Christopher Gadsden: The Man Behind the Gadsden Flag

Christopher Gadsden (February 16, 1724 – August 28, 1805) was the leading figure of South Carolina’s Patriot movement. He was a wealthy Charleston merchant, a founder of the city’s Sons of Liberty, a delegate to both Continental Congresses, a brigadier general in the Continental Army, and later lieutenant governor of South Carolina. Today he is best remembered for the yellow rattlesnake flag that bears his name. This page covers his life, including his role in slavery and the slave trade, as the historical record describes it.

For the flag itself, see our Gadsden flag history and what “Don’t Tread On Me” means.

Early Life and Education

Gadsden was born in Charleston, the son of Elizabeth and Thomas Gadsden. His father had served in the Royal Navy before becoming customs collector for the port of Charleston. According to the South Carolina Encyclopedia, Gadsden received a classical education in England and then completed a four-year apprenticeship with a prominent Philadelphia merchant, or factor. Both of his parents had died by 1741, leaving him a large inheritance. Between 1745 and 1747 he served as purser aboard the British warship Aldborough during King George’s War.

(Sources differ slightly on dates. The U.S. Congress’s biographical directory gives his birth year as 1723, while the South Carolina Encyclopedia and most modern references give February 16, 1724. The difference likely reflects the calendar change of 1752.)

Merchant and Planter

With his navy pay and inheritance, Gadsden built one of the most successful mercantile careers in colonial South Carolina. The South Carolina Encyclopedia reports that by 1774 he owned “four stores, several merchant vessels, two rice plantations (worked by more than ninety slaves), a residential district called Gadsdenboro in Charleston, and one of the largest wharfs in North America.”

Slavery and Gadsden’s Wharf

Gadsden’s fortune depended heavily on slavery. He held enslaved people on his rice plantations; the South Carolina Encyclopedia counts more than ninety by 1774. Wikipedia notes his will divided his estate “as well as my negroes” into nineteen shares, and that the total number of people he enslaved is not known.

His wharf on the Cooper River, completed in 1767, became a major landing point for the transatlantic slave trade. Wikipedia, citing historical estimates, states that during the periods the trade was legal in South Carolina (until 1787, and again from 1803 to 1808), roughly 40% of all enslaved Africans brought to America, about 100,000 people, arrived through Gadsden’s Wharf. The site is now home to the International African American Museum in Charleston.

Like many founders, Gadsden argued for liberty from Britain while holding people in bondage. Historians and visitors today often weigh both parts of his legacy together.

A Defender of Colonial Rights

Gadsden was first elected to the Commons House of Assembly in 1757 and served there for nearly three decades. In 1762, Governor Thomas Boone used a minor election irregularity to deny him his seat and dissolved the assembly. The South Carolina Encyclopedia writes that the controversy “swelled the merchant’s reputation as a defender of colonial rights and helped transform him into a zealous American patriot.”

At the Stamp Act Congress in New York in 1765, Gadsden opposed Parliament’s authority outright. Wikipedia notes he refused committee assignments to draft appeals to Parliament, believing it had no rights in the matter. His speeches caught the attention of Samuel Adams, and the two began a long correspondence. Gadsden became known as “the Sam Adams of the South.”

Sons of Liberty

Back in Charleston, Gadsden became a founder and leader of the city’s Sons of Liberty. The South Carolina Encyclopedia says he “joined with Charleston mechanics (Sons of Liberty) to lead the local ‘patriot party’ against every perceived infringement of America’s rights by Parliament.” He also signed the Continental Association, the colonies’ boycott of British goods.

The Continental Congress

South Carolina sent Gadsden to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second in 1775–1776. He was among its most radical members. According to the South Carolina Encyclopedia, he proposed that Congress reject all Parliamentary legislation passed since 1763, attack the British fleet in American waters, and tell each colony to prepare for war.

In Congress he served on the committee outfitting the new Continental Navy, created on October 13, 1775. It was in that role that he designed the yellow rattlesnake standard for the fleet’s commander in chief, Commodore Esek Hopkins.

Presenting the Flag in 1776

Gadsden left Congress early in 1776 to command the 1st South Carolina Regiment. On February 9, 1776, he presented a copy of his flag to the South Carolina Provincial Congress. Its journal, as quoted by the U.S. Navy’s Naval History and Heritage Command, records:

“Col. Gadsden presented to the Congress an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander in chief of the American navy; being a yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattle-snake in the middle, in the attitude of going to strike, and these words underneath, ‘DON’T TREAD ON ME!’”

Read the full story in our Gadsden flag history, or see how it differs from the striped First Navy Jack.

The War Years

Gadsden helped draft South Carolina’s 1776 constitution. That summer, while British forces attacked Charleston, he paid for a bridge, built by his regiment, that would give the defenders on Sullivan’s Island a way out. The British attack was driven off at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, and Gadsden was made a brigadier general in the Continental Army. In 1777 he resigned his commission after a dispute with General Robert Howe, which the South Carolina Encyclopedia calls “petty.”

Under the 1778 state constitution, which he helped shape, he became vice president of South Carolina, as the lieutenant governor was then called. When the British besieged Charleston in 1780, Governor John Rutledge left the city to keep a government in exile, and Gadsden stayed. After the American garrison surrendered on May 12, 1780, Gadsden surrendered the city for the civil government and was paroled to his home.

Captivity at St. Augustine

On August 27, 1780, General Charles Cornwallis ordered the arrest of about 20 paroled South Carolina civilian leaders, who were shipped to St. Augustine, Florida. Wikipedia reports that the British governor, Patrick Tonyn, offered them the freedom of the town if they gave their parole. Every prisoner except Gadsden accepted. He spent the next 42 weeks in solitary confinement in the Castillo de San Marcos. The South Carolina Encyclopedia describes the whole imprisonment as lasting ten months. The prisoners were released in 1781 and sent to Philadelphia.

Later Life and Death

Gadsden returned home and was elected governor of South Carolina in 1781 or 1782, but declined, partly because his health had suffered in prison. He worked to rebuild his business interests, which had been damaged by the war. In 1788 he voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution, and in 1790 he served in the state constitutional convention. In 1798 he built a house at 329 East Bay Street in Charleston, whose gates, made later by ironworker Philip Simmons, include a snake motif drawn from his flag.

Gadsden married three times: Jane Godfrey (1746), Mary Hasell (1755), and Ann Wragg (1776). His grandsons included James Gadsden, for whom the Gadsden Purchase is named. He died on August 28, 1805, from head injuries suffered in a fall near his Charleston home, and is buried in St. Philip’s Churchyard.

Legacy

Gadsden is sometimes called a “forgotten founder,” overshadowed by his own flag. His career shows both sides of the Revolution in the South: a fierce, early push for independence and self-government, built on a fortune tied to slavery. His flag has outlived its designer to become one of America’s best-known symbols. Fly a piece of that history with a flag from the Our Gadsden Flag store.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Christopher Gadsden?

A Charleston merchant and planter who led South Carolina’s Patriot movement. He served in both Continental Congresses, was a Continental Army brigadier general and lieutenant governor of South Carolina, and designed the Gadsden flag.

Did Christopher Gadsden design the Gadsden flag?

He is credited with it. He presented the yellow rattlesnake flag to the South Carolina Provincial Congress on February 9, 1776, as the standard for the commander in chief of the American navy.

Did Christopher Gadsden own slaves?

Yes. The South Carolina Encyclopedia reports his two rice plantations were worked by more than ninety enslaved people by 1774, and his Charleston wharf was a major landing point for the slave trade.

Why was Gadsden imprisoned at St. Augustine?

After Charleston fell in 1780, the British arrested paroled South Carolina leaders and sent them to St. Augustine. Gadsden refused to give a new parole and spent 42 weeks in solitary confinement at the Castillo de San Marcos.

Was Gadsden in the Sons of Liberty?

Yes. After the 1765 Stamp Act Congress, he became a founder and leader of the Charleston Sons of Liberty and was called “the Sam Adams of the South.”

When and how did Christopher Gadsden die?

He died on August 28, 1805, from head injuries after a fall near his home in Charleston. He is buried in St. Philip’s Churchyard.

Sources

1. South Carolina Encyclopedia, “Gadsden, Christopher.” https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/gadsden-christopher/
2. U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives, “GADSDEN, Christopher.” https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/G/GADSDEN,-Christopher-(G000002)/
3. Naval History and Heritage Command, “The U.S. Navy’s Jack.” https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/banners/usnavy-jack.html
4. Wikipedia, “Christopher Gadsden.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Gadsden
5. Wikipedia, “Gadsden flag.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag