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The Southern States of America
Chapter I - South Carolina, 1562 - 1789


Early Visits by Foreigners to the Coast of South Carolina.

AS EARLY as 1520, thirteen years after the passing of Christopher Columbus, two Spanish ships entered a wide bay on or near the coast of the present state of South Carolina. A point of land near the bay was given the name St. Helena by the Spanish sailors. A river in the vicinity they called "Jordan." They found, moreover, that a portion of the country on one side of the bay was called by the natives, Chicora. A large number of these natives, yielding to the persuasions of the Spaniards, went on board the two ships. When the decks were crowded with them the sailors suddenly drew up the anchors, spread their sails and headed the ships out into the open sea. Not long afterwards, one of the vessels went down and all on board perished. The other vessel sailed to the island of Hispaniola (now known as Haiti) in the West Indies. There the captive Indians, as many of them as survived the hardships of the voyage, were sold as slaves. The responsibility for this cruel treatment of some of the redmen of America rests upon a Spaniard named Vasquez de Ayllon, who had fitted out the two ships and sent them to capture Indians. A few years later De Ayllon himself sailed with three vessels to the river which had received the name Jordan. He expected to conquer all the country near the river, and to rule over it in the name of the Spanish sovereign. This expectation was not realized. According to the stories handed down to us in the old Spanish records, the natives of the country, filled with hatred on account of the treachery shown by the previous company of explorers, slew so many of De Ayllon's men that his expedition ended in failure.

In the year 1524 Giovanni Verrazano, a native of Florence, Italy, was sent across the Atlantic by Francis I., of France. Verrazano reached the American coast at a point near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, North Carolina. He coasted thence southward "fifty leagues" in search of a harbor. This voyage, of course, brought him to the region now known as South Carolina. "The whole shore," runs Verrazano's description of the country, "is covered with fine sand about fifteen feet thick, rising in the form of little hills about fifteen paces broad. Ascending farther, we found several arms of the sea, which make in through inlets, washing the shores on both sides as the coast runs." He speaks, also, of "immense forests of trees, more or less dense, too various in color and too delightful and charming in appearance to be described. They are adorned with palms, laurels, cypresses and other varieties unknown to Europe, that send forth the sweetest fragrance to a great distance."

Settlement at Port Royal by the French.

Because of the discoveries made by Verrazano, France laid claim to a large part of the continent of North America. From King Charles IX., of France, therefore, Admiral Coligny, a leader of the Huguenot party, obtained permission to establish in America a colony of French Protestants. Two of the King's ships, filled with veterans and with French gentlemen, set sail in February, 1562, under command of an old Huguenot sea-captain, Jean Ribault. After crossing the Atlantic, Ribault landed on the shore of a river which he named the May River, because he discovered it on the first day of the month of May. This stream is now known as St. John's River, in Florida. From the mouth of the St. John's, Ribault sailed northward along the Atlantic coast. After a voyage of several days his two vessels entered the mouth of a wide bay on the coast of the present state of South Carolina, and there he cast anchor in a depth of sixty feet of water. On account of its size and the beauty of the scenery around its shores, the sailors named this bay Port Royal, or royal harbor, and by this name it is called to this day.

When Ribault and his men landed on the banks of the harbor they found a region filled with stately cedars, magnolias and wide-spreading oaks. The air, moreover, was sweet with the fragrance of the rose and the jasmine. As the men walked through the forest, wild turkeys in large numbers flew above their heads; partridges and stags were seen on every hand, and the sailors imagined that they heard the cries of bears and leopards and other beasts of prey. When they cast a net into the waters of the bay they found so many fish that two draughts of the net furnished a day's food for the crews of both vessels.

Ribault next steered his ships up the stream that flows into Port Royal and took his men ashore, probably upon an island now known as Lemon Island, in Broad River, a few miles from the present town of Beaufort. Upon that island he set up a stone pillar, engraved with the arms of the King of France, thus claiming the entire country in the name of the French sovereign. Ribault and his followers then laid the foundations of a fort on Parris Island, and gave it the Latin name Arx Carolana, that is, Fort Charles, after King Charles (Carolus) IX., of France.

Having thus, with due ceremonial, taken possession of the country, Ribault determined to leave a garrison in the fort while he himself returned to France to seek additional settlers. He therefore made a stirring appeal to his men and, as a result, twenty-six of them volunteered to remain at Port Royal until his return. Ribault left them a supply of tools, guns and provisions, and on the morning of July 11, 1562, having fired a salute to the flag of France which was waving over Fort Charles, he set forth on the voyage across the Atlantic.

The soil around Fort Charles was fertile, but the men of the garrison, having been trained as soldiers, did not think it necessary to plant corn. First of all, they completed the fort which Ribault had begun. Its dimensions, according to the old records which we have, were ninety-six feet in length by seventy-eight feet in width, with flanks in proportion. After their cannon had been set in position a party of men from the garrison sailed in a pinnace up the Broad River to seek the friendship of the Indians. Upon the invitation of some of the red chieftains, the Huguenots went ashore and watched the strange ceremonies conducted by some of the Indian priests and warriors, the peculiar rites connected with a religious festival.

The supply of food left by Ribault was soon consumed. Some of the Frenchmen sailed, however, to the river now called the Savannah, and the Indians of that region filled the pinnace with a supply of millet and beans. Fire then broke out in a small house within the fort, and their provisions stored therein were destroyed. The Indians generously helped to rebuild the house and also gave the soldiers another supply of food. Liberal presents were made to the redmen, and the latter pointed to the fields of growing corn as indicating the certainty of a future supply of bread.

The men of the garrison soon became filled with the spirit of unrest. When the Indians gave them some pearls and some silver ore, accompanied by the statement that the silver could be found among the mountains to the northward, the soldiers were eager to set out in search of the white metal. The commander, Captain Albert, who, from the first, had been rigid and harsh in enforcing discipline, grew more stern and severe. Then the garrison broke out in open mutiny, murdered Captain Albert and appointed Nicholas Barre as commander.

The Huguenots were now anxious to return home, and as the return of Ribault was delayed, they determined to build a small boat and sail back to France. Resin from the pine and moss from the oak were used in calking the little vessel. Grass and the inner bark of trees were twisted together to make ropes. Bedclothes and old shirts were used in making sails. The cannon and other warlike implements were placed on board the boat, but, strange to say, only a small supply of food was taken. The sails were raised and, with a favorable breeze, the vessel was soon one-third of the way across the Atlantic. Then the wind dropped and for many days the boat drifted with the tide. The supply of food and water failed and the men began to eat their shoes and leathern jackets. Some of them died of hunger. A storm burst upon them and wrought so much harm to the vessel that they gave up hope of making further progress in the voyage. As a last resort, to prolong the life of the majority of the crew, one of their number, chosen by lot, was slain and eaten. Shortly after this an English vessel came that way, picked up those who were still alive and carried them back to England.

Two years afterward another company of Huguenot colonists under the command of Laudonniere came to the St. John's River in Florida and there built another Fort Charles. Then, in 1565, Ribault brought a third group of settlers to the fort on the St. John's. A Spanish fleet immediately followed across the Atlantic in pursuit of Ribault. When the Spaniards arrived at St. John's River they fell upon the Huguenot settlers, killed all of them because of their hatred towards Protestants, and then built the town of St. Augustine on the Florida coast as an indication of their claim to all of the territory adjacent to the South Atlantic Ocean. Thus failed the Huguenot plan to establish a settlement on the South Carolina coast. The name Carolana, or Carolina, however, was bestowed by them upon a part of the country near Port Royal. This name remained in that region as a memorial of the French King for a hundred years, until English settlers came to lay there the foundation of a great American state.

Occupation of South Carolina by English Settlers.

In the years 1663 and 1665 King Charles II., of England, gave to eight of his friends the territory now embraced in the states of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and the northern part of Florida. These Englishmen, called the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, were the following: Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley, the Earl of Clarendon, Sir John Colleton, the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Craven, Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley and John, Lord Berkeley. The vast region thus transferred by charter was named "Carolina" in honor of the King's father, King Charles I., of England.

In pursuance of the authority given by King Charles II., the Proprietors sent out from London in the year 1669, the good ship Carolina, and two other small vessels, filled with emigrants. In March, 1670, these settlers went ashore at Port Royal. The proximity of the Spaniards in Florida led them, however, to abandon Port Royal as the site for a colony. The prow of the Carolina was turned northward and the vessel soon cast anchor in the Ashley River. In April, 1670, the emigrants began to build a fortification and dwelling houses at Albemarle Point on the western bank of the Ashley, about three miles from the mouth of the stream. The settlement was called Charles Town in honor of the King of England. Col. William Sayle, former governor of the island of Bermuda, was made governor of the new colony. The forests were filled with wild game and the river furnished an abundance of fish and oysters; corn and venison were bought from the Indians, and thus, for a short time, the people secured food. When the Indians were no longer able to offer a supply of corn, the Carolina sailed to the colony of Virginia to buy both wheat and corn. Meanwhile the fortifications were thrown up as high as a man's breast. When, therefore, a Spanish ship came up from Florida with hostile purpose, the English defenses seemed to be so strong that the Spaniards returned without making an attack.

In 1671 Governor Sayle died and was succeeded in office by Joseph West. At that time about 400 settlers were living at Charles Town. They had already begun to send shiploads of pine, oak and ash logs to Barbadoes in exchange for supplies of guns, hoes, axes and cloth. Another company of settlers came from England; some Dutch farmers sailed from the Hudson River to join the colonists at Charles Town; moreover, a great many English people came from Barbadoes to make their homes on the Ashley. Among the latter was Sir John Yeamans, who brought into the colony from Barbadoes a number of negro laborers, the first slaves to enter the province. Yeamans was a man of great energy, and soon became rich through his traffic in cedar logs and the skins of wild animals. During a period of two years Yeamans was governor and then Joseph West was appointed for a second term. In 1672 the streets of a new town were laid out on the point of land between the Ashley and Cooper rivers, and in 1680 the settlement called Charles Town was formally removed by Governor West from Albemarle Point to its present location. At that time there were about 1,200 people in the province. In the same year (1680) a shipload of Huguenots was added to the inhabitants of Charles Town. A year later (1681) a body of about 500 English settlers came to the shores of the Edisto River. Other colonists from England, Ireland and Barbadoes established themselves in such numbers in Charles Town that by the close of the year 1682 about 2,500 people were living in the province. some Scots came to Port Royal in 1683, but soon afterwards their settlement was destroyed by the Spaniards. The year 1687 brought a company of Huguenots who built homes at Orange and Goose Creek on the Cooper River ; still another body settled on the southern bank of the Santee River. So extensive were the settlements along the coast, not only in Charles Town but also in the regions north and south of that place, that in 1691-1693, during the governorship of Philip Ludwell, men began to give to the province the name South Carolina.

The Plan of Government Proposed by Shaftesbury and Locke.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley, was a very active member of the body of men known as the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. He was afterwards given the title of Earl of Shaftesbury, and by that name he is usually known. Shaftesbury secured the aid of the great English philosopher, John Locke, in preparing a plan of government for the province of Carolina. Working together they wrote out an elaborate scheme called the "Fundamental Constitutions" which was formally adopted by the Lords Proprietors in July, 1669.

According to this system of rule, one of the Proprietors was chosen governor of the province with the title of palatine. At his death the oldest of the remaining Proprietors was to be his successor. Two orders of hereditary nobility were created, called landgraves and cassiques. Large grants of land were to accompany the bestowal of one of these titles. The territory of the entire province was divided into counties; each county was subdivided into eight seigniories for the eight Proprietors, and into eight baronies for the provincial nobility. Four precincts were reserved for the settlers. Shaftesbury and Locke made provision for a parliament, or legislature, consisting of the Proprietors or their deputies, the landgraves and cassiques,. and one citizen from each precinct of the province. A system of courts was involved in the plan, and the chief executive authority was lodged in a grand council, composed of men who represented the Proprietors and the nobles. It was provided in the Fundamental Constitutions that no one should hold an estate nor dwell within the province who did not acknowledge the existence of God. It was ordered, further, that "No person, whatsoever, shall disturb, molest or persecute another for his speculative opinions in religion, or his way of worship."

This elaborate plan of government was never carried out in all of its details. Most of the Proprietors were selfish men and wished to extort money from the colonists; some of the governors whom they appointed sought in every way to oppress the people. The latter knew how to uphold their rights, and they made difficult the pathway of these unjust officials. Through a legislature chosen by the settlers and known as the Commons House of Assembly, the Proprietors were forced to make to the people one concession after another. From time to time the Fundamental Constitutions were thus modified and changed. When Thomas Smith, who was made landgrave in 1691, was appointed to the governorship (1693-1694), the Commons House of Assembly was given the right to originate all legislation. In 1697, during the second administration of Gov. Joseph Blake, the Huguenots of the province were given the privilege of citizenship. The number of voters among the colonists was thus so largely increased that in the following year (1698) the Fundamental Constitutions were virtually laid aside. By this time there were about 6,000 colonists living in Charles Town and along the adjacent coast, and thenceforth they ruled themselves through their own chosen representatives.

Trouble with Indians and Spaniards.

About twenty-eight large families, or clans, of Indians lived in the territory of South Carolina. Two groups of these families held the upper part of the country; these were the Cherokees on the Broad and Saluda rivers, and the Catawbas on the Wateree. The Creeks dwelt in the region beyond the Savannah River. From some of these red people the English settlers bought lands and received written deeds containing the marks or signs made by the Indian chieftains.

Near the Ashley dwelt the Kiawahs, who manifested a spirit of friendliness toward the colonists. The Kussoes of the Combahee River were, in the beginning, ready to furnish food to the settlers. Later they became hostile, and an armed force of white men marched into their country and compelled them to agree to remain peaceful. In like manner the Westoes also were forced to make a treaty of peace. Some of these Indians helped the white settlers to conduct their first important military campaign against the Spaniards. This was in the year 1702. Prior to that time the Spaniards had sent two expeditions from Florida to assail the Carolina settlements. In 1702, therefore, Gov. James Moore led a body of 600 white soldiers, with an equal number of friendly Indians, against the Spanish town of St. Augustine. The Spaniards were aided by the Appalachian Indians of Florida. Governor Moore seized the town of St. Augustine, but he was not able to capture the strong fort known as the Castle. Two warships sent from Spain came near the harbor of St. Augustine, and Moore was thus forced to give up his plan of conquest.

In the year 1706 five warships manned by French and Spanish sailors came up the coast from Florida for the purpose of capturing Charles Town. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who was at that time governor of South Carolina, was ready to meet the enemy. He had already built a number of forts called bastions, and upon these as many as eighty-three heavy guns were mounted. Moreover, Col. William Rhett, a bold seaman, went out with six small sailing vessels to attack the foreigners. When the latter saw the heavy cannon in the fort and also the guns mounted on the decks of Rhett's vessels, they sailed back again toward Florida. Rhett followed swiftly in pursuit, however, and captured one of the French warships. Thus failed the first attempt made by a fleet of war vessels to capture the beautiful city by the sea.

A fierce struggle with the Yemassees broke out in 1715. These Indians lived in the region near Port Royal and the lower Savannah River. Persuaded by the Spaniards, who furnished the redmen with guns and knives and hatchets, the Yemassees attacked the homes of the settlers on the Pocotaligo River and killed every person whom they could find. They rushed up the coast towards Charles Town, burning houses and murdering men, women and children. The Governor, Charles Craven, with a force of 250 men, met the savages at the Combahee River and routed a large body of them. He then captured the chief town of the Yemassees on the Pocotaligo.

The Yemassees had secured a promise of help from all of the other savage tribes of South Carolina. From the northern part of the colony, therefore, a body of 400 Indians marched towards Charles Town, pillaging and murdering as they advanced. Captain Chicken led a force of riflemen to meet the Indians, and after a severe struggle the latter were repulsed.

Near the close of the year 1715 the Yemassees called together a large force of savage warriors and again assailed the settlements in South Carolina. Governor Craven was able to lead only about 1,200 armed settlers into the field. With these he marched southward across the Edisto, and near that stream, in a desperate battle, defeated the redmen, who fled across the Savannah River to find refuge among their friends, the Spaniards of Florida. About 400 white settlers lost their lives in this great struggle, but the colony was saved, and thenceforth the Indians who dwelt near the coast gave no further serious trouble. The Spaniards soon afterwards turned their attention to the new colony of Georgia. At a later time, not long before the Revolution, the Carolinians again manifested their courage and endurance in a serious struggle with the Cherokee Indians of the upper country.

Relation Between Settlements in Southern and Northern Carolina.

As early as 1653 some settlers from Virginia built homes on the Chowan River. The Lords Proprietors afterwards named this region Albemarle county in honor of the oldest member of their company, and appointed William Drummond first governor of the settlement. The region about Cape Fear was called Clarendon county, and a number of English people was sent there as colonists in 1664. In the following year Sir John Yeamans was given a commission as governor, with the boundaries of his jurisdiction established in a southward direction as far as the land of Florida. In the autumn of 1665 Yeamans brought a number of settlers from Barbadoes to the southern bank of the Cape Fear River. Yeamans himself was soon afterwards, as we have seen, made governor of the settlement at Charles Town on the Ashley River. The colony at Cape Fear was gradually abandoned, and by the year 1690 all the settlers had departed to other localities. From that time there were only two governments in Carolina, namely, that at Albemarle and that on the Ashley River, and the names North Carolina and South Carolina began to come into use, although the two provinces were not by law thus set apart until 1729.

The settlers in the two provinces had a strong sentiment of friendship towards one another. In 1711 the Tuscaroras, a cruel tribe of Indians dwelling in North Carolina, fell upon the settlers there and murdered more than 200 of them. The people of South Carolina at once offered aid, and Col. John Barnwell marched northward with a body of South Carolina riflemen. He drove the Tuscaroras into one of their own towns on the Neuse River and forced them to make a treaty of peace. Soon afterwards (1713) the Indians again attacked the North Carolina settlers, but Governor Craven, of South Carolina, sent a military force under James Moore, the son of a former governor. Moore marched as far northward as the Tar River, and there administered to the Tuscaroras a defeat so severe that the remnant of the tribe left the Carolinas and joined the Iroquois Indians known as the Five Nations, in New York.

On the other hand, when the South Carolina people were in the midst of the struggle with the Yemassees in the autumn of 1715, some riflemen from North Carolina and Virginia went to give assistance to their fellow colonists.

In 1719 the people of South Carolina resolved to cast off the authority claimed by the Lords Proprietors. On December 21 in that year a convention of the people met in Charles Town and elected one of their own number, James Moore, to the governorship of South Carolina. The government was at once organized in the name of the King of England. This course was sanctioned by the English King and Parliament, and Sir Francis Nicholson was sent over to rule the province in the King's name (17211729). During the chief part of Nicholson's governorship, however, Arthur Middleton, as president of the council, managed the affairs of the province.

In 1729 the English government paid the Proprietors for their claim to the soil of South Carolina, and about the same time also bought the proprietary claim to North Carolina. Until this time the two colonies were considered, under the forms of law, to constitute only one province, owned by the Proprietors. After this period, however, until the Revolution, they were administered as two separate royal provinces, having their governors appointed by the King of England.

Charles Town in the Colonial Days; Her People and Her Trade.

Throughout the colonial period Charles Town constituted the heart and the life of the province of South Carolina. As early as the year 1700 there were about 6,000 white colonists in the province, and most of these were living in Charles Town. The dwelling houses in the town, made of both wood and brick, were then located between the bay and the present Meeting Street. The only public buildings were the churches. A line of stout boards or palisades was constructed around the town, and six small forts were erected with cannon placed in position to command the approach from the ocean. A roadway called the Broad Path ran from the town up the centre of the narrow neck of land between the Ashley and Cooper rivers, and Gov. John Archdale declared this highway to be so beautiful and so full of delight all the year with fragrant trees and flowers that he believed "that no prince in Europe with all his art could make so pleasant a sight."

From the first, many of the people of Charles Town were actively engaged in sending the products of their forests and of their soil across the seas. Cedar logs were sent to Barbadoes; pitch and tar were shipped to England ; oak boards, pine shingles and tar were sent to the West Indies, and the skins of wild animals formed an important part of the export trade. The swamps and forests of the province contained deer in large numbers, and along the rivers and creeks were found the beaver and the otter and other fur-bearing animals. The Indians shot the deer and caught the smaller animals in traps, and sold their skins to the colonists. Many of the early settlers at Charles Town became rich through this traffic in furs, since they were sold again in England at a large profit. As early as November, 1680, there were sixteen trading vessels at anchor at one time in Charles Town Harbor, but the number of such vessels was soon largely increased. From about the year 1693, when Thomas Smith was governor, rice became the chief article that was sent out of South Carolina. Cattle and hogs became so numerous that they ran wild in the woods. The luxuriant grass of the forests kept these animals in such good condition that they were killed by the colonists and the cured meat was sent away in trading vessels to be sold in the West Indies. During a brief period much attention was given to the growing of mulberry trees and the manufacture of silk from the cocoons spun by silkworms. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who was governor of South Carolina from 1702 to 1708, called his plantation Silk Hope. For a long time he made large sums of money each year from the sale of his silk. By the year 1730 the people of the province were sending across the ocean large quantities of raw silk, lumber, shingles and cowhides. At that period they were also selling every year about 52,000 barrels of pitch, tar and turpentine, and 250,000 deer skins.

About the year 1737 Col. George Lucas, an English army officer, established a home on Wappoo Creek, west of the Ashley River, about six miles from Charles Town. When he left his family at Wappoo and returned to the West Indies his daughter, Elizabeth Lucas, took charge of his lands in South Carolina. She gave her personal attention to the crops of rice and corn and the exportation of lumber. Colonel Lucas sent from the West Indies some Indigo seed, and this was planted by his daughter on the plantation at Wappoo. The first plants were withered by frost and the second crop was cut down by a worm, but the third planting furnished a good crop of seed, and most of this was generously given to neighboring land owners. Large fields were planted with indigo seed, and in the year 1747 more than 100,000 pounds of blue dye were sent across the sea to England. From that time onward, for many years, indigo became the most valuable product of the province. Just before the Revolution the annual crop of indigo amounted to more than 1,100,000 pounds.

When the Revolutionary struggle began, South Carolina's trade in rice and indigo was worth about $5,000,000 each year. Besides these two articles of traffic large quantities of lumber, tar, deer skins and cattle were still sent out. A large fleet of vessels was necessary to carry this vast amount of merchandise across the ocean or along the coast to the ports of the other American colonies. South Carolina had at that time five shipyards and some of her own vessels were engaged in the coastwise and the foreign traffic.

About 15,000 people were dwelling in Charles Town when the Revolution began. She was the largest and wealthiest city in the Southern colonies. Beaufort and Georgetown were seaports, also, and from their harbors many vessels went out with their freight of rich merchandise, but Charles Town surpassed every other port on the Atlantic seaboard. The old records tell us that just before the Revolution one could stand on a wharf at the edge of the bay and count as many as 350 sail vessels, great and small, coming in or going out, or lying at anchor in the harbor of Charles Town. This city was then sending out the largest volume of trade that went out from any one of the seaports of America.

Settlements in the Middle and Upper Country.

As late as 1733 all of the settlements in the province of South Carolina were limited to the region near the seacoast. In that year all that portion of the territory of South Carolina that lay west of the Savannah River was organized as the separate province of Georgia. Robert Johnson, then royal governor of South Carolina, wished to open up for settlement the lands that lay in the interior of the province at a considerable distance from the seacoast, and he therefore marked off the entire province into twelve townships and offered a tract of fifty acres of land to each new settler who entered the colony. The first people to accept this offer was a company of Scots. They had dwelt for so long a period in the north of Ireland that they were called Scotch-Irish. Under the leadership of one of their number, John Witherspoon, these colonists went up the Black River in small boats and established their homes in the pine forest in Williamsburg township, near the present town of Kingstree. They cut down the trees and planted crops, and through industry and frugality became a prosperous community.

A little later than the time of the settlement of Williamsburg, some Welsh families built homes in "Welsh Neck," a region located in a bend of the upper Pee Dee River. Later still, some Scotch Highlanders established themselves in the present Darlington county.

The region now known as Orangeburg county was occupied soon after 1730 by some Scotch-Irish families. Two years later about 200 German and French colonists came to the same part of South Carolina. A company of German and French-Swiss settlers, led by John Peter Purry, established a town called Purrysburg on the Savannah River, about forty miles from the mouth of that stream. From Orangeburg the German settlers moved up the banks of the Congaree River and established themselves among the hills of the Fork country, between the Broad and Saluda rivers, where, through honesty and patient toil, they soon became prosperous. About the middle of the Eighteenth century a great multitude of settlers began to pour into the Upper Country of South Carolina. Nearly all of these were Scots from the north of Ireland, that is, Scotch-Irish, who came first to Pennsylvania and then passed southward through Virginia into the Carolinas. About 1750, or soon afterward, a company of these emigrants cut down the trees and built log homes in the district known as the Waxhaws, in the present Lancaster county, from which point they were distributed throughout the adjacent region. In 1756 a Scot from Ireland, Patrick Calhoun, father of South Carolina's great statesman, John C. Calhoun, led a small group of his countrymen to the banks of Long Cane Creek, in the present Abbeville county, and soon afterward some Germans and some Huguenots entered the same region. One of the early settlers on Tyger River in the present Spartanburg county was Anthony Hampton, from whom sprang all the great soldiers in South Carolina bearing the name of Hampton.

Just before the Revolution the Scots from the north of Ireland began to sail into Charles Town harbor. They moved thence into the upland country to join their brethren, some of whom were still moving southward from Pennsylvania and Virginia. These sturdy sons of old Scotia took possession of nearly all of the upper part of the province; they had great intelligence and worked with strenuous energy; they fought the Indians with success, and cut down the forests and built homes in the fertile territory that lies near the headwaters of the Broad and Saluda and on both banks of the Catawba.

Religious Conditions in the Colony.

The royal charter bestowed by King Charles II. upon the Lords Proprietors of Carolina gave them authority to build churches and chapels, and to appoint ministers of the Gospel to officiate in them. With reference to dissenters from the Established Church, the Proprietors were given the power to grant freedom in matters of religion, with such restrictions as to them might seem fit. When, there= fore, the Proprietors adopted the Fundamental Constitutions prepared by Shaftesbury and Locke, as we have already seen, they made the provision that no person should disturb or persecute another "for his speculative opinions in religion or his way of worship."

The first settlers at Charles Town were members of the Established (Episcopal) Church. When the streets were laid off at the point of land between the Cooper and Ashley, places were reserved for a town house and a church. The ground set apart for the latter is now occupied by St. Michael's Church. The first house of worship built there was of black cypress wood resting upon a brick foundation. It was known as the English, or Episcopal, Church.

The first Huguenot congregation in Charles Town was organized in 1686 under the pastoral care of Elias Prioleau, of France. The first house of worship, built about 1687, was located on the site of the present Huguenot church. The religious worship in this church was conducted for many years in the French language and the Huguenot ministers preached in the same tongue. Soon after 1690 the Independent Church and the Baptist Church were established in Charles Town.

In May, 1704, a party that favored Episcopacy gained control of the Commons House of Assembly and, by a majority of a single vote, passed a measure to establish the Church of England as the Church of the province of South Carolina. It was provided in this measure that every member of the legislative body itself must -worship according to the forms prescribed by the Church of England. The effect of this was, of course, to exclude Dissenters from membership in the body of lawmakers. Such opposition arose toward this policy that, in 1706, the Assembly repealed the law that forbade the election of Dissenters as lawmakers. It was provided, however, that the Episcopal Church and its clergymen should be supported by a tax levied upon all the people. The province was divided into ten parishes and it was determined that a church should be built in every parish. The London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent out a number of ministers to South Carolina.

The Germans and German-Swiss who came later to the province were Lutherans in religion. The Scots and Scotch-Irish were Presbyterians, and these, with the Baptists and Methodists, formed a strong body of Dissenters who built their own churches and schools in every part of the province.

Industries and Productions; Rice and Indigo.

The fertile soil of South Carolina furnished the early settlers with abundant supplies of food, to which were added fish and oysters from the waters near the coast, and venison, wild turkeys and other game from the forests. The colonists began at once, as we have already seen, to send across the sea some of the products of their land to exchange for other articles. An old official report prepared in the year 1.708 tells us that the colonists were then exporting "rice, pitch, tar, buck and doeskins in the hair and Indian dressed; also some few furs, as beaver, otter, wildcat, raccoon; a little silk, whiteoak staves, and sometimes other sorts." Pine and cypress trees for shipmasts were also sold, with hoops and shingles, pork, "green wax, candles made of myrtle berries, tallow and tallow candles, butter, English and Indian peas, and sometimes a small quantity of tanned leather." The report continues as follows: "We have also commerce with Boston, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, to which places we export Indian slaves, light deerskins dressed, some tanned leather, pitch, tar and a small quantity of rice. From thence we receive beer, cider, flour, dry codfish and mackerel, and from Virginia some European commodities."

The only manufactures mentioned in these early records are "a few stuffs of silk and cotton, and a sort of cloth of cotton and wool" made by some of the planters for their own use. At a later time sugar was exported; also oil, salt fish, snake root and various kinds of bark from the woods. Several of the colonists made journeys, from time to time, into the mountain regions of the Carolinas to seek for mines of gold and of silver, but no such mines were ever opened. Just before the Revolution there were five shipyards in South Carolina, and a number of the trading vessels that sailed from the Carolina seaports were made in the province.

When the Upper Country was settled, the colonists in that region began to send long trains of wagons to Charles Town laden with corn, wheat, deerskins, and cattle for beef. The most profitable industry in the Upper Country was the raising of cattle, from which many of the colonists became rich. The usual yield of corn to an acre was from eighteen to thirty bushels, with six bushels of Indian peas that had been planted among the corn. Orchards of peaches, apples and other fruits abounded. Some South Carolina planters had a thousand head of-cattle; 200 was the usual number to a plantation. Swine were numerous.

The principal industries of the province, however, were the buying and selling of animal skins and the cultivation of rice and indigo. In 1708 50,000 skins were exported; in 1712, 73,790. Afterwards the number of skins exported was much larger. The trade in rice ran up to 140,000 barrels a year, and the annual trade in indigo to more than 1,000,000 pounds. From all of these sources great wealth came to the people of the province.

Labor Conditions in the Colony; Slavery.

The first negro slaves were brought into the province from Barbadoes by the Englishman, Sir John Yeamans, in the year 1672. They were put to work cutting cedar logs. Afterwards some of the Indians captured in war were held in service in the houses of the planters ; some of the captured Indians were sold as slaves among the northern colonies and in the West Indies. Some white servants, also, were brought over from England. In the year 1708 there were 4,100 negro slaves, 1,400 Indian slaves and 120 white servants. Most of the negro men were employed in the cultivation of rice and later in raising indigo. The malaria of the marsh lands did not affect the health of the Africans, and it was the opinion of the white settlers that it would not be possible to grow crops of rice without negro labor. The South Carolinians attempted several times to prevent the introduction of the negroes in such large numbers, but the ships of New England and of England continued to unload them in the province, and the number of slaves rapidly increased. By the year 1775 there were about 75,000 white people in South Carolina and 100,000 negroes, most of the latter living on the plantations near the seacoast. Their work was not arduous and their physical and moral welfare was given careful consideration by their masters, most of whom were kind, just and humane.

Classes and Chief Occupations.

Many of the colonists were planters, who built handsome houses on the Ashley, Santee, Edisto and other rivers, and along the shore of the bay at Port Royal. They gave attention to their crops and some of them became rich through the production of silk, rice and indigo. Trade, however, soon became the chief interest of the people, and many of the leading men of the province were merchants. Among these were Isaac Mazyck, Gabriel Manigault and Henry Laurens, all of whom were Huguenots. Benjamin Smith, Miles Brewton and Andrew Rutledge also became rich through the business of trading across the seas. These, and others like them, built handsome houses in Charles Town, usually facing the waters of the bay. Most of these dwellings were made of brick and were two stories in height ; they were filled with beautiful bedsteads, sideboards, chairs and tables, made of mahogany and cherry, and brought from London, and large quantities of silverware were displayed on the sideboards. Handsome coaches and carriages were also brought across the sea and driven behind swift horses along the Broad Path and other streets of Charles Town. Many of the planters of South Carolina also built beautiful houses in Charles Town and spent the months of the summer season in the city by the sea. Around the houses were gardens filled with the flowers that were brought from the old homes in England and France. Hand same and costly clothing made of fine linen, broadcloth and velvet was worn by the merchants and planters who dwelt in Charles Town. Their wives and daughters arrayed themselves in dresses made of silk or satin, covered with beautiful figures wrought in gold thread. There were dinner parties, theatre parties, balls and concerts.

A public library was founded as early as 1698; in 1748 some young men organized the Charles Town Library Society, which is still in existence; the St. Cecilia Society, a musical association, was established in 1762, and a weekly newspaper called The South Carolina Gazette began its work in 1732. There were many schools for youth, and a large number of private tutors was employed, but many of the young men of Charles Town went to England to pursue their studies there in the public schools and universities. At the beginning of the struggle with the mother country a number of skilled physicians and as many as thirty-five lawyers were doing excellent work in Charles Town, and most of the ministers in charge of the churches in Charles Town had received their education in England or at Harvard and Yale. These facts, thus briefly stated, show that Charles Town was the home of a people who manifested great energy and foresight in home and foreign trade, and who possessed a high degree of intellectual and social culture. Their leaders were men of learning, of charming manners and of worthy personal character, and were controlled by unselfish and patriotic motives.

The people of the Middle and Upper Country had to pass through many hardships. Their houses were made of logs, their dishes were usually of wood or pewter, and they had few slaves or servants. They built their own churches and school houses, and their ministers and leaders were men trained at the universities of Edinburgh or Glasgow, or at Princeton College. These people of the Upper Country knew how to depend upon themselves. They could ride fast and shoot with deadly aim, and when the Revolutionary War came on they did more than any other people of equal numbers to win the cause of American freedom.

Transition from Colony to State.

On March 28, 1735, Charles Pinckney, who afterwards became chief justice of the province, proposed the following resolution to the South Carolina legislature: "That, the Commons House of Assembly in this Province * * * have the same rights and privileges in regard to introducing and passing laws for imposing taxes on the people of the province as the House of Commons of Great Britain have in introducing and passing laws on the people of England." In adopting Pinckney's resolution, the representatives of the people of South Carolina claimed for themselves, at this early date, that right of self-government for which all of the American colonies contended during the American Revolution.

During the administration of Thomas Boone as royal governor of the province (1761-1764), Christopher Gadsden, a successful planter and merchant, was chosen by the people of Charles Town to represent them in the provincial legislature. Governor Boone asserted that the election which resulted in the choice of Gadsden had not been properly conducted, and he therefore commanded the lawmakers to adopt some new regulations about the management of such elections. When the lawmakers refused to obey his order the governor told them that he would not allow them to meet together. The latter replied that they, on their part, would not hold any further communication of any sort with the governor, and at the same time they cut off his annual salary. Governor Boone then gave up the struggle and returned to England.

In this first contest between the King's representative and the provincial legislature Christopher Gadsden was the leader of the people of South Carolina. In 1765, when the news was brought to Charles Town that the British Parliament had passed the Stamp Act, imposing a tax upon all legal and business documents and upon books and newspapers in the colonies, Gadsden again persuaded the South Carolinians to offer opposition. The legislature came together and made a formal declaration to the effect that no taxes could be rightly laid upon the people of South Carolina by any body of men except their own representatives. At the same time the legislature sent three delegates to the Stamp Act Congress, held in New York City in October, 1765. When this Congress proposed to send a petition to the British Parliament asking that body to repeal the Stamp Act, Gadsden urged the Congress not to ask favor from the British lawmakers. "We do not hold our rights from them," he said; "we should stand upon the broad, common ground of those natural rights that we all feel and know as men and as descendants of Englishmen."

When a British ship brought stamps and stamped paper to Charles Town, the people would not permit the master of the vessel to bring these articles into the city. A number of effigies, each bearing the label, "The Stamp Seller," were hanged upon the gallows and then burned. After the repeal of the Stamp Act (1766), the South Carolina people erected a marble statue of William Pitt in one of the public squares of Charles Town. Moreover, a party of patriots, organized in Charles Town by William Johnson and Christopher Gadsden, and known as the "Liberty Tree" Party from the fact that the members held frequent meetings under a large oak tree, pledged themselves to fight against any further effort of the British King and Parliament to force money from the colonists.

In 1773 the ship London entered the harbor of Charles Town with a cargo of tea. The people of the colony were told that they could buy the tea at a reduced price if they would pay a tax upon it of three pence, a pound. The people were not willing, however, to pay a tax of any kind to Great Britain, and the tea was stored in cellars and left there unsold. Another ship came with an additional cargo of tea, but some of the merchants of Charles Town, to whom the tea had been consigned, threw the tea-chests into the waters of the harbor.

On July 6, 1774, a general meeting of the people of South Carolina was held at Charles Town, and five delegates were sent to represent the province in the first Continental Congress at Philadelphia. These delegates were Henry Middleton, John Rutledge, Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch and Edward Rutledge. On Jan. 11, 1775, a body of representatives from every district of South Carolina: met at Charles Town and organized themselves as the Provincial Congress. This body appointed a secret committee to take any action that might be necessary for the safety of the people.

On Sunday, June 4, 1775, the Provincial Congress met again and signed an agreement binding the members to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in behalf of freedom. The militia was organized and the sum of $1,000,000 was voted to furnish the soldiers with weapons. A Council of Safety, with Henry Laurens as chairman, was appointed to manage all the affairs of the province. This council, invested with power to command all soldiers and to expend all public moneys, was now the real ruler of the people. Two members of the Council, William Henry Dray ton and Arthur Middleton, entertained sentiments concerning freedom far in advance of their associates. They were ready, from the time of their appointment as members of the Council, to drive all of the King's officers out of the province, and thus bring the royal government to an end. Five thousand pounds of powder, captured from a British vessel, were sent to General Washington chiefly through the agency of these two patriots, and this powder was used by Washington's soldiers in driving the British army out of Boston.

On the night of Sept. 14, 1775, acting under orders from the Council of Safety, South Carolina soldiers crossed the harbor of Charles Town and seized Fort Johnson. The British flag was hauled down and the banner of South Carolina was unfurled above the fort. This banner was a blue flag with a crescent in the corner and the word "Liberty" in the centre. Lord William Campbell, last of the royal governors, at once took his departure from Charles Town and went on board a British warship. On Nov. 12, 1775, hostile shots were exchanged between two British war vessels on the one side, and the guns of Fort Johnson and the guns of the Defense, a small Carolina war vessel, on the other side. The British vessels received so many balls in their sails and rigging that they did not venture to move up near the city. Thus began the military struggle between South Carolina and the mother country.

On Feb. 1, 1776, the Provincial Congress of South Carolina met at Charles Town. The representatives of the royal government had been already driven out of the province, and the Congress, therefore, entered upon the work of forming a new, independent government. A committee was appointed to prepare a plan of organization, which was presented and, after due consideration, adopted by the Congress March 26, 1776. Thereupon, the president and secretary of the Congress signed the formal document which declared that South Carolina was no longer a province subject to the King of England, but that she was now, by her own act, a free and independent state. At four o'clock the same day (March 26) the members of the Congress assembled again, and declared that they were the General Assembly, or legislature, of the new state of South Carolina. Thirteen members of their own body were appointed to sit together as a separate legislative council or upper house of legislation. John Rutledge was then elected as chief executive, with the title of president of South Carolina, and Henry Laurens was chosen vice-president. The title of governor was not brought into use until the year 1779. The new state government thus organized was established in the name of the people of South Carolina. She was the first American province among the thirteen to throw off the authority of the King of England and to establish in its place a new, independent government of her own.

The first chief justice of the new commonwealth chosen by the General Assembly was William Henry Drayton. In his first charge to the grand jury at Charles Town Drayton declared that the people of South Carolina were merely asserting their natural and inherited rights. The people of England, he said, drove out a bad king in 1688 and set up a new sovereign. The same thing was done by the people of South Carolina in 1719, when they cast off the authority of the Lords Proprietors and asked King George I. to become their ruler. When King George III. began to rule with a heavy hand, the people of the province cast him off and were now resolved to rule themselves through their own representatives. The Almighty created America to be independent of England, declared Drayton. God himself was reaching forth His hand to deliver the colonies from their enemies, and to give them freedom. "Let us offer ourselves to be used as instruments of God in this work," he said; by such patriotic conduct the South Carolinians would become "a great, a free, a pious and a happy people."

South Carolina's Part in the Revolution.

When Washington drove the British forces out of Boston, early in the year 1776, the British government determined to attempt the conquest of the Southern states. For this purpose a large body of soldiers under General Clinton, and a fleet of war vessels commanded by Admiral Parker, were sent southward along the Atlantic coast. Early in June, 1776, Parker's ships, with Clinton's soldiers on board, arrived at the mouth of Charles Town harbor. They expected to make an easy capture of the city and the state.

By this time, however, South Carolina had organized and equipped five regiments of riflemen and a regiment of artillery. Col. William Moultrie, with one regiment of infantry and a force of artillerists, occupied a fort on Sullivan's Island, afterwards called Fort Moultrie, on the north side of Charles a Town harbor. The walls of this stronghold were made of palmetto logs supported by bags of sand. Moultrie mounted twenty-five cannon to command the approach from the water and awaited the advance of Parker's fleet. At the same time a force of about 700 riflemen from the middle and upper country of South Carolina, under the command of Col. William Thomson, took position at the upper end of Sullivan's Island to resist the advance of the British land forces.

On June 28 Clinton landed his British soldiers on Long Island, now called the Isle of Palms, and attempted to cross the narrow channel that lay between him and Thomson's small army. Clinton had a number of boats to aid his men in crossing the strait. Thomson had two small cannon to help him in the battle. The aim of his riflemen was so deadly that every British soldier who came within range was shot down; the grapeshot from the two guns kept Clinton's boats from passing the channel, and thus the large British force was held at bay and Clinton's attempt to seize Sullivan's Island resulted in failure.

Meanwhile, on the same day, Parker's eleven warships sailed into the harbor and at close range opened fire on Moultrie's fortification. The roar from the 270 British guns was terrific, but Parker's cannon balls buried themselves in the sand or in the soft, spongy palmetto logs, and wrought little damage. Moultrie's gunners, on the other hand, by careful aiming and slow firing, sent every shot straight to the mark. After ten hours of fighting Moultrie's fort remained without serious injury, and the British gave up the fight. One of Parker's ships was destroyed, and some of the others were injured to such an extent that they found it difficult to sail as far as New York. Moultrie and Thomson thus won a double victory. The successful defense of Charles Town against the British land and naval forces was the first serious and complete defeat suffered by the royal forces in the American Revolution. The entire British plan of conquering the South at that time ended in failure, and the southern colonies remained free from attack for two years.

In 1778 the British again formed a plan for the conquest of the South. With this end in view a British fleet entered the Savannah River and captured Savannah. A strong British force then began to overrun Georgia and South Carolina. In October, 1779, the provincial troops from these two states, aided by French land and naval forces, attempted to recapture Savannah from the British, but the effort failed. In May, 1780, a large British force captured Charles Town. Augusta on the Savannah, Ninety-Six near the Saluda, and Camden on the Wateree, were then occupied by the King's troops, under the leadership of Cornwallis. It was the purpose of this British commander to march northward through the upper regions of the Carolinas into Virginia, and thus conquer the whole country south of the Potomac River.

The cruel work of Tarleton, commander of the British cavalry, aroused the people of the upper part of South Carolina. These backwoodsmen mounted their horses, and under the leadership of Thomas Sumter rode out to attack the British. The flint-lock rifles of Sumter's men were more than a match for the weapons of the royal troops, and within a period of three months after the fall of Charles Town the British were driven back from the northern part of the state to their post at Camden.

In August, 1780, the army of General Gates, sent from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina to resist Cornwallis, was defeated at Camden by the British forces. Sumter's men, also, were surprised and scattered, and Cornwallis again took possession of upper South Carolina. His progress was checked, however, by Francis Marion, leader of a body of horsemen from the region near the Pee Dee River, in the southeastern part of South Carolina. This daring patriot would dart suddenly from the swamp or the forest, attack and overwhelm some detached British troopers, and again seek refuge in his hiding-place. Sumter raised another force of horsemen and fell upon Cornwallis' men in the upper country. Andrew Pickens, William Harden, the Hamptons, and other leaders also took the field with strong bodies of riflemen. The British were thus assailed on every side. When Cornwallis advanced northward to Charlotte, the North Carolinians under Davie, Davidson and other leaders, made a continuous fight against the royal troops. A second British column led by Major Ferguson was defeated and captured at King's Mountain, Oct. 7, 1780, by the mountain riflemen of South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. This heavy blow forced Cornwallis to retreat southward again.

Then Nathaniel Greene and Daniel Morgan came from the northward to help the people of the Carolinas. Morgan and Pickens defeated Tarleton's British force at Cowpens in January, 1781. This American victory reduced by one-third the number of soldiers in the army of Cornwallis. The latter followed Greene to Guilford Court House, North Carolina, and in a battle at that place drove the American troops from the field, but was himself forced to retreat at once to the seacoast to secure aid from his warships. When Cornwallis turned northward into Virginia, weakened by the long struggle in the Carolinas, he left a British force at Camden under the command of Lord Rawdon. The American forces under Greene, Sumter, Marion, Pickens, Henry Lee, and others, attacked Rawdon and forced him to withdraw to Charles Town. Cornwallis soon fell an easy prey to Washington and the French at Yorktown. Thus the plan of conquering the South again resulted in failure, and the British government gave up the fight against the colonies. A very important share in the work of overwhelming the army Cornwallis and of thus securing the independence of our country must be accredited to the bold riflemen who fought under the leadership of Sumter, Marion and Pickens in South Carolina.

One hundred and thirty-seven battles, great and small, were fought in South Carolina during the Revolution. Of these, 103 were engaged in on the American side by South Carolina alone. In twenty others South Carolina took part in company with troops from other states, thus making 123 battles in which the people of this commonwealth fought for their freedom. Besides these engagements, soldiers from South Carolina took part in engagements in Georgia and North Carolina. "Left mainly to her own resources," writes Bancroft with reference to South Carolina, "it was through the depths of wretchedness that her sons were to bring her back to her place in the republic, after suffering more and daring more and achieving more than the men of any other state."

The Work of South Carolina's Statesmen During the Revolutionary Period (1763-1789).

During the period of the Revolution many of the statesmen of South Carolina were known and accepted as leaders in all of the other American colonies. Christopher Gadsden, as we have seen, was far in advance of the other delegates, with reference to American independence, at the Stamp Act Congress, held in New York, October, 1765. In a stirring address Gadsden said: "There ought to be no New England men, no New Yorkers, known on the continent, but all of us Americans." The president of the Stamp Act Congress was John Rutledge, another South Carolinian.

The representatives of South Carolina in the first Continental Congress were men of conspicuous influence; namely, Henry Middleton, John Rutledge, Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch and Edward Rutledge. On Oct. 22, 1774, Henry Middleton was elected president of the Congress. On July 4, 1776, four of South Carolina's sons voted for the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. These four were Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., and Arthur Middleton. The fifth delegate, Thomas Lynch, was sick at the time and unable to cast his vote.

In the autumn of 1777 Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, was chosen president of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Hancock, of Massachusetts. During his occupancy of this position Laurens asked the Congress to vote upon three famous measures. The first was the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, the second was the treaty between France and the United States, and the third was connected with the offer made by the British government in 1778 to make peace with the Americans. Laurens wrote the answer of the Congress to this proposal. Great Britain, he declared, must acknowledge the independence of the thirteen states and withdraw her soldiers before the Congress would have dealings with the British Parliament. The people of the American states, said Laurens, were resolved to fight to the last in order to secure their freedom. In 1779 Laurens was appointed minister plenipotentiary from the United States to Holland. On his way across the Atlantic he was captured by the British and shut up in the Tower of London. At the close of the war he was given back to the Americans in exchange for Lord Cornwallis, after the latter was made a prisoner at Yorktown. Laurens then went from London to Paris and, as one of the American commissioners, signed the preliminaries to the treaty of peace in 1782, which ended the war between Great Britain and the United States.

Col. John Laurens, son of Henry Laurens, became an aide on the staff of General Washington in the early part of the Revolution. He was in the midst of the severest fighting at Germantown and Monmouth, and was made a prisoner when Charles Town fell in May, 1780. Soon afterwards, however, he was exchanged and returned to his post at Washington's side. In December, 1780, Laurens was appointed by the Continental Congress as special minister to the court of the King of France. Through the exercise of great tact and by the charm of his personal bearing, Laurens persuaded King Louis XVI., of France, to send money and a fleet to aid the Americans in their struggle for freedom. Laurens afterwards bore a distinguished part in the siege of Yorktown and the capture of the army of Cornwallis.

In 1787 four delegates from South Carolina took their seats in the Federal convention that met at Philadelphia. These were Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Rutledge and Pierce Butler, all of whom played an important part in the work of the convention. At an early stage in the proceedings Charles Pinckney, then under thirty years of age, presented a plan of government to the convention very much like the plan that was finally adopted. John Rutledge, pronounced by George Washington, president of the convention, to be the finest orator among all the delegates, was the principal member of an important committee. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, afterwards a member of the celebrated mission to France and twice candidate of the Federalist party for the presidency of the United States, took a leading part in the debates of the convention. He may be rightly called one of the leading spirits of the great body of statesmen that framed our Federal constitution.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. - Bancroft: History of the United States (Eds. 1852 and 1883); Bernheim, G. D.: German Settlements in the Carolinas; Carroll, B. R.: Historical Collections (2 vols.); Draper, Lyman F.: King's Mountain and Its Heroes; Drayton, John: View of South Carolina, Memoirs of the Revolution; Gibbes, Robert: Documentary History o f South Carolina (3 vols.); Gordon, W.: History of the American Revolution (4 vols.); Gregg, Alexander: History of the Old Cheraws; Garden: Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War; Hewatt, Alexander: Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia; James, W. D.: Francis Marion; Logan, John H.: History of Upper South Carolina; Laudrum: Colonial and Revolutionary History of Upper South Carolina; Lee, Henry: Memoirs of the War of 1776; McCrady, Edward: History of South Carolina Under the Proprietary Government, 1670-1719, History of South Carolina Under the Royal Government, 1719-76, History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783 (4 vols.); Moultrie, Wm.: Memoirs of the American Revolution; O'Neal: Bench and Bar of South Carolina (2 vols.); Pinckney, C. C.: Thomas Pinckney; Rivers, Wm. J.: A Chapter on the Colonial History of the Carolinas, Historical Sketch of South Carolina; Ravenel, Mrs. H. H.: Eliza Pinckney; Ramsay, David: History of South Carolina, 1670-1808, History of the Revolution in South Carolina; Salley, A. S., Jr.: History of Orangeburg County; Simms, William Gilmore: History o f South Carolina; Tarleton: History of the Campaigns of 1780-81; Winsor: Narrative and Critical History; The War in the Southern Department; White, Henry Alexander: The Making of South Carolina. Consult also South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine; Collections of Historical Society of South Carolina (4 vols.); Colonial Records o f North Carolina (vols. I., II. and III.; Biographies of Gen. Nathaniel Greene by Caldwell, Greene, Johnson, Simms: Laurens Manuscripts, South Carolina Historical Society.

HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE,
Professor of Greek in the Columbia Theological Seminary, Columbia, S.C.; author of The Making of South Carolina.


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