South Carolina’s new license plate, now one of two default options in the state, features a simple slogan: “Where the Revolutionary War Was Won.”
The change, part of the state’s celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday, recognizes South Carolina’s contributions in the Revolutionary War, which helped secure victory for the Continental Army.
The problem, however, is that the National Park Service, the White House and essentially everyone who was once an American schoolchild agree that the war ended when British Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrendered in Yorktown, Virginia, on Oct. 19, 1781.
So, was the Revolutionary War won in South Carolina?
“It’s not incorrect,” said S. Max Edelson, who teaches about colonial South Carolina at the University of Virginia, “but it doesn’t mean what you think it means.”
Edelson is one of four historians who told The Washington Post that the Battle of Yorktown was the war’s final major military battle. But some in South Carolina argue that the actions of militias there during the battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens severely weakened Cornwallis’s forces, making a win more difficult in Yorktown.
Legacy-minded Southerners, including those in South Carolina, have long vied for acknowledgment that Southern militias aided a revolution that most people think of as occurring only in the Northeast, said Rick Atkinson, who has published two books about the Revolutionary War. He said such gripes are legitimate, as the efforts of militiamen in South Carolina were important in eventually thwarting Cornwallis.
But, Atkinson said, revolutions are too complex to claim the war was won in any one state.
“To reduce it to a license plate platitude is historically inaccurate,” he said.
What happened in South Carolina?
By the late 1770s, the British were forced to reevaluate their strategy of focusing on the Northeast. The Continental forces had landed a major victory at Saratoga in New York, which led to a critical alliance with France and prompted Cornwallis to shift his attention south. Winning over public sentiment was key, and British leadership assumed many Southerners were still loyal to the crown, or at least neutral observers who wanted to be left alone, said Alan Taylor, a University of Virginia historian who has written about the period.
The British achieved one of their biggest victories of the war in South Carolina: the capture of Charleston in the spring of 1780. The win went a long way toward persuading people in the backwoods of the Carolinas to favor the British.
But then, Taylor said, patriot militias in South Carolina won the battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens, turning the tide of public opinion back toward America.
“That’s what wins the revolution, when you get more of the wavering people,” Taylor said. “Kings Mountain and Cowpens make a big difference in that.”
It’s still a stretch to claim those battles won the war, he added. Many factors contributed to the patriots’ victory at Yorktown, including the “almost miraculous” arrival of French naval forces to reinforce American fighters. The war easily could have ended differently, he said, especially considering that the nascent nation was bankrupt.
“It wasn’t a sure thing,” Taylor said of the American victory.
‘A little hyperbole’
The license plate — which replaces South Carolina’s blue palmetto tree and crescent moon design — was created by a bill from state Rep. Neal Collins (R), who is also a member of SC250, the state’s commission for celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.
In April, the bill was sent for approval to the state Senate, where Sen. George E. “Chip” Campsen III (R) amended it to include six words on the license plate: “Where the Revolutionary War Was Won.”
“This is historically accurate, and I think it’s time that we take a bold step and claim that accuracy and put it on our license plate,” he said April 29 on the state Senate floor in Columbia.
Campsen cited former University of South Carolina professor Walter Edgar, whom he quoted as saying, “The American Revolution was won in the backcountry of South Carolina” — a quote that is also in the bill. Edgar, who is retired, declined to comment through a spokesman.
The bill is a “very traditional and somewhat narrow interpretation of Revolutionary historical events in South Carolina,” said Ken Banks, a history professor at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “The impact of Cowpens on the ending of the Revolutionary War is composed of equal parts hubris, pride, the hunt for tourist dollars, and fact.”
The bill received no dissenting votes in the Senate that day, according to the legislative record. Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed the bill two weeks later.
Campsen, a self-described history buff, told The Post he felt the original license plate design bill didn’t go far enough in honoring South Carolina’s contributions to the revolution. He said he had two things in mind when he added the slogan: “It had to be succinct; it had to be a bit provocative to some people.”
Why did it have to be provocative? “You have to have a little hyperbole to get some attention,” he said.
Campsen said he understands it took all the colonies fighting the British to win the war, but “we get no respect whatsoever” when it comes to South Carolina’s contributions. Part of his disappointment, he said, is that the nation’s 250th anniversary commemorates a moment of deep patriotism in South Carolina — something that can’t be said for the Civil War, which began at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, when Confederates fired upon American forces. (Campsen’s family ran a Fort Sumter ferry company for decades.)
“A lot of that history you don’t want to be proud of, but you have to know it,” Campsen said. “But there’s nothing but pride when it comes to the Revolutionary War.”
Molly Fortune, the head of SC250, said she liked the new license-plate slogan. (The state legislature funds the commission.)
“Yes, it’s a little tongue-and-cheek … but I feel like I can bring some receipts to that conversation,” Fortune said, referencing letters sent between generals after the war about frustrations with battles in the Carolinas.
Jamie O. Bosket, president of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and a member of Virginia’s commission for the 250th anniversary, was unequivocal when asked what he thought about the license plate.
“I hope they know we appreciate them and what happened in South Carolina, but ultimately, it ends in Yorktown,” he said. “There’s a moment, a singular moment, when a sword was passed.”
Still, it seems South Carolina won a battle with its new license plate and has at least started a conversation about the state’s role in the war.
“It has done exactly what it was supposed to do,” Fortune told The Post, “because you and I are on the phone.”
The post South Carolina says the Revolutionary War was won there. But was it? appeared first on Washington Post.
