Our Story: The Revolutionary War of Colonel Robert and Mary Ouldfield Heriot

BOOK REVIEW: Our Story: The Revolutionary War of Colonel Robert and Mary Ouldfield Heriot by Hugh T. Harrington, (South Carolina American Revolution Trust, 2026, $16.95, paperback)

Through letters and deep research, the “Story” in this book is the recounting of a colonial Patriot husband and wife whose lives were completely disrupted by the American Revolution. That similarity may bring up the comparable images of John and Abigail Adams. But aside from a few similar features between the couples, there are more dissimilar aspects than positive points in the comparisons. Robert Heriot, for instance, was not well known even in South Carolina, compared to John Adams in Massachusetts. Robert was in the merchant-planter class and owned hundreds of enslaved workers. Neither he nor Mary ever expressed in their letters their apparent support for the institution of slavery. It was the opposite for John and Abigail. They both detested slavery and never missed a chance to criticize the practice in public or in private. It could be that ownership of hundreds of slaves by the Heriots was necessary to produce their two largest crops – cotton and indigo. John and Abigail stuck to commodities like wheat which had less demand for labor. Robert eventually reached the rank of colonel in the South Carolina militia. John was a speech-making congressman and statesman his whole life.

Mary Ouldfield Heriot, who went by the nickname “Polly,” again departed from a similar comparison to Abigail Adams, when Mary was born into wealth and privilege. But like Abigail, Mary was tasked to educate their children at home when the war closed and shuttered schools. They both became involved with the crop management of their respective farms, through the help of overseers whom both parties could afford to hire. Both women also cared for their children at home when diseases such as smallpox broke out. Mary stubbornly insisted upon inoculations, another Abigail Adams trait. Mary, like many other slave-holding Carolinians, often worried about slave revolts which could easily happen with the husbands away fighting or captured.

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A portion of this book lends itself mostly to Robert’s part of their “Story” since Mary was consumed with her stay-at-home duties. The book also folds in notable actions happening to all the colonies during that time such as the Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, and Tea Act.

The British were badly beaten in 1776 when they failed in their attempt to take Charleston, South Carolina with their defeat at the battle of Fort Sullivan. With a new Southern strategy in 1780, the British captured Charleston by blockade and a siege. They took over 5,000 Patriot prisoners, Colonel Heriot among them. He was exiled to James Island on parole and could not see his wife and children for nearly a year. During that time Mary had to contend with running their plantation near Georgetown, their home being invaded by British officers, and the problem of trusting “friends” who now were Tories. She was also personally attacked when fired on by a British gunboat, of all things.

But of utmost importance, and great value to history, are the letters that passed between Robert and Mary. Beautifully written, they give us real-time facts and emotions that coursed through the minds and into the pens of the Heriots as they related their feelings, fears and observations to each other. The Heriot letters are one of the few and perhaps the best examples of on-the-spot first-person accounts between spouses that have survived from the Revolutionary War. The Heriots were very good at describing what was happening as it was happening. Mary was intelligent, well spoken, observant, and knew when to be afraid – and she was afraid, often. She was also very brave, lived through tremendous life-changing events, and wrote about them in real time. All the letters written by her are in beautiful handwriting as well as beautiful language, I must say. Robert’s letters convey more frustration, anger and longing as he was out of action.

The book touches upon after-war activities by Robert and Mary, until their deaths. Robert passed away in 1792,

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and Mary followed in 1812. Strange details, however, still followed the Heriots: the grave sites for both individuals are unknown.

I enjoyed the parallels and differences that this book offered the reader to explain Patriot lives such as the Adamses and the Heriots, who could have been very similar and at other times so far apart. Of particular interest to me were the images of some of the letters sent between Robert and Mary which allow the reader to see the actual handwriting of the Heriots. Reading “Our Story” was a joyful, fascinating and very educational journey. I highly recommend it.

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