Their deepest desire was for both sides to leave them alone so they could cultivate their farms

From The Road to Guilford Courthouse by John Buchanan. Page 95.

Carrying the message of liberty and freedom to back country of the South was no easy task.

Drayton and Tennent left Charleston on 2 August 1775. They found neither the journey nor the mission easy going. Travel then was an endurance contest. The Reverend Charles Woodmason once described a journey to baptize several children as “A Shocking Passage. Obliged to cut the Way thro’ the Swamp for 4 miles, thro’ Canes, and impenetrable Woods—had my Cloaths torn to Pieces.” The country Woodmason described lay on their path. To add to their discomfort, the arrogance of the Rice Kings left many settlers ill disposed to even listen to the message. William Tennent recorded in his diary that the people believed “that no man from Charleston can speak the truth, and that all the papers are full of lies.” To the Council of Safety in Charleston he described the “unchangeable malignity of their minds and . . . bitterness against the gentlemen as they are called.” A large, important ethnic group, the Germans, were afraid of losing their land, which had been given to them by the King. They wanted no part of rebellion. After a week spent in the German settlements near modern Columbia, during which Tennent recorded, “Mr. Drayton harangued them and was followed by myself,” Drayton had to report that “the Dutch are not with us.” But the Germans were not dangerous to the cause, because their deepest desire was for both sides to leave them alone so they could cultivate their farms.