Cindy Thames
How South Carolina Won the Revolutionary War (With a Little Help From All Y’all)
As the richest of the thirteen colonies, with trade vital to the British economy, South Carolina was essential to the fight for independence. But its ruling class did not get on board until the people rose up, spurred by newspaper reports from New England—Boston in particular. This session aims to shed light on the relationships between Boston’s patriots and Charleston’s sons of liberty and their joint effort to push reluctant planters and merchants to back nonimportation, block trade with Britain, and ultimately support the war.
Cindy Thames (radicalprinter.substack.com) is an independent researcher writing a biography of Peter Timothy, printer of the South-Carolina Gazette from 1746 to 1780. She launched this project after a career in publishing, including as a reporter for daily newspapers. Her article about Timothy and the Stamp Act appeared in Carologue, the general interest magazine of the South Carolina Historical Society. She also shares outtakes from her research in her blog, “The Radical Printer.”
