Revolutionary Cartel
Marlboro County, Marlboro County, South Carolina
Marker Inscription
Revolutionary Cartel
The Story
During the American Revolution, a "cartel" was a formal agreement between opposing forces for the exchange of captured prisoners under agreed terms. In the Carolina backcountry, where the war became a brutal contest of raids and reprisals between Patriots and Loyalists, such arrangements offered a rare moment of negotiated order amid the chaos. This marker in Marlboro County recalls one of those understandings, a reminder that even a bitter civil conflict on the frontier followed certain rules of war.
Why it matters
Prisoner-exchange cartels reveal how the Revolution's southern campaign was fought not only on battlefields but through the customs of war that governed how enemies treated one another. They mark an early American reckoning with the laws and humanity of armed conflict.
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