The American Revolution affected everyone in Abbeville County, included those whose stories have often been overlooked. Richard Pickens, more commonly known by his nickname Dick, was one such individual.

Dick was an enslaved individual owned by Andrew Pickens. Dick joined the Patriot forces along with Andrew Pickens, serving beside him throughout the war, including at the Battle of Cowpens, a key Patriot victory.

During the Revolution, a large number of the Patriot soldiers lacked appropriate clothes or shoes, and the army often did not have the funds to replace damaged attire. Dick saw that Andrew Pickens’ boots had been worn out and had the idea to salvage a pair for Pickens from a dead Loyalist soldier so they would not go to waste. Dick searched the battlefield and found a good pair, but when he bent to retrieve the boots, he realized that the soldier that had been presumed dead was in fact still alive. Dick brought the dying man some water and sat with him, ensuring that his last moments were more peaceful. 

During the war, after Andrew Pickens’ wife and children were forced to hide in the woods from Loyalists, Dick came to their aid. After the war ended, Dick accompanied Andrew Pickens to the Congress held in Philadelphia. Dick was married to a woman named Fillis, and he owned a farm with cattle, sheep, and pigs.

Drury Harris was a free African -American man who joined the 3rd South Carolina Regiment in May of 1778, and was active during the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution. As a part of this regiment, he served in some of the most pivotal battles of the war, including Eutaw Springs, Stono Ferry, and Cowpens, the battle that turned the tide in favor of the Patriots and cemented the state’s local militias as a force to be reckoned with.

However, Drury Harris is most known for his heroism during the Siege of Savannah. As he scaled the walls of the enemies’ fortifications, he was shot in the thigh and bayoneted in his arm, but despite the wounds he made it across the wall and continued fighting.

In 1782, he became one of the Light Dragoons in General Sumter’s Brigade. After the war, he married his sweetheart, Priscilla, in 1783, and the census records show that he was living in Abbeville in 1810.

When he applied for a pension at the age of sixty-eight, he stated that he had not wanted to apply for aid as long as he could support himself, but the wounds he had received rendered him unable to provide for his family by farming or working as he aged.  The men he had served with wrote in support of his claim, with fellow soldier John Davis saying, “I saw no man braver than Drury Harris…if any old soldier deserved assistance, Drury Harris does.”

Cornelius Rouse was a free African-American man, originally from North Carolina, who began his service in the Patriot army in July of 1779, joining the 4th Company of the 3rd South Carolina Regiment under Captain Joseph Warley.

He worked as an attendant for Colonel William Thomson initially, within a unit that Drury Harris and other free men of color were also associated with, and by 1782 he was listed as a private in a South Carolina militia, as shown in his pension application, where he received a payment of “two pounds, two shillings, and ten pence farthing silver” for duties done. The unit he was a part of would have been at the Battle of Stono Ferry, the Battle of Beaufort, and the Siege of Savannah.

After the American Revolution ended in 1783, Cornelius Rouse spent some time in Barnwell, SC, before relocating to Abbeville. He is listed in both the 1810 and 1820 censuses as being “head of household” of “other free” individuals in Abbeville.

Although men like Cornelius Rouse, Drury Harris, and Dick Pickens chose to fight with the Patriots, believing in the cause of liberty,  many other African-Americans joined the British Army, which had issued a proclamation stating that freedom would be given to any enslaved individuals who escaped bondage and fought with them.

Lazarus Chavis was a free man of African and Native American descent who was born in the Lower Ninety-Six district in 1756.  As tensions mounted in the South during the Revolution, many men of color decided to fight for liberty and join the Patriot forces.

Lazarus Chavis enlisted in 1778 under Captain John Moon initially, and then became part of an independent militia unit commanded by Major John Bowie, a military leader from Abbeville. Andrew Williamson, who went down in history as the South’s Benedict Arnold, was also one of the commanding officers that Lazarus Chavis would have reported to during his time with the army.

In his pension application, Lazarus Chavis stated that he served at the Siege of Savannah and the Battle of Stono Ferry in 1779 alongside Major John Bowie, who later gave him an honorable discharge after fourteen months of serving his country. 

A lawyer contacted the state office on Chavis’ behalf, stating that it was “highly important” that his service be recognized. Although his pension application was approved, granting him a yearly stipend of $46.66 for his service, other soldiers of color were not so lucky; barriers to receiving their veteran benefits included not having a white guardian, or not being able to show a paper trail documenting their service, since enslaved individuals were often “unofficially” part of a unit.

 July Pickens’ experience of the American Revolution was entwined with that of the Pickens family, but from the perspective of an enslaved individual-she was purchased by Andrew Pickens along with Dick Pickens in the early 1770’s. She was a servant in the household of the Pickens family, and like many of African descent, was faced with a difficult decision when the Revolution came to South Carolina.

The British Army had offered freedom to any enslaved people who would leave their masters and join the British service, and an estimated 20,000 individuals took them up on that offer, becoming soldiers, nurses, cooks, and even spies in the King’s service. July Pickens chose to remain in Abbeville, and during her time with the Pickens family, she witnessed first-hand what the war did to the home-front.

When Rebecca Pickens and her children had to take refuge in the woods from Loyalist soldiers, it was July and her fellow servants who helped them hide and kept them alive by sneaking them provisions, even though it was a risk to her as well.

Dick, when he was not fighting with Pickens, helped July by protecting her and the family with a long knife he was known to have carried everywhere he went. She also would have lost her home when the Pickens’ residence was destroyed by Loyalists during the war.

July later moved with the family to Seneca after the war. Andrew Pickens himself does seem to have wrestled with the concept of owning slaves, eventually writing conditional manumission, or freedom, into his will.