1765 – Stamp Act

The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City. South Carolina was the only southern colony to send representatives:

• Christopher Gadsden – a wealthy Charleston merchant and plantation owner. He was an important figure in South Carolina’s Sons of Liberty and later served in the Continental Army
• Thomas Lynch  – a major South Carolina plantation owner and a friend of co-delegate Christopher Gadsden, he later actively supported independence.
• John Rutledge – at 26, Rutledge was the youngest delegate in attendance. He was the provincial attorney general at the time and later served in a variety of pro-independence roles in South Carolina. He was briefly appointed Chief Justice of the United States by George Washington in 1795.

For the first time, the South Carolina men learned of the violent August protests in Boston in which the stamp officer, Andrew Oliver, was hanged in effigy and Sheriff Greenleaf and Lt. Gov. Hutchinson were stoned when they tried to intervene.