Oscar Marion was an American slave and Revolutionary War militiaman.

Oscar Marion was the servant of General Francis Marion

Francis Marion

Francis Marion was a military officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. Acting with Continental Army and South Carolina militia commissions, he was a persistent adversary of the British in their occupation of South Carolina in 1780 and 1781, even after the Continental Army was driven...

 (1732–1795), the legendary "Swamp Fox." In December 2006, Oscar Marion was recognized as an "African American Patriot" in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, and a proclamation signed by President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 expressed the appreciation of a "grateful nation" for Oscar Marion's "devoted and selfless consecration to the service of our country in the Armed Forces of the United States."

It is believed that, following custom, Oscar was made to take the last name of his owner, and he was one of perhaps 200 slaves (many with the last name of Marion) who served Francis Marion. But there may have been a close personal connection between the general and his slave, as some accounts of the general comment on the constant companionship and "faithfulness" of his servant Oscar, according to genealogist Tina C. Jones, a descendant of some of Francis Marion's slaves.

It is believed that Oscar Marion appears in at least one painting of the general. "General Marion Inviting a British Officer to Share His Meal," shows an African American male only a few feet from Francis, kneeling at a fire and roasting sweet potato

Sweet potato

The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...

es as he warily surveys the red-coated officer. In the December 2006 ceremony, President George W. Bush and several congressmen recognized the image as representing Oscar Marion. The painting appeared on Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 banknotes issued in South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

. It currently hangs in the third-floor corridor of the Senate Wing of the U.S. Capitol.

Following his seven years of service with Gen. Marion in the Revolutionary War, Oscar Marion likely returned with the general to Francis Marion's large Berkeley County, S.C., plantation. There is no evidence that Oscar ever married or had children.

Popular culture

In the Walt Disney TV miniseries The Swamp Fox

The Swamp Fox (TV series)

The Swamp Fox is a television series produced by Walt Disney and starring Leslie Nielsen as American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion.The theme song * was sung by Nielsen as well. One of the Swamp Fox's adversaries was Colonel Banastre Tarleton, played by John Sutton...

(1959–61), Jordan "Smoki" Whitfield played Oscar Marion opposite Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen

Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...

's Gen. Francis Marion. Whitfield sang the series' theme song, adding new verses in each of the eight installments to chronicle the characters' latest adventures