6/26/00 2:25 p.m.
The British Are Crying, the British Are Crying
Knock Mel all you want, but leave Francis alone.

By Michael Graham

s it Mel Gibson they're mad at, or a "wily and elusive" South Carolina patriot who kicked British Army aspirations in the Revolutionary War?

Any Britisher who feels the need to give Mel Gibson a swift whack with a mashie niblick, be my guest. He deserves it.

I loathed Lethal Weapon. Have never forgiven him for Bird on a Wire (Mel + Goldie; now THERE'S a brain trust). Didn't even bother to see Braveheart. The only admiring thing I have to say about Mel Gibson is that, while here in Charleston filming The Patriot, he had the good taste to frequent the Club Habana, my favorite cigar bar in the Holy City.

So, if the wounded pride of Albion calls upon you to knock an upstart Aussie about, I say, "Have at it." But leave Francis alone.

Francis Marion, that is. And don't let the name fool you, Limey. Francis Marion was all man — more man than General Cornwallis could handle in 1781, that's for sure. In fact, when British-trained General Benjamin Lincoln managed to capture the entire Continental army in South Carolina in Charleston in 1780, it was Francis Marion and a handful of patriot homeboys who kept the Revolution alive.

Marion is the inspiration for the character portrayed by Gibson in the new film, The Patriot. It's a movie that already has gun-control advocates recoiling in horror, studio execs smiling in anticipation and cranky English pseudo-historians grousing about fair play.

One comment making the rounds in the British press (notorious for nude photos and poorly sourced stories) comes from an alleged "British expert on the American Revolution," one Christopher Hibbert. In a bit of Carvillian pre-release spin, Hibbert took the opportunity of the release of the film to impugn Francis Marion as having "a reputation as a racist who hunted Indians for sport and regularly raped his female slaves."

Marion, Hibbert went on, "was a wily and elusive character, very active in the persecution of Cherokee Indians and not at all the sort of chap who should be celebrated as a hero. ... The truth is that people like Marion committed atrocities as bad if not worse than those perpetrated by the British."

Please.

As a South Carolinian, I understand this Anglo-Saxon desire to live in the past. It comes naturally in these parts. I also understand the motivation to re-write history: This is a state, after all, where elected officials publicly insist there was no connection whatsoever between the Confederacy and slavery, and are cheered loudly for it.

But hurling insults against Francis Marion is bad sport. First, look at the charge that Francis Marion, the legendary "Swamp Fox" and first modern guerrilla warrior, was a racist: I simply note the unchallenged work of South Carolina's premier historian Dr. Walter Edgar, who pointed out in his 1998 South Carolina: A History that Marion's partisans were "a ragged band of both black and white volunteers." And while jingoistic 19th- century historians like Parson Weems and William Gilmore Simms aren't exactly modern deconstructionists, they offer a consistent picture of Marion as a man no more or less compassionate than others of his time. This is from one of Marion's letters during the Cherokee wars:

"The next morning we proceeded, by order of Colonel Grant, to burn down the Indian cabins. Some of our men seemed to enjoy this cruel work, laughing very heartily at the curling flames as they mounted, loud-crackling, over the tops of the huts. But to me it appeared a shocking sight. 'Poor creatures!' thought I, 'we surely need not grudge you such miserable habitations.'

Indeed, it is particularly galling for some fat-headed Brit to mouth off about Francis Marion on the issue of his treatment of American Indians. The letter quoted above is from a little dust-up known in the Colonies as the "French and Indian Wars," known also as "The Great War for the Empire" and "A war England started which involved lots of loyal subjects being wiped out in the frontier until rescued by fellow Americans under the often disastrous command of incompetent British fops passing themselves as officers."

Serving bravely in this war was a young Francis Marion who, under the command of the British, saw Indian villages (as well as women and children) wiped out by order of same. He also saw the remains of atrocities committed by the Cherokees, as when Fort Loudon was peacefully surrendered to the Indians, who then proceeded to slaughter every inhabitant save one.

On this campaign, however, Marion also learned from the Cherokee and other fighting tribes. He used these lessons in his own fight against the British twenty years later, the ultimate tribute a warrior can show to a fallen foe.

Was Francis Marion a slave owner? Was he a determined and dangerous warrior? Did he commit acts in an 18th-century war that we would consider atrocious in the current world of peace and political correctness? As another great American film hero might say: "You damn right."

That's what made him a hero, two hundred years ago and today. Francis Marion survived two wars, two centuries of scrutiny, and he'll survive two and a half hours of screen time by Mel Gibson, too.