biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1749–1800)
|
| biography:
| US governor, born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, the brother of John Rutledge. A South Carolina lawyer, he served in the First and Second Continental Congresses (1774–6), where he shifted from his Loyalist sympathies to sign the Declaration of Independence. He went back to South Carolina to fight against the British, and was briefly their prisoner after the fall of Charleston. A staunch Federalist, he served in the state legislature (1782–98), where he moderated confiscation of Loyalists' property, later becoming governor (1798–1880). |
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