“What in hell could a slave woman do?”

“She raise in de marsh, and know de way fum de ocean to de town.”

Brown was instantly alert, well knowing that confident American forces were prepared for a British invasion and had deployed both troops and artillery along a slough two miles east of the city, covering the main route that would have to be taken by any force that attacked Savannah from the sea. Although he could not be certain when they would arrive, he and everyone else knew that Campbell’s forces had left New York six weeks ago, and that Colonel Prevost was supposed to be moving north from Florida but had been held up near the St. Illa River.

Brown said, “Bring her to me.”

Without any reticence, Big William replied, “She want sump’n.”

“What is it, for God’s sake?”

“Freedom.”

CHAPTER 34

The British Take Savannah

Slavery had never been an easy subject for the Florida Rangers to address. Brown realized that on all plantations in Georgia and many in Florida, slaves comprised more than half the total value of the owners’ holdings. Although the British government had long ago passed laws outlawing the slave trade either from Liverpool or from Africa, it was not illegal for the colonists to keep any slaves they owned and to buy and sell them as desired. If it was known that he helped to free a slave even from a Whig owner, many of the most prominent Tories would condemn this as a threat to their own economic existence.

Brown finally responded, “If she is helpful, she’ll be free, even if I have to buy her myself. Let Liverpool bring her to me, and don’t let anybody else know about this.”

Quash met Brown before sunrise the next morning, and the commander immediately asked what information she had to offer.

She put aside all restraint and amazed Brown by saying, in perfect English, “My parents were owned by the governor’s secretary, Quintus Swanson, whose home was east of Savannah near the road to Tybee Island. I grew up there, was educated by Mr. Swanson, and spent my youth in the marshes. I have never spoken English like this after I was sold to Mr. Singleton, but work in the Hopewell big house with three other women. I was serving dinner this past Sunday and heard some young men from Savannah talking about the same marsh areas where we lived. They ignore us slaves when they talk, and I listened carefully. The revolutionaries know the British are coming, and General Howe is defending the main road, which they believe to be the only one. I know a way around it.”