[Illustration: A Negro Patriot 122]
Along with the emigrants from North Carolina who first settled Wilkes
County, there came a man named Aycock. He brought with him a mulatto boy
named Austin. This boy passed as Aycock's slave; but when the conflict
between the Liberty Boys and the Tories in that part of the country
became desperate,--when the patriots were fighting for their lives as
well as for the liberties of their country,--Aycock's neighbors called
on him to do his part. According to all accounts, Aycock was not much
of a warrior. His sympathies were with his liberty-loving neighbors;
but his enthusiasm did not invite him to expose himself to the fire of
musketry. It is said that he joined the neighbors, and strove to be a
faithful militiaman, but he was in a state of constant fear. Governor
Gilmer says of Aycock, that, from the time he was required to fight, he
saw a terrible Tory constantly pointing a loaded gun at him. His alarm
finally became so extreme that he offered as his substitute the mulatto
boy Austin, who had then grown to be a stout and serviceable lad.
Objection was made that Austin was a slave, and could not therefore be
received as a soldier. At this, Aycock acknowledged that Austin was no
slave; that, although he was a mulatto, he had been born free. This fact
was made so clear to the patriots, that they willingly received Austin
as a soldier, and he was mustered into the service under the name of
Austin Dabney. He fought under Elijah Clarke, being under the command of
Colonel John Dooly, who was afterwards so foully murdered by the Tories.
Of all the brave men that fought under the heroic Clarke, there was none
braver than Austin Dabney, none that did better service.
He was in the battle of Kettle Creek, and was foremost among those who
followed Clarke. Toward the close of this the bloodiest battle fought in
Georgia between the patriots and Tories, Austin Dabney was shot through
the thigh, and so dangerously wounded that he became a cripple for life.
He was taken by his comrades to the house of a Mr. Harris, where he was
carefully nursed until his wound healed. He was not able to do military
duty after that, but he devoted himself to Harris and his family more
faithfully than any slave could have done. It may be said of him that
gratitude became the ruling passion of his heart.
After the Americans had won their independence, and peace with it,
Austin Dabney became prosperous. Being a quick-witted man, with an
instinct for business, he accumulated property. He finally moved to
Madison County, taking with him his benefactor and family, to whose
wants and desires he continued to minister with as much devotion as he
displayed at the beginning of his service. It was in Madison County
that Austin Dabney became noted for his fondness for horse-racing. He
attended all the races in the neighboring counties. He was the owner of
some of the finest race horses to be found in the country; and such was
his popularity, that he always found prominent men to stand for him.
Shortly after he removed to Madison County, he received a pension from
the United States Government. He sent Harris's oldest son to school,
and afterwards to college. When the young man graduated from Franklin
College, now the State University, Austin Dabney supported him while
he studied law with Hon. Stephen Upson at Lexington, Oglethorpe County.
When young Harris was undergoing his examination for admission to the
bar, Austin Dabney stood leaning against the railing that inclosed the
court, listening to the proceedings with great anxiety. When the young
man was sworn in, and was shaking hands with the members of the bar,
Austin, unable to control himself, burst into a flood of tears, happy
that he had been able to make a gentleman of the son of the man who had
nursed him so long and patiently while his wound was healing.
When the public lands in Georgia were distributed among the people by
lottery, the Legislature gave to Austin Dabney a lot of land in Walton
County. The next year the voters of Madison County were in a condition
bordering on distraction, being divided into Dabney and anti-Dabney
parties. Austin had not been permitted to have a chance in the lottery
with other soldiers of the Revolution. Consequently Stephen Upson, one
of Georgia's most prominent men at that time, employed his influence
with such effect that a law was passed giving Dabney a valuable lot.
One of the members of the Legislature from Madison County voted for
this law. At the next election the constituents of this member divided
themselves into two parties, one faction indorsing the vote, and the
other denouncing it. Those who denounced the vote did it on the ground
that it was an indignity to white men for a mulatto to be put on an
equality with them in the distribution of the public land, though, as
Governor Gilmer bluntly puts it, not one of them had served his country
so long or so well. Governor Gilmer, from whose writings all facts about
Austin Dabney are taken, tells a very interesting anecdote about him. In
order to collect the pension which the United States Government allowed
on account of his broken thigh, Austin went once a year to Savannah.
Once when he was on his way to draw what was due him, he fell in with
Colonel Wiley Pope, his neighbor, who was also journeying to Savannah.
They were very intimate and social on the road, and until they found
themselves in the streets of Savannah. When they reached the fashionable
part of the city, Colonel Pope observed to his companion that he was
a sensible man, and knew the prejudices that prevented them from
associating together in the city. Austin Dabney replied that he
understood it very well, and with that he checked his horse and fell in
the rear of Colonel Pope after the fashion of a servant following
his master. Their way led them in front of the house of General James
Jackson, who was at that time governor of the State. The governor was
standing in his door at the time. Colonel Pope passed on unrecognized,
but, chancing to glance around, he saw Governor Jackson run from the
house into the street to greet Austin Dabney. The governor seized the
negro's hand, shook it heartily, drew him from his horse, and carried
him into the house, where he remained a welcome guest during his stay in
the city. Colonel Pope (so Governor Gilmer says) used to tell this story
with great glee, but owned that he felt put out when he realized, that,
whilst he was a stranger at a tavern, Austin Dabney was the honored
guest of the governor of the State. The explanation was, that Governor
Jackson had seen Dabney's courage and patriotism tested on the field
of battle, and he knew that beneath the tawny skin of the mulatto there
beat the heart of a true man.
Austin Dabney was always popular with those who knew of his services in
the Revolutionary War. Governor Gilmer says that he was one of the
best Chroniclers of the stirring events of that period. His memory was
retentive, his understanding good, and he had a gift of description
possessed by few. He moved to the land the State had given him, taking
with him the family of the man who had nursed him. He continued to serve
them while he lived, faithful to the end, and when he died left them the
property he had accumulated.