice defying a government which refused that
justice. In the subsequent fight for independence, many a brave
act was to take place within the deep shadows of Pee Dee swamps, but
there in the woods in the Mars Bluff community during the days prior to
the revolution, were sons of the Pee Dee committing a act comparable in
courage to anything that Marion and his men did during the days of the
Revolution itself.
While a commanding officer
has a command which will not take orders from him, he must either
exercise severe discipline or remove himself from the command.
The former Colonel Powell was in no position to do the first, so he
chose the latter. "I cannot with any propriety," he wrote the
governor, "continue to be colonel of a regiment of militia amongst
whom I have the mortification to find myself of so little weight
as not to have been able to persuade them to do the duty they owe to
their King and Country."
And so, Gideon Gibson,
patriot of the Pee Dee, came forth from his hiding into the hands of
his friends, and Colonel Powell, the commanding officer of the militia,
was powerless to get the militia to lay hands upon him.
Less than one year later, the
bill for the establishment of the circuit courts became law, and the
people of the Pee Dee no longer had to go to Charleston to get their
grievances settled in a court of justice.
And that's the story of
Gideon Gibson, a Pee Dee patriot, of colonial days, and how the circuit
courts came to the south Carolina backcountry.
Note; Material for this story
was found in Gregg's HISTORY OF THE OLD CHERAWS and in a paper prepared
by Miss Nellie Bristow of Florence and appearing in the Florence
Morning News under date of June 19, 1938.
Charlestown, (S. Carolina)
August 16
(News Article)
Date: 1768-10-13;
Paper: New-York Journal
Charlestown (S Carolina)
August 16th
" The outrageous opposition
lately offered to the Civil authority near Mars Bluff, on Pedee River,
being at present a general subject of conversation, and by many
attributed to the People called Regulators, it may not be amiss to lay
before the public the following information, viz. : That there are two
parties so called, and the proceedings of the one frequently confounded
with those of the other. That the first (called the Honest.
party) consists in general of people of good principals and that the other (called the
Rogues' party) are a gang of banditti, a numerous collection of outcast
Mulattoes, Mustees, Free Negroes, &c., all horse thieves from the
borders of Virginia and other Northern Colonies (the very people whom
the Regulators would have expelled the Province, or brought to
Justice), and have taken up arms to carry on their villainy with
impunity. The last accounts we have received of both are, That the
former, on the 16 th past, took up one Charles Sparks, of infamous
character, on Pedee, and ordered him to receive 500 lashes and quit the
Province : and of the latter, that an armed company of them, headed by
one Gideon Gibson, on the 25th past, near Mars-bluff, surrounded a
Constable and 12 men, who were sent to bring one of the villains before
a magistrate, and after a smart skirmish, wherein two of the
Constable's party were mortally wounded, and one shot through the
shoulder, took the rest prisoners, whom he discharged, after ordering
them 50 lashes each. In the skirmish, Gibson had one of his sons
killed, and another wounded in the neck. Proper measures are taken to
bring the principals of this desperate Gang to Justice.
New York Journal
September 15, 1768
Charlestown, (S Carolina)
August 19th
On Saturday the 6th Inst. his
Honour the Leiut. Governor, by and with the advice of his Majesty's
hounourabl council, issued a Proclamation, wherein, after reciting
that of the 3d inst. and setting forth, that it had been represented
and appeared to his Houour, that very many Person concerned in the acts
of Violence, committed in the Northern Parts of this Province, had been
unwarily drawn in and provoked thereto, by the great and repeated
Losses they had sustained from Gangs of Robbers and Banditti,
confederated in numerous Bodies; all Persons, unlawful assembled, are
strictly commanded to disperse and repair peaceably to their respective
Houses and Occupations; the, and all others, are also forbidden
thereafter to assemble again , at their utmost Peril. The
Proclamation concludes with a promise, for all such as shall forthwith
pay a due obedience thereto of his Majesty's most gracious Pardon, for
all Misdemeanors by them committed, previous to the 6th Day of August
Inst in unlawful assembling, Whipping or confining an Person or
Persons, as set forth in the Proclamation of the 3d, excepting to
Gideon Gibson and others who attacked a Constable and hi Party in the
actual Execution of a legal Warrant, near Marr's Bluff the 25th Ult.--
It is with Pleasure we lear, that this lenient and human Measure is
likely to produce the desired effect.
Date: October 13, 1768
Location: New York
Paper: New-York Journal
On the 22nd August, the
Gazette said : " We are sorry that we cannot have the pleasure of
informing the public, that either of the Proclamations issued by his
Honor the Lieu* Gov r on the 3rd and 6th insta, are likely to
produce the desired effects; Gideon Gibson declining to surrender on
any terms; having put himself under the protection of people that do
not at present seem disposed to give him up. This man's character, we
are told, always stood fair, till he lately became the tool of a Party,
who committed the outrages near Mars-bluff, mentioned in our last."
*HORNELLSVILLE WEEKLY TRIBUNE
[New York]
11/28/1890
SOUTH
CAROLINA’S REDBONES
There
are a singular race of people in South Carolina called the Redbones.
Their origin is unknown. They resemble in appearance the gypsies, but
in complexion they are red. They have accumulated considerable property
and are industrious and peaceable. They live in small settlements at
the foot of the mountains and associated with none but their own race.
They are a proud and high spirited people. Caste is very strong among
them. They enjoy life, visit the watering places and mountain resorts,
but eat by themselves and keep by themselves. When the war broke out several of them enlisted in the
Hampton legion, and when the legion reached Virginia there was a
great outcry among the Virginians and the troops from other states
because we had enlisted Negroes. They did not resemble the African in
the least, except in cases where Africans had amalgamated with Indians.
This intermixture, which is common in the Carolinas, produces marvelous
results. It takes the kink out of the hair of the African, straightens
his features and improve him in every way except in temper---Interview
with Senator Hampton.-------------