Thomas Jeremiah
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Thomas Jeremiah (died 18 August 1775) was a free Negro
harbor pilot A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who maneuvers ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots are regarded as skilled professional ...
, firefighter, fisherman and merchant from Charles Town,
South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...
, in
British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English overseas possessions, English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland (island), Newfound ...
. A prominent resident of the city, he was executed for attempting to foment a
slave revolt A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by enslaved people, as a way of fighting for their freedom. Rebellions of enslaved people have occurred in nearly all societies that practice slavery or have practiced slavery in the past. A desire for freed ...
on the eve of the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. His execution was controversial even at the time, and he has since become a "representative" for the state of blacks in the Revolution.


Biography

Known often as Thomas Jerry or simply as Jerry in contemporary sources, little is known of his life details. This includes when or where he was born and whether he was free from birth. At the time, 99 percent of blacks in South Carolina were enslaved and, typically, free blacks such as Jeremiah would have purchased themselves from their masters. Jeremiah's first appearances in the historical record are in 1750s in the '' South-Carolina Gazette'' where he was blamed for running both the HMS ''Jamaica'' and the ''Brothers Adventure'' aground. His skills improved as he was recognized as "one of the best pilots in the harbor" in 1775 and he was also recognized for other activities (" isPublick services were universally acknowledged" according to the governor). Jeremiah was also a slave owner, who used slaves in a commercial fishing operation. In 1768, the ''South-Carolina Gazette'' noted that "The Negro Jerry (well known for his extinguishing of fires) has just completed a
Well-Boat A well-boat is a fishing vessel with a well or tank for the storage and transport of live fish. The term was first used in the 17th century. Before modern refrigeration methods, well-boats allowed for the delivery of live fish to port. Contempor ...
, in order to supply the inhabitants of harles Townwith Live Fish every day". His wealth was estimated as high as £1,000 sterling (). Scholar J. William Harris speculates that Jeremiah was probably the richest Negro in
British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English overseas possessions, English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland (island), Newfound ...
at that time. By the 1770s, Jeremiah was well known in Charles Town and in 1771 respect for him may have been responsible for a successful request for a pardon from Lieutenant Governor William Bull for an assault charge.


The death of Thomas Jeremiah


Background

Revolutionary fervor gripped South Carolina's capital by the beginning of 1775. From 1765, the
British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...
had begun a series of taxes and punishments which met more and more resistance from the North American colonies. Royal governance in the
Province of South Carolina Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies. The monar ...
was increasingly sinking into dysfunction as the
Commons House of Assembly The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...
was repeatedly dissolved by royal governors. Extralegal committees and assemblies were formed to enforce resistance to British actions. In response to the British blockade of Boston Harbor and passage of the
Intolerable Acts The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure ...
, the extralegal
General Committee A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...
called a
General Meeting A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...
for 6 July 1774. The General Meeting chose delegates to the
First Continental Congress The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States. It met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the British Navy ...
of most of Britain's colonies in North America. That Congress met in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
from 5 September to 26 October 1774, with two of South Carolina's delegates, Christopher Gadsden and Thomas Lynch, playing "especially conspicuous roles" with their belligerent attitudes toward the British. In South Carolina, the General Meeting selected a
corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...
-based
Committee of 99 A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
which became a ''de facto'' government for the colony. The ''de jure'' royal Commons House of Assembly supported and funded these activities. In late 1774, the General Meeting called elections for a new
Provincial Congress The Provincial Congresses were extra-legal legislative bodies established in ten of the Thirteen Colonies early in the American Revolution. Some were referred to as congresses while others used different terms for a similar type body. These bodies ...
. That Congress, most of whose members were also representatives in the royal Commons House of Assembly, first met on 11 January 1775. The Congress and the committees it created moved to consolidate control of the province. In April, a Secret Committee seized armaments from
gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications requ ...
s and the State House, and in May in response to battles at Lexington and Concord, the Congress voted to print £1 million (equivalent to $12.5 million) in currency, raise an armed defense force and establish a
Council of Safety In the American Revolution, committees of correspondence, committees of inspection (also known as committees of observation), and committees of safety were different local committees of Patriots that became a shadow government; they took control ...
with
Henry Laurens Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...
as its president. The new Council held nearly unlimited power in the province. In May and June 1775, Charlestonians feared the twin threats of invasion by British and instigation of slave insurrection. The Secret Committee had seized official mail in April 1775 and read of British plans to incite
Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
attacks and slave rebellions. A committee of five appointed by the Provincial Congress and headed by
Thomas Bee Thomas Bee (1739 – February 18, 1812) was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. Educat ...
was tasked with investigating slave insurrection. On 14 June 1775, the committee submitted a report that implicated among others "Jerry the pilot". Jeremiah's skills as a pilot were a threat to any potential slave rebellion as he could pilot British ships over Charles Town Bar and into Charles Town Harbor. The somewhat contradictory testimony of two slaves, Jemmy and Sambo, was used to implicate Jeremiah. In a letter to his son
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...
, Henry Laurens wrote that the committee was disinclined to apply any punishment beyond having "one or two Negroes... severely flogged & banished". Henry Laurens stepped in and pressured the committee to either release the accused if innocent or to apply the death penalty if not. A new royal governor, William Campbell, arrived in the capital on 18 June 1775. (His predecessor Montagu had returned to London in 1773 and William Bull had been acting governor in the interim.) However, even the vestiges of royal power were gone. In one of its last acts, the ''de jure'' Commons House approved of the Provincial Congress' issuance of currency and then "simply faded out of existence".


Trial and execution

Under South Carolina's
Negro Act of 1740 The Negro Act of 1740 was passed in the Province of South Carolina, during colonial Governor William Bull's time in office, in response to the Stono Rebellion in 1739. The comprehensive act made it illegal for enslaved Africans to move abroad, ...
, neither slaves nor free Negros could receive a jury trial. Passed in the wake of the
Stono Rebellion The Stono Rebellion (also known as Cato's Conspiracy or Cato's Rebellion) was a slave revolt that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave rebellion in the Southern Colonies, with 25 colonists and 35 t ...
, the act stipulated that incitement to insurrection was punishable by death. In such capital cases, the act called for a court of two
justices of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
and three to five property owners. On 11 August 1775, such a court was convened to try Jeremiah of the general charge of attempting to raise an insurrection as well as specific charges of plotting to pilot British ships over
Charles Town Bar Charleston Bar is a series of submerged shoals lying about eight miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, United States. See also * Battle of Sullivan's Island {{coord, 32.730, -79.851, display=title Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food ...
and planning to set fire to Charles Town. Again the testimony of Jemmy and Sambo was used to implicate Jeremiah. In Laurens' account of the trial, Jeremiah originally denied being acquainted with Jemmy, but it was determined that Jemmy was Jeremiah's wife's brother (this being the only evidence that Jeremiah was married). J. William Harris posits that Jemmy's testimony could have stemmed for his own desire for a pardon. The court unanimously found him guilty and sentenced him to
death by hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...
, with his body to be burned. Following the sentencing, the case became a proxy battle between opposing sides in South Carolina's conflict with the personages of Congress president
Henry Laurens Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...
and royal Governor William Campbell. The recently arrived Campbell intervened on Jeremiah's behalf and carried on an exchange of letters with Laurens attempting to persuade the latter of the injustice of the pending execution. Jeremiah maintained his innocence until the end. Nonetheless, on the morning of 18 August 1775, he was taken from the Workhouse on Magazine Street and hanged on the workhouse
green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
. After he expired, his body was burned on a woodpile.


Aftermath

Following rumors of violence against him, Jeremiah's champion Governor Campbell dissolved the defunct Commons House and decamped to HMS ''Tamar'', a warship in Charles Town harbor, never to return to the city. All vestiges of royal control had evaporated. In November, the first shots in South Carolina's revolution were fired at a three-day skirmish between
loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...
and
patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution * Patriot m ...
militias at Ninety-Six in the Upcountry. By the end of the year, the Provincial Congress was in control of the entirety of South Carolina. Yet, as 1776 dawned, there were still few of Charles Town's elite who contemplated independence. A legislatively enacted constitution referred to South Carolina as a colony. However, following an attempted British invasion near Charles Town in June, the cause of revolution was boosted.


Analysis

Due to the dearth of information and the distance of time, modern writers generally refrain from speculating as to whether Jeremiah was actually guilty of the crime for which he hanged. Historian Robert M. Weir notes that British loyalists saw Jeremiah as "the victim of a Machiavellian policy having a twofold purpose": to intimidate harbor pilots who might aid the British and to whip up anti-British sentiment to further military preparedness. He also credits another possibility: white anxiety was increasing with the pre-Revolutionary turmoil and whites sought solidarity by victimizing largely helpless blacks. Historian Walter J. Fraser, Jr., bluntly remarks that while Jeremiah might have been taking advantage of domestic turmoil to plot a slave revolt, he may have also been "the scapegoat of a scheme developed by the political elite who hoped to divert the attention of the laboring classes by playing on their deepest fears". On the other hand, Fraser also acknowledges that Jeremiah simply could have been the "victim of white paranoia, sacrificed as an example to other blacks". J. William Harris argues that whether he was guilty or innocent, "Thomas Jeremiah did not need to gather arms or preach revolution to undermine slavery, because his whole life was a refutation of whites' basic acialjustification for slavery".


Legacy

Following his execution, Jeremiah never appeared again in the public record and the dispensation of his body, his wife, his slaves, and other property are a mystery. For a few years following his execution, Jeremiah was invoked by both sides in the Revolution on occasion. Governor Campbell sent an account of the trial and surrounding events to London where it was cited by
Lord Sandwich Earl of Sandwich is a noble title in the Peerage of England, held since its creation by the House of Montagu. It is nominally associated with Sandwich, Kent. It was created in 1660 for the prominent naval commander Admiral Sir Edward Montagu ...
in parliament as an example of the "cruelty and baseness" of the colonials. The events were also cited in
John Lind John Lind is the name of: * John Lind (barrister) (1737–1781), English lawyer and political writer * John Lind (politician) (1854–1930), US politician * John Lind (female impersonator) (1877–1940), female impersonator See also

*Jon Lind, ...
's "An Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress".
Henry Laurens Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...
would later claim "I abhor slavery" although he never freed his own slaves. His son
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...
advocated freeing of slaves and the creation of a regiment of free blacks to fight for the colonials in the Revolution, a plan that was defeated in the South Carolina Assembly. In early American histories of the Revolution, the events surrounding Jeremiah's execution were largely ignored, relegated to a literal footnote in
John Drayton John Drayton II (June 22, 1766 – November 27, 1822) was Governor of South Carolina and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. Education and career Born on June 22, 1766, in Cha ...
's ''Memoirs of the American Revolution''. The last mention (albeit largely inaccurate) of the story was in 1851, whereupon Jeremiah was forgotten for over a century. The existence of Thomas Jeremiah went largely unnoted for 200 years following his death. J. William Harris credits a 1978 essay by
Peter H. Wood Peter Hutchins Wood (born 1943 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American historian and author of ''Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion'' (1974). It has been described as one of the most influenti ...
for unearthing the story of Jeremiah for the modern reader. Since then, numerous scholars have written of Jeremiah despite the paucity of details on his life. They have used Jeremiah's case to illustrate particular issues of his time. His name appears in the title of Harris's ''The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah: A Free Black Man's Encounter with Liberty'' and William R. Ryan's ''The World of Thomas Jeremiah: Charles Town on the Eve of the American Revolution''. In the ''South Carolina Encyclopedia'', Ryan proffers that "Jeremiah's ordeal illustrated the three-way struggle for power between blacks, Whigs, and Tories that was taking place throughout the lower South on the eve of the Revolutionary War." Jeremiah has become a "representative" for the state of blacks in the Revolution, and the story is used to show how "British forces became, in effect, a force for slave liberation" although, as Harris notes, both Jeremiah and his champion William Campbell were slaveowners themselves.


See also

*
History of Charleston, South Carolina The history of Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the longest and most diverse of any community in the United States, spanning hundreds of years of physical settlement beginning in 1670. Charleston was one of leading cities in the South fro ...
*
Colonial period of South Carolina The history of the colonial period of South Carolina focuses on the English colonization that created one of the original Thirteen Colonies. Major settlement began after 1651 as the northern half of the British colony of Carolina attracted front ...


Notes


References


External links


"Thomas Jeremiah"
entry at the Digital South Carolina Encyclopedia

page at the U.S. National Park service webpage {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeremiah, Thomas 1775 deaths Free Negroes South Carolina colonial people Businesspeople from Charleston, South Carolina Pre-statehood history of South Carolina People executed by the Province of South Carolina People executed by the Thirteen Colonies by hanging 18th-century executions of American people Executed people from South Carolina American slave owners African-American history of South Carolina