Peter Harris was born around 1756 in the heart of the traditional homeland of the Catawba people, alongside the Catawba River in modern York and Lancaster Counties, South Carolina. At the age of 3, he was orphaned by the great smallpox epidemic of 1759, which killed an estimated one-half to three-quarters of Catawba tribal members over the course of a single summer.

Harris continued to live among the Catawba for two years, until at age 5 he was taken in by Thomas Spratt, an early settler known as “Kanawha,” or “the white warrior.”

Peter stayed with Spratt until he reached manhood, at which point he returned to the tribe and married a Catawba woman. 

Service in the American Revolution

As the Revolutionary War began in earnest in 1777 Peter Harris enlisted with the Battalion of Georgia Minuteman, and in 1779, he joined the Third South Carolina Continental Regiment under Captain Oliver Towels, making him the only Catawba known to have served as a regular in the Continental Army.

Harris fought at the Siege of Savannah and later that summer suffered a shrapnel wound at the Battle of Stono Ferry. During the battle he captured a rifle from an enemy soldier, a weapon he would carry with pride for the rest of his life.

After recovering from his wounds, Harris joined Captain Thomas Drennan’s Catawba Company in the South Carolina Militia Brigade under the command of General Thomas Sumter in 1780. That year, Harris would fight in the battles of Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, and Blackstock’s Farm.

A Fateful Journey to the United Kingdom

In 1783, shortly after the war ended, the promoter Adam Caruth enticed Peter Harris and three other Catawba men to travel to the United Kingdom with him to perform before audiences who were intensely curious about Native Americans. Caruth promised the Catawba that they could earn significant sums of money by touring theaters in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Harris and the other men agreed and from all reports their performances were very successful, combining traditional Catawba singing and dancing in full regalia with demonstrations of warrior prowess with traditional weapons from bows and arrows to spears and blowguns.

Audiences were further entranced by the Catawba language they sang and spoke on stage. After beginning their tour London, the small troupe travelled throughout the British Isles, including a visit to Ireland where Harris refused to eat potatoes until, according to Thomas Spratt, after several days of hunger “Peter Harris learned to eat Irish potatoes mighty well.”

Betrayal, Tragedy, and the Return Home

When the small group returned to London, Caruth disappeared, taking with him all their earnings, and booking passage back to America.

Left destitute, the Catawba were in a desperate situation until a group of wealthy philanthropists paid for their passage home. Just three days out of port, three of the Catawba – seasick, disheartened, and depressed – threw themselves overboard and drowned in the Atlantic, leaving Peter Harris to return home alone. Despite the sad ending, the Catawba impressed at least some Englishmen enough that they were immortalized in the play “The Catawba Travellers,” first performed in London at the Sadler’s Wells Theater in 1785.

The play’s preface explains that it was written “after the manners and custom of the American Indians, as correctly obtained from the two Catawba Chiefs.”

Post-War Recognition and the Plea for a Pension

Fortunately, Harris found a better welcome back home in South Carolina. In 1794 for his service in the Revolution, he was granted a state bounty of three parcels of land totaling 200 acres on Fishing Creek in Chester County.

In 1796, Harris and the other surviving Catawba veterans were each awarded a silver gorget engraved with their names by the State of South Carolina in recognition of their service. Despite these rewards, by 1822, Peter Harris was sick and impoverished, South Carolina State Senator William Crafts urged Harris to appeal for a state pension, and helped him to write his appeal:

“I’m one of the lingering embers of an almost extinguished race. Our graves will soon be our only habitations, I am one of the few stalks, that still remain in the field, where the tempest of the revolution [has] passed, I fought against the British for your sake, The British have Disappeared, and you are free, Yet from me the British took nothing, nor have I gained anything by their defeat.

I pursued the deer for my subsistence, the deer are disappearing, & I must starve. God ordained me for the forest, and my ambition is the shade, but the strength of my arm decays, and my feet fail in the chase, the hand which fought for your liberties is now open for your relief.

In my Youth I bled in battle, that you might be independent, let not my heart in my old age, bleed, for the want of your Commiseration. [sic.]”

Final Years, a Lingering Regret, and Legacy

In response, the State awarded Peter Harris a pension of $60 a year (the equivalent of $1,700 in 2026). During his last years, Peter Harris returned to live on the Spratt farm, and was cared for by Thomas Spratt’s son, James.

The Revolution left its mark on Peter Harris, and throughout his life he took great pride in his service for the Patriot cause and would not hesitate to proclaim his involvement in the conflict. The war left scars as well, however. On his deathbed, Harris confessed to an incident during the war that haunted him. In 1780, shortly after the British had massacred the Patriot soldiers who had surrendered at Waxhaws, and as they were moving towards the Catawba homelands with fire and sword, Harris has come upon a enemy soldier who had put down his musket to kneel beside a spring for a drink.

Harris shot the unarmed man dead, a deed which weighed on him because, according to James Spratt, it was the act of “a coward, rather than of a brave man, in which category he had always hoped his fellow-man would place him.”

Peter Harris was laid to rest in the Spratt family burial ground where his tombstone reads, “The Body of Peter Harris A Catawba Indian by His Request Was Buried Here 1823. Age 70 Years, Left an Orphan He was Raised by Thomas Spratt, Senr. Like All His Tribe, He was Ever Friendly to the Americans, and For His Services in Our War of Independence Received a Pension from The State.”

If you want to learn more about Peter Harris, the Catawba tribe, and their contributions, be sure to visit the Catawba Cultural Center during your stay.