Colonial period of South Carolina
European settlement in the region of modern-day South Carolina began on a large scale after 1651, when frontiersmen from the English colony of Virginia began to settle in the northern half of the region, while the southern half saw the immigration of plantation owners from Barbados, who established slave plantations which cultivated cash crops such as tobacco, cotton, rice and indigo.The colonial government of South Carolina fought several conflicts with local Indian tribes and Spanish Florida while fending off the threat of piracy.Birth rates were high and food was abundant, which offset the danger of malaria to produce rapid population growth among white South Carolinians.At the same time, men with close commercial and political ties to Great Britain tended to support the Loyalist cause when the American Revolutionary War broke out.The first European contact with the Carolinas was an expedition led by Pedro de Salazar from Santo Domingo which arrived between northern Georgia and Cape Fear between August 1514 and December 1516.[5] Anthony Ashley Cooper, later the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury emerged as the leader of the Lords Proprietors, and John Locke became his assistant and chief planner.When they landed in early April at Albemarle Point on the shores of the Ashley River, they founded Charles Town, named in honor of their king.On May 23, Three Brothers arrived in Charles Town Bay without 11 or 12 passengers who had gone for water and supplies at St. Catherines Island, and had run into Indians allied with the Spanish.Historian Alan Gallay estimates that between 1670 and 1715, between 24,000 and 51,000 captive Native Americans were exported from South Carolina—much more than the number of Africans imported to the colonies of the future United States during the same period.Governor Robert Johnson encouraged settlement in the western frontier to make Charles Town's shipping more profitable, and to create a buffer zone against attacks.Charlestonians considered the towns created by the Huguenots, German Calvinists, Scots, Ulster-Scots Presbyterians, working class English laborers who were former indentured servants as well as Welsh farmers, such as Orangeburg and Saxe-Gotha (later called Cayce), to be their first line of defense in case of an Indian attack, and military reserves against the threat of a slave uprising.[24] Differences in religion, philosophy and background between the mostly subsistence farmers in the Upcountry and the slaveholding planters of the Low Country bred distrust and hostility between the two regions.South Carolina's Governor William Henry Lyttelton raised an army of 1,100 men and marched on the Lower Towns, which quickly agreed to peace.[27] Unable to put down the rebellion, Governor Lyttelton appealed to Jeffrey Amherst, who sent Archibald Montgomery with an army of 1,200 British regulars and Scots Highlanders.From the founding of Charleston onwards, the colony welcomed many different religious groups, including Jews and Quakers, but Catholics were prohibited from practicing until after the American Revolution.[32] Baptists and Methodists increased in number rapidly in the late 18th century as a result of the Great Awakening and its revivals, and their missionaries attracted many slaves with their inclusive congregations and recognition of blacks as preachers.[35] The evangelicals worked hard to convert the slaves to Christianity and were especially successful among black women, who had played the role of religious specialists in Africa and again in America.Slave women exercised wide-ranging spiritual leadership among Africans in America in healing and medicine, church discipline, and revival enthusiasm.The planters duplicated elements of the Caribbean economies, developing plantations for the cultivation of export crops, such as Sea Island cotton, indigo, and particularly rice.The slaves came from many diverse cultures in West Africa, where they had developed an immunity to endemic malaria, which helped them survive in the Low Country of South Carolina, where it frequently occurred.[37] The comprehensive Negro Act of 1740 was passed in South Carolina, during Governor William Bull's time in office, in response to the Stono Rebellion in 1739.[40] The act made it illegal for enslaved Africans to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money, and learn to write (though reading was not proscribed).[43] The 1752 hurricane caused massive damage to homes, businesses, shipping, outlying plantation buildings and the rice crop; about 95 people died.The storm was compact and powerful; the city and surrounding areas were saved from even greater destruction only because the wind shifted some three hours before high tide.
land grantsProvince of CarolinaHistory of South CarolinaTimelineAmerican RevolutionAntebellum periodCivil War eraReconstruction eraCivil Rights MovementEconomy of South CarolinaState of South Carolinaexploration and colonization of the regionearly modern periodEnglish settlersProvince of South CarolinaSouth Carolinacolony of Virginiaplantation ownersBarbadosslave plantationscash cropstobaccocottonindigoCharlestontriangular tradeSea Island cottonslave laborThirteen ColoniesSpanish FloridapiracymalariaAtlantic slave traderepublicanismPatriotsAmerican Revolutionary WarFrench FloridaSan Miguel de GualdapeCharlesfort-Santa Elena SiteMississippian shatter zoneSanto DomingoWinyah BayAmelia IslandChesapeake BayLucas Vázquez de AyllónHernando de SotoNorth CarolinaTennesseeGeorgiaAlabamaCofitachequiCharlesfortPort Royal SoundSanta ElenaCharles I of EnglandCharles II of EnglandLords ProprietorsrestoringAnthony Ashley CooperJohn LockeGrand Model for the Province of CarolinaFundamental Constitutions of CarolinaColonial PeriodNative AmericansYamaseeApalacheeCherokeeYamasee WarBostonAfricansGullah culturecreole languageLowcountryplantersEnglandupcountryUlster ScotsPennsylvaniaVirginiaHuguenotLoyalistCape Fear Riverbuilt Santa ElenaCape FearDr. Henry WoodwardWilliam SayleBermuda sloopSt. AugustineMocamaKiawah IndiansAshley RiverCharles TownSt. Catherines IslandCharles IISt James's PalaceCharles ICatherine of BraganzaPortsmouthWhitehall PalaceEnglish RestorationJames VII & IIdeposedAnne HydeThe StrandMary of ModenaChâteau de Saint-Germain-en-LayeMary IIKensington Palaceoffered the crown by ParliamentWilliam IIIThe HagueWilliam II, Prince of OrangeMary, Princess Royal1 May 1707Queen of Great Britain and IrelandGeorge of DenmarkJames IIcognatic primogenitureBill of Rights 16891 August 1714James II and VIIGeorge ILeineschlossErnest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-LüneburgSophia of HanoverSophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle