Collection: The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1493-1859.
George Mason was one of the authors of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776, which served as a basis of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Although Mason played an important role in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he refused to sign the final draft of the Constitution because he objected to compromises over the slavery and tariff questions. Mason was an early advocate of gradual slave emancipation. Historical Background: In October 1780, Major General Nathanael Greene replaced Horatio Gates as commander of the American army in the South. Greene proceeded to divide his troops into three smaller forces, one of which worked alongside the rebel guerrilla bands. Greene's plan was to avoid fixed battles, seize outposts and isolated settlements, and let Cornwallis chase the American armies around the countryside. Then, when the British were exhausted, Greene would attack. In January 1781, one of Greene's armies, led by Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, attacked 1100 British troops at Hannah Cowpens, in western South Carolina. All but 140 of the British troops were killed, captured, or wounded by American sharpshooters. Two months later, Greene destroyed more than a fourth of Cornwallis's army at Guilford Court House, North Carolina. Cornwallis claimed victory because the Americans abandoned the battlefield. But as one Briton observed acidly: Another such victory would destroy the British army.
Electronic reproduction. Marlborough, Wiltshire : AM, 2014. Digitized from a copy held by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History