Born April 2, 1749
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Died May 8, 1815
Charleston, South Carolina

Physician, politician, historian

"[American colonists believed that] all government was a political institution between men naturally equal, not for [increasing the power] of one, or a few, but for the general happiness of the whole community."
Portrait: David Ramsay. Reproduced by permission of Archive Photos, Inc.

David Ramsay was a man of many talents. He was born into humble circumstances and lacked family connections. But he became a wealthy and successful physician in an America that had freed itself from the type of European social system in which this would not have been possible. Ramsay became the foremost American historian of Revolutionary times and a spokesman for the revolutionary generation's politicians and thinkers.

David Ramsay was born in Drumore Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His parents had come to America from Ireland and were the owners of...