"G" is for Gadsden, Christopher (1724-1805). Patriot, merchant. Born in Charleston, Gadsden was educated in England. In the 1740s he launched one of the most successful mercantile careers in the colony. Possessing financial independence and a civic spirit, he pursued public office. In 1757 he began his nearly thirty years’ service in the Commons House of Assembly. He became an outspoken defender of colonial rights and—after a public dispute with the royal governor in 1762—was transformed into a zealous American patriot. He represented South Carolina in the Stamp Act Congress and the First Continental Congress. Returning to South Carolina in 1776, he was a member of the Provincial Congress and coauthored the South Carolina Constitution of 1776. When Charleston fell to the British in 1780, Christopher Gadsden was imprisoned in St. Augustine.