Thomas Jeremiah
Thomas Jeremiah, often called Jerry, was a free Black man from Charleston, South Carolina. He worked as a harbor pilot, firefighter, fisherman, and merchant, and was known for his public service. Little is known about his birth or early life, including whether he was free from birth. He owned slaves and ran a profitable fishing business, and at one point his wealth was estimated at up to £1,000, making him one of the wealthier Black people in the colonies.
In the early 1770s, tensions rose in South Carolina as the colonial revolt against Britain gathered momentum. By 1775 a new colonial government had formed in Charleston, and fear of slave uprisings grew. In June 1775 a committee investigated possible insurrection and identified Jeremiah as a potential threat because of his skills as a pilot who could guide ships.
On 11 August 1775, a small court, under the Negro Act of 1740, tried Jeremiah for attempting to raise an insurrection and for plotting to pilot British ships over Charles Town Bar and to set fires in the town. The testimony of two enslaved men, Jemmy and Sambo, was used against him. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging, with his body to be burned.
Governor William Campbell tried to intervene, arguing against the punishment, but the sentence stood. Jeremiah was hanged on the morning of 18 August 1775 at the Workhouse Green, and his body was burned.
The case became a flashpoint in the political struggle of the time. Some saw Jeremiah as a victim of a harsh crackdown on Blacks during a volatile moment in the Revolution, while others believed he was guilty of plotting rebellion. The truth remains unclear, and some historians think he may have been used as a scapegoat to intimidate enslaved people or to fuel anti-British sentiment.
After his execution, Jeremiah disappears from public records, and the handling of his wife, his slaves, and his property remains unknown. The story traveled into later debates about liberty and slavery. Loyalists cited the case in Britain as an example of colonial cruelty, while Patriots used it to discuss threats to security and the push for independence.
In the years since, scholars have revisited Jeremiah’s case to explore the wider questions of race, power, and rebellion on the eve of the Revolution. Some see him as a powerful symbol of Black life in Revolutionary America, while others emphasize the complexities of a man who was both a slave owner and a target in a charged political moment. Regardless, Thomas Jeremiah’s story continues to challenge simple explanations about loyalty, liberty, and who fought for freedom in early America.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:29 (CET).