Dicey Langston, American Patriot, Revolutionary War Heroine, Female Paul Revere.
Laodicea
"Dicey" Langston was the daughter of Solomon
Langston, of Laurens district, South Carolina during the Revolutionary War. She
possessed an intrepid spirit, which is highly serviceable
in times of emergency, and which, as she
lived in the days of the Revolution, she had more
than one opportunity to display. Living amidst the British sympathizers (aka Tories), and being an American patriot (AKA Whig),
she often learned by accident, or discovered by
strategy, the plots so common in those days,
against her Whig family, friends and fellow supporters. Such intelligence she was accustomed
to communicate to the friends of freedom
on the opposite side of the Ennoree river.
When she discovered that a band of loyalists—known
in those parts as the "Bloody scout"—were
about to fall upon the "Elder settlement," a place
where one of her brothers and other friends were residing,
she resolved to warn them of their danger.
To do this she risked her own life. Alone, in the darkness of the night; she
traveled several miles through the woods, and over
marshes and across creeks, through a country where
foot-logs and bridges were then unknown. She came to
the Tyger, a rapid and deep stream, plunged bravely in and waded till the water was up to her
neck, and continued onward, reaching the settlement, and her brother, warning the community of the Torie plot and helping to ensure their safety!
Dicey was returning one day from another settlement
of Whigs—in the Spartanburg district, when
a company of Tories met her and questioned her
in regard to the neighborhood she had just left;
but she refused to communicate the desired information.
The leader of the band then held a pistol
to her breast, and threatened to shoot her if she
did not make the wished for disclosure. "Shoot me
if you dare! I will not tell you!" was her dauntless
reply, as she opened a long handkerchief that
covered her neck and bosom, thus manifesting a
willingness to receive the contents of the pistol, if
the officer insisted on disclosures or her life. The dastard,
enraged at her defying movement, was in the
act of firing, at which moment one of the soldiers
threw up the hand holding the weapon, and the
fearless heart of the girl was permitted to beat
on.
Dicey's were no less patriotic than
she; having, by their active services on
the side of freedom, greatly displeased the loyalists,
these latter were determined to be revenged. A
desperate band accordingly went to the house of
their father, and finding the sons absent, were
about to wreak their vengeance on the old man,
whom they hated for the sons' sake. With this intent
one of the party drew a pistol; but just as it
was aimed at the breast of her aged and infirm
father, Dicey rushed between the two, and though
the ruffian bade her get out of his way or receive
in her own breast the contents of the pistol, she
regarded not his threats, but flung her arms around
her father's neck and declared she would receive
the ball first, if the weapon must be discharged.
Such fearlessness and willingness to offer her own
life for the sake of her parent, softened the heart
of the "bloody scout," and Mr. Langston lived
to see his noble daughter perform other heroic
deeds.
One time her brother James, in his absence, sent
to the house for a gun which he had left in her
care, with orders for her to deliver it to no one
except by his direction. On reaching the house
one of the company who where directed to call for
it, made known their errand, whereupon she brought
and was about to deliver the weapon. At this
moment it occurred to her that she had not demanded
the countersign agreed on between herself and
brother. With the gun still in her hand, she looked
the company sternly in the face, and remarking that
they wore a suspicious look, called for the countersign.
Hereupon one of them, in jest, told her
she was too tardy in her requirements; that both
the gun and its holder were in their possession.
"Do you think so," she boldly asked, as she
cocked the disputed weapon and aimed it at the
speaker. "If the gun is in your possession," she
added, "take charge of it!" Her appearance indicated
that she was in earnest, and the countersign
was given without further delay. A hearty laugh
on the part of the "liberty men," ended the ceremony.
After the war Dicey married and gave birth to 20+ children, and passed away at the age of 71. There is a monument dedicated to Dicey in Greenville, South Carolina.
Compiled From Sources In The Public Domain.
*****
My paranormal romance has scenes that take place in a variety of historical settings. Although none of the historical or modern scenes occurred during the Revolutionary War, all of the Americans scenes did take place in the rural South.
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Teresa
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It
is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity,
to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. W.
Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915
