Patriots, Pistols, and Petticoats

Book excerpt: Patriots, Pistols, and Petticoats vividly portrays the lively—at times bawdy—atmosphere in Charleston during the Revolutionary War era. This brawling port city—the fourth largest in Britain's North American colonies and the largest in the South at the time of the Revolutionary War—boasted commerce, politics, cultural events, and entertainment as sophisticated as any found in America. From the city's taverns and streets to the drawing rooms of its elite, from its shipping trade to its agriculture to its political rivalries, Walter Fraser's thorough research and revealing anecdotes offer an entertaining and informative history of this distinguished city and its role in the colonial fight for independence.