"Though best known as a Revolutionary War general, Andrew Pickens (1739-1817) was more than just an influential military figure in the early American republic, also serving as a church leader, justice of the peace, legislator, and congressman. In this book, Rod Andrew Jr. offers the first comprehensive biography of Pickens, a hero at the pivotal Battle of Cowpens, in over a generation. Andrew defines his subject as a man of action, analyzing his motivations in context of the tumultuous and often violent landscape of early America. Andrew ... depicts the life of Pickens as he founds churches, acquires slaves, joins in the fight against the British in the American Revolution, and struggles over Indian territorial boundaries on the southern frontier"--
Andrew Pickens (1739–1817), the hard-fighting South Carolina militia commander of the American Revolution, was the hero of many victories against British and Loyalist forces. In this book, Rod Andrew Jr. offers an authoritative and comprehensive biography of Pickens the man, the general, the planter, and the diplomat. Andrew vividly depicts Pickens as he founds churches, acquires slaves, joins the Patriot cause, and struggles over Indian territorial boundaries on the southern frontier. Combining insights from military and social history, Andrew argues that while Pickens's actions consistently reaffirmed the authority of white men, he was also determined to help found the new republic based on broader principles of morality and justice.
After the war, Pickens sought a peaceful and just relationship between his country and the southern Native American tribes and wrestled internally with the issue of slavery. Andrew suggests that Pickens's rise to prominence, his stern character, and his sense of duty highlight the egalitarian ideals of his generation as well as its moral shortcomings--all of which still influence Americans' understanding of themselves.
