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Francis Marion 1732-1795 Also known as: Swamp Fox Born: WINTER, 1732 in South Carolina, United States, Berkeley County Died: February 27, 1795 Occupation: General Source Database: DISCovering U.S. History Table of Contents Biographical Essay | Further Readings | Source Citation Hero of the southern campaign in the American Revolution, who was known for his mastery of the small-unit tactics necessary for effective guerrilla warfare. BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY Francis Marion was born in the winter of 1732 (his exact birth date is unknown) at Goatfield Plantation in St. John's Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. His parents, Gabriel and Esther Marion, were of French Huguenot descent. The Huguenots were French Protestants who had suffered persecution for their beliefs during the reign of Louis XIV. Following the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which forbade the practice of Protestantism, 50,000 Huguenots left France. Marion's grandparents were among them. Along with 70 or 80 other Huguenot families, they farmed the banks of the Santee River near Charleston, South Carolina, where the land proved ideal for growing rice and indigo, a highly treasured blue dye which brought a good price in Europe. The cultivation of both crops spanned an entire year, so the planters were never idle, and they were rewarded with a comfortable lifestyle. Because the land had been largely untouched before the Huguenots began farming it, much effort was expended preparing the land for raising crops, leaving little time for the acquiring of formal educations. Although the Huguenots were firm believers in cultural pursuits, Marion received only a rudimentary education, as his correspondence attests. When Marion was five or six years old, his family moved to another plantation, Winyah Bay in Prince George Parish, near a port called Georgetown. Despite Marion's small, rather puny, stature and ill health, his young life was a continuous cycle of work. But as he farmed the land, his dreams took him to sea, and, at the age of 15, he received the consent of his parents to sign on with a schooner bound for the West Indies. But nearly as soon as Marion's dreams of sailing became reality, the reality became a nightmare. On the voyage home, a whale rammed the schooner, ripping the seams and sending water into the hold. Before the schooner went down, the captain, al... ...ontinental, 1948. †¢ Rankin, Hugh F. Francis Marion: The Swamp Fox. Crowell, 1973. †¢ Risjord, Norman K. "The Swamp Fox: Francis Marion," in Representative Americans. D.C. Heath, 1980. †¢ Simms, William Gilmore. "The Marion Family," in Southern and Western Monthly Magazine. Vol. 1 (1845): pp. 209--215. †¢ Alden, John Richard. The South in the Revolution, 1763--1789. †¢ Chidsey, Donald Barr. The War in the South. Crown, 1969. †¢ Davis, Burke. The Cowpens-Guilford Courthouse Campaign. Lippincott, 1962. †¢ Treacy, M.F. Prelude to Yorktown. University of North Carolina Press, 1963. †¢ Weigley, Russell F. The Partisan War: The South Carolina Campaign of 1780--1782. University of South Carolina Press, 1970. Source Citation: "Francis Marion." DISCovering U.S. History. Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/servlet/HistRC/