Gideon Gibson Jr.

Gideon Gibson Jr., (1721–1792) was a free man of color in the colony of South Carolina. He became a slaveholder and "regulator" in the back country. He supported their vigilantism to oppose British taxation policy.

In May 2011, he was discussed in the New York Times as a paternal great-grandfather of Randall Lee Gibson, a planter who served as a Confederate general from Louisiana. The senior Gibson was an example of mixed-race people who succeeded economically and over several generations moved into white society.

Genealogy

1695: Gideon Gibson Sr. is born in Boston as a free man of color. He later marries a white woman, and they have children. His profession is carpenter. Their son, Gideon Gibson Jr. is born around 1721.

1730s: Gideon Gibson and his family, along with other settlers, leave Boston and travel south to settle in parts of the frontier. They eventually settle in the area that would become North Carolina.

Vigilantes

1750s: Gideon Gibson Jr. becomes a prominent landowner in the area and is known for his success in farming and trading. Some shareholders have taken to abandoning their lands along the Santee River and depend on raiding other's farms for sustenance. The farmers reach out to Charleston for help with the raiders, but it is too far and no help is coming from the Royal Governor. As a result, they band together in vigilante bands, capturing raiders and issuing public whippings. Various Tax acts by the provincial government was the cause of property abandonment's and the outlaw status of the raiders.

1760s: Gideon Gibson becomes involved in the Regulator Movement, a grassroots movement of settlers who were protesting against colonial officials and the corrupt practices of local officials. The movement aimed to bring about greater representation for settlers and to challenge the power of the colonial government. Gideon, who was leading the Regulators, participated in a clash with a group of constables near Marrs Bluff on the Pee Dee River on July 25, 1767. This event exacerbated the tension between the Governor and the Regulators. Gideon Gibson and the Regulators were portrayed in a negative light by the South Carolina Gazette 200 miles distant back in Charleston.  According to the August 15th, 1768 edition, there were two distinct factions within the Regulators. One group was composed of individuals of upstanding character and wealth, while the other was a band of bandits consisting of a large gathering of outcast Mulattos, Mustees, and Free Negroes from the Virginia border and other Northern Colonies. It claimed they were all notorious horse thieves and were led by Gideon Gibson.

The truth was the Regulators were a group of North and South Carolina colonists who were dissatisfied with the corrupt practices of local officials and sought to bring about reforms. They were not a gang of bandits, but rather a group of concerned citizens who wanted to improve their communities.

The skirmish near Marrs Bluff was a result of the tension between the Regulators and the government. The Regulators felt that their grievances were not being addressed, and they resorted to more extreme measures to make their voices heard. However, this incident only served to escalate the conflict between the two sides.
1770s: Gideon Gibson's involvement in the Regulator Movement continues, and he participates in protests and demonstrations against colonial officials. The movement eventually culminates in the Battle of Alamance, where the Regulators are defeated by colonial troops.

Loyalists enforce the Stamp Act

Loyalist Governor Lord Charles Montagu attempted to enforce the 1765 Stamp Act in South Carolina, which made him unpopular with the local colonists. He tried to encourage favor with the colonials and American rebels, selectively issuing pardons for some of the Regulators. By 1771 he had issued a full pardon for any actions taken by the regulators in his state (with the notable exception of Gideon Gibson Jr. and his followers.) Montague was recalled during the American Revolution.

Gideon Gibson Jr. was a planter and held slaves, it is also notable that some regulators of both North and South Carolina decided to sit out the Revolutionary War due to the British offering emancipation of slaves of rebels who joined their lines.

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation, which was the first mass emancipation of enslaved people in North American history, had a significant impact on the course of the Revolutionary War and the eventual abolition of slavery.

The American Revolution 
The principal opposition to the Stamp Act proposed by the British colonial authorities in 1764 and later repealed began in Massachusetts colony, which called on the other colonies to convene a convention of deputies in New York.

South Carolina became the first colony to second that motion, and the first to advance toward a continental union, long before the other colonies. This shift in popular opinion was of considerable influence to the other colonies, who were divided in their opinions of the propriety of such a cause. The war of the Regulation in North Carolina and Gibson's rebellion in South Carolina were the results of ordinary people defending what was seen as a just cause. They were against taxation without representation. When the colonial government in Charlestown rejected the petitions for redress of their courts by the bush country landowners, the seeds of the American Revolution were planted. By 1771 the tax skirmishes and imprisonment of various patriots had hardened into a rejection of British rule.
Despite his stature in South Carolina and his role as a colonel in the militia, Gideon Gibson Jr. met a tragic end when he was shot and killed by his nephew, Colonel Maurice Murphy, during an argument over Murphy's mistreatment of an elderly Tory during the Revolutionary War.

19th Century

1832: Gideon Gibson's Great grandson Randall Gibson, is born. Randall would go on to become a prominent lawyer and politician in Louisiana, eventually serving as a Confederate general during the Civil War.

1880s: Randall Gibson becomes involved in the founding of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The university was named after benefactor Paul Tulane and was established as a public-private partnership to provide education to students regardless of race or gender.

1890s: The legacy of the Gibson family continues to live on, with Randall Gibson's descendants playing important roles in Louisiana politics and society. The family's unique history as free people of color who played active roles in shaping colonial America is remembered as an important part of American history.

See also 
 James Williams (Revolutionary War)

Further reading
Daniel J. Sharfstein, The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White, Penguin Press, 2011

External links
 Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 1995-2000, online text available
 G. Lloyd Johnson, "Gideon Gibson, the 'Regulator'"
 "Frontline: Gibson" The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families, (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ shows/secret/famous/gibsonfamily.html), accessed 12/02/04

References 

1731 births
1771 deaths
Military history of the Thirteen Colonies
Pre-statehood history of North Carolina
Pre-statehood history of South Carolina
Tax resistance in the United States
1760s in the Thirteen Colonies
1770 in the Thirteen Colonies
1771 in the Thirteen Colonies
Conflicts in 1767
Vigilantes
Regulator Movement
Colonial South Carolina
Patriots in the American Revolution
People from South Carolina
People of pre-statehood South Carolina
People of South Carolina in the American Revolution
South Carolina colonial people
Black slave owners in the United States

South Carolina militiamen in the American Revolution