South Carolina, Past and Present, 1908
South Carolina, being one of the original thirteen, is richer in the domain of historic lore than the great majority of her sister States, though representing so small a fraction…
From: Unknown To: 1908 C.E.
Location: South Carolina, USA
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“South Carolina, Past and Present” from Sketches of South Carolina by Gustavus Memminger Middleton, 1908.
South Carolina, being one of the original thirteen, is richer in the domain of historic lore than the great majority of her sister States, though representing so small a fraction of the Union in respect to territorial extent. It may be surprising to many of its inhabitants to-day to know that a hundred and fifty years ago it was, in the interior, merely an extension of the conditions which we have been accustomed to regard as peculiar to the prairies of the wild west.
Over its rolling hills and plains the buffalo, now all but extinct even in the West, afforded marks for the Indian's arrow and the rifle of the white settler, as many as twenty a day being sometimes the reward of a day's hunt by three or four men with their dogs. As for deer, four or five a day was a sure return for the expenditure of a little powder and shot by a single hunter. In the fall of the year one man could easily kill as many bears as would realize thousands of pounds of bacon. Wild turkeys were in the greatest profusion. In the low places and swamps, otters, muskrats and beavers were numerous, as many as a score of the latter having- been trapped in a certain neighborhood in one season.
More formidable neighbors still were the wolves, wildcats and panthers. The abundant growth of grasses and wild canes afforded tempting pasture for raising stock, which was the first step of the early settlers in availing themselves of the means of a livelihood. There being no market within several scores of miles, the cost of transportation almost swallowed up the profits accruing from the sale of whatever crops were planted.
Naturally the first consignments were the skins of the wild animals mentioned, in which there was a considerable trade with the distant port of Charles Town. In addition to these, tallow and butter put in an early appearance as well as flour and hemp. On a larger scale indigo attracted general attention about this time, as many old plantation diaries afford evidence of, followed in the last decade of the century by the fleecy staple cotton, which down to the present day, has constituted the chief article of export and the main factor conducing to a favorable balance of trade in the foreign commerce of the whole country.
So important indeed had this become to the fabrics of the civilized world as to have won the sobriquet of "King Cotton," and the attempted erection of a separate Confederacy comprising the area of its production was based materially on this estimate of its financial value, which was ratified and confirmed by the report of Hugh McCullough, Secretary of the United States Treasury, at the close of the Civil War, stating that nothing but the cotton in the Southern States saved the National credit. So likewise in the rice industry, which rapidly with cotton grew to be the twin staple of the State, though having its origin in the narrow limits of a garden of Charles Town and though its prolific results were confined to the tidewater region, yet small patches were eventually cultivated in the upper districts, wherever irrigation was obtainable, so that these semi-tropical products, side by side with those of a higher latitude, soon revealed the versatility of the agricultural resources of the Province.
In a state of nature the country appears to have been healthier; in the case of the first settlers diseases seemingly were rare, until the clearing of forests began and the breaking of the soil with probably very imperfect drainage, but a change for the better returned with the improvements of organized society. The sparseness of swamps and low places in comparison with the low country, and the consequent absence of moisture and the pests that accompany it, with high and salubrious spots in proximity to each other supplied with springs of excellent water, afforded assurance, with ordinary precautions, of a growing and healthy white population in the course of time.
Schools which were only of the most primitive character were few and far between and limited in their attainments to the art of reading. After the return of the settlers to their homes from which they had been driven by the Indian War of 1755-1763, in rehabilitating their plantations they were not unmindful of religion, and near the scene of the first church service in 1754, there was soon a large congregation under the postoral care of a Presbyterian minister. To the coast region belongs the credit of entering the wedge of European civilization and turning the light on a hitherto dark and unknown continent.
The Government of the Province naturally consisted of and received its impulse from the leaders of this its centre of population, the ruling element of which represented the restored Government of Charles the Second and the Established Church of England, which was correspondingly established here down to the Revolution, many official acts and records proving that the union of Church and State was almost as complete as in the mother country. The population of the back country, except for an occasional filtering from the low country, was derived from other sources and directions,—from the North, following Indian trails and mountain paths; from Pennsylvania through Virginia and North Carolina,—having little or no affiliation with the Episcopal establishment and jurisdiction.
That influx gives support to the claim recently put forth in reference to the predominance of the Scotch-Irish element in the development and subsequent formation of the State. In after days (and strikingly so at present) the tables were completely turned; the political and social power of the coast region having been swept away with the peculiar institution on which it rested, and vast tracts of abandoned plantations having been converted into hunting preserves by Northern syndicates and capitalists for the diversions of the winter season. While the tide has not yet turned from its lowest ebb along the coast country, the interior presents a marvellous contrast in the multiplication of cotton factories besides the cultivation of the soil and a steady increase of population, so that the upper and lower sections of the State have exchanged places in many material respects, the ruling element gravitating to the transferred centre of prosperity and population.
Middleton, Gustavus Memminger. Sketches of South Carolina. Walker, Evans, and Cogswell, 1908.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
