At the start of the American Revolutionary War, colonies scrambled to enlist men to fight. The northern states readily accepted African Americans in their ranks. Slavery was common throughout the colonies including the northern provinces. New York City had the greatest slave population than any other city and Rhode Island had the highest percentage of black to whites of all the colonies. It must be noted that Providence Rhode Island was the center of the overseas slave trade; the majority of slave ships were owned and operated by Rhode Island’s elite businessmen who were no more than wealthy slavers or peddlers in flesh.[1] However General George Washington, a southerner whose culture feared arming their plantation slaves, at first refused enlisting any further African Americans. He changed his opinion as the war progressed and manpower became an issue. Also, the black soldier was proving himself to be an ample fighter.
Eventually most of the southern states agreed with Washington, however not the deep south. Georgia never allowed the enlistment of slaves though they did accept wealthy masters to free their slaves as a substitute to fight in their stead. Austin Dabney (1765 – ) was owned by Richard Aycock and was emancipated to enlist as his master’s substitute. He became an artilleryman and served with Colonel Elijah Clark in several actions throughout the south. He proved himself to be a gallant soldier and towards the end of the war, was shot and sustained a broken thigh that crippled him for life.[2]
After the war, like so many slaves who fought for the American cause, he was not allowed to retain the freedom granted so he could take the place of his former master. He was returned to slavery and his former owner Richard Aycock. It wasn’t until after Aycock’s death that the state of Georgia was compelled to recognize Dabney for his faithful service. On August 14, 1786, Dabney became the only African American of Georgia to be granted land, fifty acres, by the state in recognition of his military service during the War. Georgia also provided seventy pounds to emancipate Dabney from Aycock’s airs.[3] In 1789, after Dabney’s influential former officers continued to petition on his behalf, he received a federal invalid pension of sixty dollars a year (which was increased to ninety-six dollars annually in 1816. In 1821, forty years after Dabney received his wounds in battle, an additional 112 acres of land in Walton County Georgia was granted to Dabney. The former slave was also honored with words of praise citing his “bravery and fortitude” declaring that no soldier was “braver or did better in service during the Revolutionary struggle.”[4] African American soldiers had not been permitted to have a chance in a land lottery that was set aside for white soldiers of the war. Dabney became the only exception. This created a stir among white land owners of nearby Madison County. They believed strongly that whites and blacks should not be regarded as equals in terms of land allocations. Governor Gilmer in 1855 wrote: “They said that it was an indignity to white men, for a mulatto to be put upon an equality with them in the distribution of public land, though not one had done such long and useful public service.”[5]
Most historical texts and internet sources claim that Austin Dabney received his wound at the Battle of Kettle Creek, February 14, 1779. Also that he was rescued from the battle field by another soldier, Giles Harris. It had been claimed that Dabney, to show his gratitude, spent the rest of his life living with and working for the Harris family. It was also recorded that Dabney continued his dedication and loyalty to Harris by saving and paying for Harris’ son’s college and law degree, weeping openly outside the courthouse when the youth passed his bar exams. Supposedly Dabney was even granted some equal status among the white society when allowed to converse openly in taverns and embrace politicians in public. Dabney’s devoted loyalty was also noted that he understood and accepted his fate that he was allowed special privileges enjoyed by whites, but at the white person’s discretion that it did not go too far.
Thanks to research in the last thirty years, much of the myth has been separated from fact. No primary or secondary source has doubted the teenaged Dabney’s courage and service under fire. He fully deserved the recognition including pension and land grants, even though he had to wait for the promise of freedom and the recognition was forty years coming. However, there has been misinformation and myths spun around the circumstances behind his wound and events that shaped his later life. To understand this is to grasp the reasoning whites gave themselves to accept the morality of slavery. White slave holders of the 18th and 19th centuries looked favorable on their bondsmen’s loyalty and devotion as proof of their own moral worthiness by treating those of African descent with ‘kindness.’ In turn, the reward was complete faithfulness and obedience by a thankful servant. It allowed the justification of degradation by owning another human being. Furthermore, the white community granted brief instances of ‘equality’ when embracing slaves and freemen alike in social gatherings at home or in local taverns, further proof of the white’s ‘humanist’ self worth.
This was the impetus behind the myth surrounding Dabney’s wounds and his fealty devotion to the white soldier who saved him, including Dabney’s warm’ reception, ‘within reason’, by white society. The source can be traced directly to Governor George R. Gilmer[6] who included the ‘story’ of Austin Dabney in his 1855 publication, Sketches of Some of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia. It is worth examining the Governor’s comments in relation to how it fits within a white society’s self-awareness of its moral ‘correctness’ when dealing with slavery.
Governor Gilmer wrote of Dabney: “The mulatto was accordingly enrolled in a captain’s company, by the name of Austin Dabney. No soldier under [Colonel Elijah] Clark was braver, or did better service during the revolutionary struggle. In the Battle of Kettle Creek[7]…Austin Dabney was shot down, and left on the battle ground very dangerously wounded. He was found, carried home, and cared for, by a man of the name of Harris. It was long before Austin Dabney recovered. Gratitude for the kindness which he had received became the feeling of his heart. He worked for Harris and his children, and served them more faithfully and efficiently than any slave ever served his master.”[8] Here Gilmer self asserts the ‘righteousness’ of slavery; kindness is offered by a caring white person which is properly returned by the faithful slave’s fealty to his master. This symbolizes the classic white to black relationships in the antebellum south, like an owner to his faithful dog, correctly rewarded by his pet’s adoration.
Governor Gilmer continued: “He [Dabney] moved with them [Harris’ family] from Wilks County to Madison, soon after the later county was organized. He sent his benefactor’s oldest son to school, and afterwards to college, by the hard earnings of his own hands. He lived upon the poorest food, and wore old patched clothes that he might make young Harris a gentleman. When his protégé left Franklin College, Austin Dabney placed him in the office of Stephen Upson.[9] …when he [young Harris] took the oath for admission to the bar, Austin Dabney was standing outside, leaning on the railing which enclosed the court, two currents of tears trickling down his mulatto face, from the remembrance of the kindness which he had received and thankfulness for the power which had been given him to do something in return.”[10] Gilmer continued to describe Dabney not as a freeman, equal to his white hosts, but as a faithful and thankful servant who would endure self-sacrifice for his master and his master’s offspring’s benefit. And in doing so, Dabney’s rightful place remained outside looking in, with grateful tears allowing him the “power to do something in return” for the kindness a white society bestowed upon him.
Gilmer described an occasion when Dabney went to Savanna to claim his annual soldier’s pension. He accompanied another veteran, Colonel Pope. “As they were passing through the city, Colonel Pope observed to Austin Dabney that he was a sensible man, and knew the prejudices which forbade his associating with him in city society. Austin Dabney checked his horse and fell in the rear, after the fashion of mulatto servants following their masters…” Here again, Gilmer, notes the subservient servant who is cognizant of his place in a white society. Gilmer continued, “They passed by the house of General James Jackson[11], the governor ran into the street and seized the former artilleryman by the hand…and carried him into his house.” Here too, Gilmer showed that a white society perpetuated in slavery, is morally justified by reaching out to their black population with kindness and a cautious level of equality. So too when Gilmer states that Colonel Dooley, who, along with Colonel Clark, commanded some of Dabney’s actions in the war, showed his morally correctness, by occasionally associating with Dabney at local taverns.
Basically, most of what Governor Gilmer wrote about Dabney was not true. As stated, Dabney deserved praise for his war record and was wounded in battle. But that is pretty much where Gilmer strayed from facts. Research in the 1970’s by Frank Hudson and Kenneth Thomas Jr. conflicted with much of what Gilmer wrote about Dabney. Roger Scott Davis wrote an article in the Journal of the American Revolution that casts light on Hudson’s and Thomas’ findings.
Dabney was not wounded at the Battle of Kettle Creek as Gilmer wrote and many texts and internet sites claim. His pension papers state that he was wounded during the fight around Augusta on May 25, 1782, commanded by Captain Barber and Colonel Elijah Clarke. This too was misleading as the battle mentioned in Dabney’s pension was fought a year earlier when Clarke’s men, who’s regiment Dabney was an artilleryman, stormed and killed all within Fort Grierson which, after the surrender of Fort Cornwallis, brought the seize of Augusta to an end on June 5, 1781. It is most likely that Dabney was shot through the thigh during that action.
Giles Harris did not save Dabney on the battlefield. There’s no record of Harris in Georgia until 1792, more than ten years after Dabney was wounded. This shatters the countless accounts that state that Harris fought alongside Dabney and carried the young artilleryman to safety after he was wounded. This also debunks the story propagated by Governor Gilmer that claims Harris and his wife nursed Dabney back to health, receiving Dabney eternal gratitude. It is most likely that David Thurman, a member of the Wilkes County Militia, brought Dabney to his home so he and his daughter Elizabeth could care for him. David Thurman was a neighbor and likely kinsman to the Aycocks, Dabney’s master. Some arrangement, either for cash, debts owed, family ties, or Thurman had previously befriended Dabney, caused Thurman to open his house to care for Aycock’s slave.
The relationship between Giles Harris and Dabney developed after Harris married David Thurman’s daughter Elizabeth in 1792. A friendship between Dabney and Giles Harris may have developed or to save his personal belongings from creditors, A few years later, Dabney deeded his property, including a slave boy he owned named Reuben, to Giles and Elizabeth’s infant son William. According to most accounts, Dabney did this to express his gratitude to Harris for saving his life on the battle field, however, facts proving that was not the case, Dabney probably made this arrangement to save his personal belongings from creditors.
Dabney was claimed to be free by Richard Aycock so the white Georgian could substitute his slave for himself to fight in the militia. Dabney was returned to slavery after he recuperated from his wound. There is no record that states if he was returned to Aycock or remained with the Thurmonds who had cared for him after he was wounded. It is most probable that some kind of arrangement was made for Dabney to remain and work for the Thurmonds. Aycock died in 1786 and the state paid his airs for Dabney’s freedom. The former bondsman stayed and worked for the Thurmonds. After the marriage of Thurmond’s daughter Elizabeth to Giles Harris in 1792, Dabney at some point moved and worked for Harris. Dabney attached himself first to the Thurmonds and later to the Harris’, including the son William, living in Wilkes, Elbert, Oglethorpe, and finally Madison counties. While living with these families, Dabney supported himself through farming, gambling, trading in racehorses, and as a merchant.
There is no record proving Governor Gilmer’s statement that Dabney paid for Harris’ son William to attend what became the University of Georgia; nor if he paid to help William prepare for the bar. No other source but Gilmer’s elaborates that in 1817, Dabney stood outside weeping openly while William took the lawyers oath. William Harris did apprentice under Stephen Upson as had Gilmer some years earlier. There may be truth that Dabney helped William receive this apprenticeship for Upson, as a legislator, obtained a land lot for Dabney in 1821.
Dabney received his last pension payment in March, 1830 and died in Pike County, Georgia in September of that year. William Harris had become Dabney’s lifelong friend, having known and lived with the crippled veteran from birth. He was to name a son after his old friend, Austin Dabney Harris. William died in 1838 and was buried beside Dabney.
On February 4, 2010, a ceremony took place at the Dabney Harris Cemetery in Zebulon, Pike County. “The story of Austin Dabney touches your heart,” said Washington Mayor Willie Burns. “Austin was a patriot who fought at the Battle of Kettle Creek and the Battle of Augusta. His wounds left him crippled for life. Genealogist General Dooley was present and stated that research showed that there were from 5,000 to 20,000 black patriots fighting for freedom and liberty during the Revolutionary War.[12]
African Americans participated in ever battle and near every skirmish throughout the Revolutionary War. Over five thousand black soldiers fought alongside their white comrades. And though these black patriot numbers did not nearly reach the over 100,000 white patriots who fought for the American cause, unlike the ‘summer soldier’ and militiamen with short term enlistments, most of the black soldiers remained in the ranks for the entire war. Therefore their numbers and the overall percentage of black to white soldiers present for duty at any one time would have been higher than the total number would assume; at times as many as six to one. American General John Thomas said: “We have some Negroes but I look on them in general equally serviceable with other men for fatigue, and in action many of them had proved themselves brave.”[13] Captain Alexander Graydon wrote when he saw Colonel Glover’s regiment at Marblehead, Massachusetts: “But even in this regiment (a fine one) there were a number of Negroes.”[14] At the battle of Monmouth, British historian Bancroft stated: “Nor may history omit to record that, of the ‘revolutionary patriots’ who on that day periled life for their country, more than 700 black men fought side by side with the white.”[15] Bancroft went on to write from early on in the war that “the roll of the army at Cambridge had from its first formation borne the names of men of color.”[16]
Doctor Harris, who was present at the Battle of Rhode Island, said of the Rhode Island 1st regiment, a regiment formed mostly of African American slaves: “Had they been unfaithful or even given away before the enemy all would have been lost. Three times in succession they were attacked with more desperate valor and fury by well disciplined and veteran troops, and three times did they successfully repel the assault and thus preserved our army from capture.”[17] The American army was retreating. The Rhode Island 1st was part of the rear guard. The regiment of mostly African American soldiers was crucial to the American escape by holding their ground and beating back several Hessian assaults.
Though the north had been arming slaves and freed blacks to fight alongside white soldiers, the deep south was reluctant to do so. John Laurens’[18] of South Carolina issued a request on March 29, 1779, to arm the slaves. It failed in Congress. Laurens wrote afterwards, “I was outvoted, having only reason on my side, and being opposed by a triple-headed monster, that shed the baneful influence of avarice, prejudice, and pusillanimity in our assemblies.”[19] Washington, when learning of the decision, wrote to Laurens, “That spirit of freedom, which at the commencement of this contest would have gladly sacrificed everything to the attainment of its object, has long since subsided, and every selfish passion has taken its place. It is not the public, but private interest, which influences the generality of mankind, nor can the Americans any longer boast an exception. Under these circumstances it would rather have been surprising if you had succeeded.”[20]
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SOURCES
Bancroft, George. History of the United States from the Discover of the American Continent, Vol. X. 1874: Little Brown & Company, Boston, Massachusetts.
Bennett, Lerone. Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619-1962. 1962: Reprint 2016: Martino Fine Books, Eastford, Conn.
Dawson, Henry Barton. Battles of the U. S. by Land & Sea…, Vol. I. 1858: Johnson, Fry & Co., New York, NY.
Foner, Philip S., History of Black Americans From Africa to the Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom. 1975: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc., Westport, Conn.
Gilmer, George R. Sketches of Some of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia. 1855: D. Appleton & Co., New York, NY.
Hartgrove, W. B. The Journal of Negro History. “The Negro Soldier in the American Revolution.” Vol. 1, No 2 (April 1916), pp 110-131.
Kaplan, Sydney. The News Reporter, Washington, Georgia. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Feb. 4, 2010, pg. 12A.
Lecky, William Edward. The American Revolution 1763-1783.1898: D. Appleton & Company New York, NY.
Lanning, Lt. Col. Michael Lee. African Americans in the Revolutionary War. 2000: Citadel Press, Kensington Publishing Corp., New York, NY.
Moore, George H. Historical Notes on the Employment of Newgroes in the American Army of the Revolution. 1862: Published by Charles T. Evans, New York, NY.
Moore, George H. Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts. 1866: Applewood Books, Bedford, Mass.
Steward, T. G. D.D. The Colored Regulars…From the Period of the Revolutionary War to 1899 In the United States Army. 1904: A.M.E. Book Concern, Philadelphia, Penn.
Sweat, Edward F. Negro History Bulletin. Social Status of the Negro in Antebellum Georgia. Vol. 21, No. 6 (March 1958), pp 129-131.
Thomas, Kenneth H., Jr. “Georgia Family Lines: Harris”. Georgia LIfe Magazine 2 (Winter 1975-1976): pp 48-49.
Washington, Booker T. The Story of the Negro. The Rise of the Race from Slavery, Vol. 1. 1909: Doubleday Page & Co., New York, NY.
Williams, George W. History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 – 1880. 1883: G. P. Putnam & Sons, New York, NY.
Internet
Georgia Encyclopedia. Austin Dabney.
Davis, Robert Scott. Journal of the American Revolution. Austin Dabney.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Brown University was initially founded on slave money. The college was established in 1764 as The College in the English Colony in Rhode Island. John Brown and many other prominent businessmen of Rhode Island (many owning shipping companies employed in the profitable slave trade) donated money and slave labor to found the college. Forced slave labor constructed the original buildings on campus. The four Brown brothers, Nicholas and John being the most pronounced, had all made their fortunes in a large part through the slave trade and markets. Later in life, Moses, the oldest, became an abolitionist; so too his nephew Nicholas Brown Jr. In 1804, the college offered the right to rename the institution to anyone who would donate $5,000. Nicholas Brown Jr. did so and the college became Brown University.
[2] Quarles, pg. 75.
[3] New Georgia Encyclopedia; Austin Dabney.
[4] Lanning, pg. 17.
[5] Gilmer, pg. 212 – 213.
[6] George Rockingham Gilmer (1790-1859) served two non-consecutive terms as governor of Georgia. First from 1829-1831 and the second from 1837-1839. He also served in the U. S. House of Representatives in 1818, 1819, and 1824.
[7] Fought on February 14, 1779 – American victory.
[8] Gilmer, pg. 213.
[9] Stephen Upson (1785-1824) was an original resident of Connecticut. After graduating Yale College, he moved to Georgia. He became head of the Georgia bar and represented Oglethorpe County, Georgia in the State Assembly beginning in the 1820’s on up until his death. After his death, Upson County was named in his honor.
[10] Gilmer, pg. 213.
[11] General James Jackson (1757-1806) As a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, he participated in the unsuccessful defense of Savannah (1778), the Battle of Cowpens (1781), the Battle of Augusta (1781), and Savannah (1782). He served in Congress in the 1780’s and 1790’s. He left the U. S. Senate and returned to Georgia serving as governor from 1798-1801.
[12] The New Reporter, Washington, Georgia. February 4, 2010.
[13] Hargrove, pg. 129.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Bancroft, Vol. X, pg. 133.
[16] More, pg. 6.
[17] Hargrove, pg. 128.
[18] John Laurens (1754-1782) was a soldier and statesman from South Carolina. Close friend to Alexander Hamilton, he is best known for his criticism of slavery and his efforts to help recruit slaves to fight for their freedom as American soldiers. He was killed on August 1782 at the Battle of Combahee River, sadly one of the last actions of the war.
[19] Moore, pg. 14.
[20] Ibid.