Samuel Elbert - Life

Life

Born in 1740 in Savannah, in the British Province of Georgia, Samuel Elbert was the son of Baptist minister William Elbert and his wife, Sarah Greenfield. Elbert’s parents died in South Carolina when he was fourteen. He traveled back to Savannah.

Elbert was employed by a prosperous planter named John Rae, an important man in both commerce and government. Rae had built a beautiful home on his land near Savannah known as Rae’s Hall. It was through Rae's influence that Elbert was commissioned to go into Indian country as a trader. He had great success in his dealings with the Indians, mostly because of his kind regard for them. On one occasion, Elbert had been called upon to escort and protect a party of Indians, who had come to Savannah in an effort to redress a great wrong – the murder of a Creek chief called Mad Turkey by Thomas Fee. The incident turned into an issue, and in 1774, feelings ran high between the whites and the Indians. Fee was convicted and jailed. In 1785, Elbert wrote in a letter to George Walton, "It is a pity that the people on our Frontiers will behave so cruelly toward those poor savages; not contented with having the lands, but to rob, beat and abuse them likewise is enough to bring down Divine vengeance on their heads."

He became engaged to Rae's daughter, Elizabeth. In 1769, they were married at Rae’s Hall, a union which, according to historian Charles C. Jones, "confirmed Elbert’s social position and influence."

Elbert became a captain of a grenadier company of Savannah’s First Regiment of Militia in June 1772 and signed a pledge of allegiance to the King of England as a prerequisite to being commissioned as an officer.