Courtesy of a Luther Rice Fellowship, I'm off to London! I'll be sitting in the National Archives at Kew and the Caird Library at Greenwich, getting buddy-buddy with my beloved Lord William Campbell, last royal governor of South Carolina.
If you have to ask, Governor Lord Campbell basically waltzed into Charleston in June 1775 and screwed everything up within three months. Then in 1776, he commanded a ship during Sir Peter Parker's attack on Sullivan's Island. Wounded--and I imagine he shrugged it off as nothing but a flesh wound--Campbell carried on fighting for the British until he died in September 1778 from a festering splinter. God love 'im.
Hopefully, after pouring over loads of eighteenth century manuscripts, including ship logs, claims, and letters, and whatever else I can get my hands on, I'll have enough information to finish my honors thesis, tentatively titled "Actual and Open Rebellion": Lord William Campbell and the Fight for South Carolina, 1775-1778.
And, I mean, I might do other stuff too, since 1) it's London, 2) there are an abundance of pubs, and 3) I'm pretty sure my parents would strangle me if we just sat in archives the entire time.
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