“The Red Coats are coming! The Red Coats are coming,” said Sukey. “Let ‘em come,” said Ma. Little did these Tories know what they were about to encounter. Chasing some Whigs, the Tories were about to reach their doomsday, for Georgia’s War Woman was determined to rid Northeast Georgia of the British loyalists.
Ma was Nancy Morgan Hart, an intrepid frontier woman, fearless, and hot headed; she would tolerate no one who got in the way of her or her family. She became a hero of the American Revolutionary War for her exploits to stop the British from invading her backwoods country around the Broad River and beyond.
The Fame of Nancy Hart
Today, her reputation as well as her name are all over Northeast Georgia: Hart County and its county seat Hartwell; Lake Hartwell and the Hartwell Dam; Hartwell State Park, and Georgia Highway 77 named the Nancy Hart Highway.
Ann Morgan, better known as Nancy or Georgia’s War Woman, was likely born in North Carolina about 1735. When she was in her 30s, she married Benjamin Hart; they had 6 children (4 boys and 2 girls). The Harts moved to South Carolina and later to the Broad River Valley of Northeast Georgia. Benjamin set off to join the Georgia Militia, fighting for American independence. Nancy remained home with the children, fighting in her own way.
Nancy was a large woman, standing 6 feet tall, muscular and illiterate. She had red hair and was cross-eyed with a face scarred from Smallpox. Nancy exemplified the traits of a backwoods survivor: she was an excellent shot, despite her crossed eyes; she was an excellent herbalist and knew how to live off the land. From her exploits, the local Cherokee named her Wahatche or War Woman. She was known to have captured six Red Coats, one of whom she killed, and she supervised the hanging of the other five.
Fact or Fiction?
It is hard to know fact from fiction concerning Nancy, as her endeavors were never written down. Folklore has kept these stories alive. One of the most famous is the demise of six Tories on her property.
Her daughter Sukey spotted the red coats approaching their cabin. They were looking for information concerning the maneuvers of the Tories. Nancy denied any Tories had passed through her woods. Not believing her, they shot her prized turkey and demanded she feed them. Nancy invited them in and had them deposit their guns in the corner. She first offered them her home-made hootch and got them intoxicated before serving them the turkey dinner.
Nancy Feeds the British
While they were eating, Nancy sent Sukey out to get water for the men. She was instructed to blow on a conch shell to warn the neighbors they had trouble. Before any neighbors could arrive, Nancy began passing their guns out through a hole in the wall. Before she could get them all out, a soldier discovered the ploy and grabbed one of the remaining guns. Before he could shoot it, Nancy shot him. She tied up the other drunken soldiers and, with the help of her neighbors, hung them from a nearby tree. The truth of this story is likely when, in 1912, railroad excavations near the Hart cabin uncovered six skeletons.
Nancy also became a spy for the Whigs. She would dress up as a man, visit the Tory camps acting as a deranged lunatic and learn of their battle plans. She happily passed this information onto the Patriots.
Another of the stories which have come down through time describes Nancy making lye soap. Her daughter spotted a Tory peeking through a hole in the wall. Nancy threw a ladle full of the soap through the hole, burning the spy’s eyes. Finally, she moved outside, tied him up, and turned him over to the Patriots.
A Story Without Ending
Sometime during the 1780s, the family moved to Brunswick, Georgia, where Benjamin died. Nancy subsequently returned to the cabin in the Broad River Valley, only to find it had been decimated by a flood. She moved to her son John’s home on the Oconee River near Athens until he took her and his family to Henderson County, Kentucky to live among some relatives.
In Kentucky, Nancy found religion. She marched to a nearby Methodist church, only to find the door securely locked. She pulled out her knife and tore away the hinges. She was determined to join the group inside. She continued to fight the devil as hard as she had once fought the Red Coats.
In her honor, the Daughters of the American Revolution gathered the stones from her devastated cabin and rebuilt it on site in honor of this feisty woman, heroine of the War for Independence. Nancy Morgan Hart, Georigia’s War Woman, continues to live on in the annals of Georgia’s history and present-day remembrances.
Fact: Nancy Hart is said to have been related to Daniel Boone
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What a woman. Hate to meet her in a dark alley.