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Book Review Of Partisans And Redcoats By Walter Edgar

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In Partisans & Redcoats, author Walter Edgar sheds light on an area rarely discussed when talking about Revolutionary history: the backcountry of South Carolina. Edgar tackles a 27-year period that includes conflicts before, during, and after the American Revolution. He takes a particular interest in specific people and their continuing roles in events throughout. It is the people of the backcountry, Edgar argues, separated by class from the lowcountry and internally divided by race, religion, and ideology, that band together to fight for independence; their persistent assaults on the British and their Tory allies weakened the Cornwallis’s southern forces to a point where Washington’s victory at Yorktown in 1781 was made possible. Edgar is …show more content…

Even the term “backcountry” is foreign to many in this context. Maps of the state displaying the line dividing the back from the lowcountry, the districts of the state, and battles during the war are included in the text, but they are stuck haphazardly between pages 108 and 109 along with pictures and paintings of people and areas mentioned prior and even three paintings of things that have yet to be mentioned in the book. A much better approach would have been to put the maps at the beginning of the book, before any text save for perhaps the introduction, and present the other information as its textual counterpart is mentioned. This would alleviate confusion and provide additional …show more content…

It is understandable that he did not include this information, however, due to the already convoluted series of events taking place in just one location. The consequence of this is that the narrative comes off as very one-sided. Edgar also seems to be quite a biased narrator, exclusively referring to loyalists as “Tories,” their derogatory title, and often patriots as simply “Americans.” There are no outside opinions or no mentions of other revolutionary events save for Yorktown on the very last page. The inclusion of these things would provide further support for Edgar’s point of view and add additional context to base these events off

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