In 1776, New Jersey saw such towns as Princeton and Trenton devastated by marching armies from both sides during the American Revolution. Haddonfield residents gathered frequently at the tavern; Redman, who was also the clerk for the local Friends Meeting, was required to read publicly documents that included the sect's pacifist refusal to become combatants. Because of this, in January 1777 Redman was arrested and charged with sedition by an officer of the Continental Army, and jailed in Woodbury, the county seat at that time. Redman was released and fined on March 18 of that same year. He returned to his tavern in Haddonfield to find that the state had used his tavern that same day to create a Council of Safety, whose mission it was to try, convict and incarcerate deserters, Loyalists and other enemies of the Revolution. The cellar of the tavern is thought to have been used by this Council to hold the overflow from the guard house across the street