Newspaper Page Text
Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1870, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia
Vol. IV —No. 14.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
NANCY HART AND THE TORIES.
you know, children,
Tories were ? They were
.$7 viA people living in the Unflfjff
States, or the Colonies as they were then
called, who took sides with the British
government in the Revolutionary war.
Asa general rule, these Tories were
much more cruel in their treatment of
those who fell into their
hands than the British
soldiers; and they were
consequently more
dreaded by the women
and children in unpro
tected districts. I could
tell youm uch of their
cruelties to unoffending
prisoners, and the vast
amount of damage done
to the country in which
they operated. Houses
were burned, helpless
women and children
were rendered home
less in the depth of win
ter, and whole sections
of country were rava
ged, and everything in
them that could sup
port life was either car
ried off or destroyed.
There were vast num
bers of Tories in South
Carolina and Georgia,
and a volume could be
filled with an account of
their diabolical cruel-
ties ; but I propose now
to tell you of what happened to a party
of Tories in one of the counties of
Georgia.
One of the staunchest Whigs in the
county of Elbert —which your geogra
phies will show you is in the north
eastern part of Georgia was Nancy
Hart. She seems to have been a native
of North Carolina, but with her hus
band had settled in Elbert county, near
Broad River, some years before the
beginning of the Revolutionary war.
She is said to have been a very large
woman, rather sour in disposition, and
horribly cross-eyed, as well as cross
grained. Her husband appears to have
for he ran away and hid
HSRf in the cane-brake, for fear of
JMrifb'fies. But Nancy was just the
opposite. She did not fear the Tories,
mnd on several occasions she got deci
dedly the best of them.
“One evening,” says White, “she
was at home with her children, sitting
around the log fire, with a large pot of
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soap boiling over the fire. Nancy was
busy stirring the soap, and entertaining
her family with the latest news of the
war.
“The houses, as well as the chim
neys, in those days were all built of
logs. While they were thus employed,
one of the family discovered someone
from the outside peeping through the
crevices of the chimney, and gave a
silent intimation of it to Nancy. She
rattled away with more and more spirit,
now giving exaggerated accounts of the
MACON, GEORGIA, OCTOBER i, 1870.
discomfiture of the Tories, and again
stirring the boiling soap, and watching
the place indicated for a re-appear
ance of the spy. Suddenly, with the
quickness of lightning, she dashed the
ladle of boiling soap through the cre
vice full in the face of the eavesdrop
per, who, taken by surprise, and blind
ed by the hot soap, screamed and
roared at a tremendous rate ; whilst the
indomitable Nancy went out, amused
herself at his expense, and, with gibes
and taunts, bound him fast as her pri
soner.”
On another occasion, a party of five
Tories, from the British camp at Au
gusta, concluded to pay Aunt Nancy a
visit. Reaching her cabin, they entered
without ceremony, receiving, as you
may imagine, no very cordial welcome.
They totd her that they had come to
know if it was true that she had se
creted a noted rebel from a company of
the King’s men, who would otherwise
have captured him.
Whole No. 170.
“Yes, I did,” was her reply. “I
heard the tramp of a horse coming this
way, and when I looked out of the front
door, I knowed it was a Whig flying
from the Tories. I went out and let
down the bars, and made him ride right
through the cabin—in at the front door
and out at the back door—and told him
to take the swamp, and keep close.
Pretty soon some of your crowd rode
up and hallooed. I made believe I was
sick, and asked ’em what they wanted
to disturb a poor, lone>
sick woman for; and
when they asked me
about the Whig, I put
’em on the wrong scent,
and sent ’em off in an
opposite course to that
of my Whig boy. If
they hadn’t been so
lofty-minded,” contin
ued Nancy, “but had
looked on the ground,
they could have seen
his horse’s tracks up to
my very door.”
This story did not
please the Tories, but
they only ordered her
to give them something
to eat.
“ I never feed King’s
men if I can help it,”
she replied. “ The vil
lains have put it out of
my power to feed even
my own family and
friends, by stealing all
of my pigs and poultry,
except that old gobbler
you see in the yard.”
“ Well, you shall cook that for us,”
said one of the party, raising his gun,
and shooting down the turkey, which
another brought in and gave to Nancy
to clean and cook for them. Nancy
stormed and swore a little —for I am
sorry to say that she was guilty of thi3
bad habit—but at last, seeming to make
a merit of necessity, she set about the
work, assisted by her daughter, a little
girl ten or twelve years old, and occa
sionally by one of the Tories.
Just at the edge of the swamp was