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Retaliation Maj. Pierce Butler was one of the American Founding Fathers, representing South Carolina in the Continental Congress and actually proposing the change to the US constitution to permit slavery to remain. Butler had fought in the Revolution and had lost most of his holdings in the region to British depredations. After the death of his wife, Butler, one of the wealthiest men in the US, bought a plantation on Cumberland Island, Georgia. When the British moved south from the Chesapeake, they were happy to invade Butler's estates on Cumberland Island, Making the island a major British base until March 1815. Although Maj. Butler's plantation manager had removed all the cotton before the British arrival to prevent it from falling into their hands, he failed to remove the slaves. The belief was that the slaves would not give up their good life to British offers of freedom. They were greatly mistaken.
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