1775: Georgia delegates to the Continental Congress shared their fears with John Adams regarding the vulnerability of the coastal South to a British invasion.

1775: Georgia delegates to the Continental Congress shared their fears with John Adams regarding the vulnerability of the coastal South to a British invasion. They estimated that twenty thousand enslaved people from Georgia and South Carolina would fly to the British camp if promised their freedom. The delegates noted that news of the impending conflict had already stimulated black communication networks throughout the southern colonies. Adams was impressed by what he described as the “wonderful art” of the enslaved communicating intelligence among themselves. He recorded in his diary that information in these oral cultures could run several hundreds of miles in a single week.