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Conceived in Liberty Companion · Volume IV, chapter 64 · 14 December 1782

The Response in Britain · Gadsden's Wharf on the Cooper River, Charleston harbor, South Carolina

The last boats from Charleston

On a long wooden wharf at sunrise, Loyalist families, red-coated soldiers and Black men, women and children carry trunks and bundles toward a boat at the steps, with tall ships at anchor in the harbor beyond.
Modern AI-assisted reconstruction. Charleston, South Carolina, December 1782. The British are leaving. Loyalist families and thousands of enslaved people crowd the wharf to board boats for the ships in the harbor. Rothbard says the ships took out the army, some 4,000 Tories and some 5,000 of their slaves. Chapter 64 of Conceived in Liberty.
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Rothbard’s account

From Conceived in Liberty, chapter 64, pp. 1466–1469 (2011 edition). Every sentence here comes from Rothbard’s text; the words in quotation marks are his.

Yorktown, Rothbard writes, was surely “the surrender heard round the world,” and in stunned Great Britain Lord North exclaimed, “Oh, God! it’s all over” (p. 1466). It came amid other great British losses to France and Spain, and it became “shatteringly clear to the British that the war against America could not be won” (p. 1466). The opposition had used the war’s swelling taxes and national debt among the country gentry, and now the gentry saw “the collapse of both the southern strategy and the Tory myth,” the enormous expense was “apparent to all,” and the argument about France cut the other way (p. 1466).

By Christmas of 1781 most of the country gentry opposed continuing the war, and Germain was ousted in early February 1782. Charles James Fox pushed through Parliament the “crucial resolution of February 27” against further prosecution of the war, and on May 4 the House declared that all who would prosecute or even advise further offensive operations in America were enemies of their country; Rothbard concludes, “The war policy was finished” (pp. 1467-1468). North resigned on March 20, and King George “was forced to replace him with his worst enemy, Lord Rockingham,” who would take office only with power to name his own ministers, cut the budget and grant independence to America (p. 1468). “The military phase of the American conflict was over,” Rothbard writes (p. 1468).

The new cabinet was united on strategy: “While peace was being negotiated, the British army was to be completely evacuated from the United States and transferred to Halifax or the West Indies” (pp. 1468-1469). “Shortages and inefficiencies in handling supplies and transports, however, delayed the evacuation” (p. 1469). “Savannah was evacuated on July 11, 1782, and its force moved to Charleston” (p. 1469). Charleston “was evacuated on December 14, 300 British ships carrying out of the harbor a multitude consisting of the British army, about 4,000 Tories, and about 5,000 of their Negro slaves” (p. 1469). “By the time peace was declared, only New York City was left in British hands” (p. 1469).

The fuller story, beyond Conceived in Liberty

Not from Rothbard. Drawn from the other sources below; the numbers are those sources.

Early on the morning of 14 December the British withdrew from their lines and marched to the wharves, the rear guard to Gadsden’s Wharf on the Cooper River, and boarded the ships.23 Wayne’s Americans, 300 light infantry, 80 cavalry and 20 artillerymen, kept about 200 yards behind them and entered the town at about eleven, and not a shot was fired.23 General William Moultrie said the evacuation was done “with great order and regularity” and called it “the real day of their deliverance.”3

Rothbard counts 300 ships; the National Park Service and the Charleston County Public Library count about 130 vessels, carrying some 14,000 people.23‡ By the British count they took more than 5,000 armed troops, 3,794 white men, women and children and 5,333 enslaved people of African descent.3

Most of the Black evacuees had been enslaved by Loyalists and were carried off into continued bondage.2‡ Others had fled to the British lines and left as free people, and some of them settled in Canada, the Caribbean or Sierra Leone.2‡

Where the record differs from Rothbard

Errata notes. Rothbard’s text and his account above are left as he wrote them. Every erratum.

Conceived in Liberty, p. 1469
Rothbard says The evacuation of Charleston on 14 December 1782 took ’300 British ships’.
The evidence The NPS and the Charleston County Public Library count about 130 vessels carrying about 14,000 people.
Source NPS, ‘Liberty Won and Lost: The British Evacuation of Charleston’; CCPL, ‘Charleston’s Victory Day, Part 2’ (read through a fetch tool)
Conceived in Liberty, p. 1469
Rothbard says ‘About 5,000 of their Negro slaves’ left Charleston with the British.
The evidence The NPS and the CCPL count over 5,000 people of African descent (5,333 by the British count), most enslaved by Loyalists and carried off, but some free by British protection after fleeing to the British lines, who went on to New York, Canada, the Caribbean and Sierra Leone.
Source the sources named in the evidence column
Conceived in Liberty, p. 1469
Rothbard says The fleet carried out a multitude of the British army, “about 4,000 Tories, and about 5,000 of their Negro slaves.”
The evidence The National Park Service counts over 5,000 people of African descent among the evacuees. Most had been enslaved by Loyalists and were carried off into continued bondage, but some had fled to the British lines and left as free people, and some of them settled in Canada, the Caribbean or Sierra Leone.
Source NPS, ‘Liberty Won and Lost: The British Evacuation of Charleston’ (accessed 2026-10-02)

About the reconstruction

This is an AI-assisted adaptive companion inspired by Murray N. Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty. It draws on sources beyond the book and is not Rothbard’s original text or a condensation of it. Each scene identifies whether its narration combines sources or separates an account of the book from additional context.

The sources establish the event and accounts of it. The painting’s poses, expressions, lighting, and arrangement are artistic choices rather than a surviving visual record.

Suggest a correction to this companion scene. Notes about the original book are recorded separately.

Full sources and reuse information

Sources

  1. Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2011 single-volume ed.), vol. IV, ch. 64, ‘The Response in Britain’, pp. 1466-1469. CC BY 3.0. Rothbard
  2. ‘Liberty Won and Lost: The British Evacuation of Charleston’, National Park Service (accessed 2026-10-02): the rear guard marched to Gadsden’s Wharf on the Cooper River on 14 December 1782, then boarded ships; about 14,000 people on roughly 130 Royal Navy vessels; about 4,200 Loyalist civilians; over 5,000 people of African descent, most enslaved by Loyalists and forced into continued bondage elsewhere, some who had fled to British lines having achieved freedom and settled in Canada, the Caribbean or Sierra Leone; Wayne with 300 light infantry, 80 cavalry and 20 gunners. Secondary source
  3. ‘Charleston’s Victory Day, Part 2’, Charleston County Public Library, Charleston Time Machine (accessed 2026-10-02, through a fetch tool that summarises pages): about 130 vessels; more than 5,000 armed troops, 3,794 white men, women and children and 5,333 enslaved people of African descent; Wayne’s 300 light infantry, 80 cavalry and 20 artillerymen entering at about 11 a.m. and keeping about 200 yards off; Moultrie: ‘great order and regularity’, and ‘the real day of their deliverance’. Secondary source
  4. ‘The Story of Gadsden’s Wharf’, Charleston County Public Library, Charleston Time Machine (as listed in a web search, 2026-10-02): open for business in late 1767, the largest wharf in North America in the late 1760s, on the east side of the Charleston peninsula along the Cooper River; archaeologists found bricks from a warehouse wall and 12-inch timbers from the cribbing and framing. Secondary source

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Adapted from Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Mises Institute, 2011), CC BY 3.0. External sources retain their own terms.

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