"gang" = "company of slaves", 1739 (antedates 1790)

[Joel S. Berson]

"gang", n1, sense 9.b, "A company of slaves or prisoners", is dated
by the OED (1989) to 1790.

1739:  "An Insurrection has been made of late here in the Country by
some Negroes in order to their Going there [to St. Augustine] & in
less than Twenty four hours they murthered in their way there between
Twenty and Thirty white People & Burnt Severall houses before they
were overtaken, tho' now most of the Gang are already taken or Cut to Peices."

Robert Pringle to John Richards, 26 Sept. 1739.  In _The Letterbook
of Robert Pringle_, vol. 1, _April 2, 1737--September 25, 1742_, ed.
Walter B. Edgar (Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1972), p. 135.

Cited in _Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave
Revolt_, ed. Mark M. Smith (Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press,
2005), p. 9.

Joel

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