The Hinterland of Revolutionary Camden, South Carolina

THE HINTERLAND OF REVOLUTIONARY CAMDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA Judith J. Schulz DELINEATION OF PAST HINTERLANDS. A hinterland is the primary area with which a settlement interacts and over which it exerts influence. Delineation of past hinterlands is of vital importance to an understanding of historical patterns of urban growth and decline. Because records of such typical hinterland indicators as retail services and newspaper circulations were rarely preserved during the early history of the United States, reconstruction of hinterlands which existed during the formative stages of most urban areas has rarely been attempted. Historic hinterlands can be approximated, however, through use of information contained in business journals, or account books, that have been preserved in archival collections. (1) In this study a hinterland for Camden, South Carolina, was generalized from journals kept by Joseph Kershaw, the leading merchant in the community at the time of the American Revolution. That the Kershaw family name was chosen for the new county formed around Camden in 1790-91 illustrates the extent of Kershaw's prominence. Because Kershaw's businesses encompassed most of the commercial activities within the community, it seems logical to assume that the hinterland for his business was approximately the same as that for the community as a whole. Kershaw operated businesses in Camden for about thirty years. The only portions of his journals which have been preserved, however, covered two periods of approximately one year each during 1774-75 and 1779-80. (2) The journals contain the names of Kershaw's customers , but not their addresses. It was possible to identify the counties where customers originated, however, by comparing names listed in the journals with those recorded in manuscript census materials for 1790. (3) Each customer location was recorded and mapped only Ms. Schulz is Instructor of Geography at Old Dominion University in Norfolk , VA. 23508. 92Southeastern Geographer TABLE 1 KERSHAW STORE CUSTOMERS, CAMDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA CustomersNumberPercent 1774-75 Total in account book149100 Total located11074 Not located*3926 1779-80 Total in account book48100 Total located3471 Not located*1429 * Unable to locate because duplicate names appeared in the census records or names were not listed in either the North or South Carolina census records. Source: Heads of Families op. cit., footnote 3, and Account Book and Unidentified Camden Daybook, op. cit., footnote 2. once, no matter how many times the name appeared in the account books, because the objective of the study was to determine the size of Kershaw's (and Camden's) business hinterland rather than the frequency of trips to the town. Although Kershaw's journals are valuable sources of data for delineating revolutionary Camden's hinterland, several factors make it necessary to qualify the reliability of the hinterland areas as presented in this study. It is possible, for example, that a number of customers relocated between 1774-75 and 1779-80 (the journal dates) and the time of the 1790 census. Moreover, the much smaller number of customers recorded in Kershaw's account book for 1779-80 than for 1774—75 probably reflected the intensity of military activity in the Camden area during that time ( Table 1 ) . (4) The approximately 25 percent of Kershaw's customers whose names were not entered in the census records may represent British loyalists and others who left the Camden area during the fighting. (5) Only two names of North Carolina customers appeared in both journals, indicating that North Carolinians shopping at Kershaw's store in 1774-75 and in 1779-80 represented two distinct groups and that substantial migration could have occurred during that period. Despite these qualifications, however , I feel that the hinterland areas as depicted in the study are the Vol. XVI, No. 2 93 most accurate representations obtainable with existing data. More importantly, the study illustrates how a previously untapped source of data can be utilized in unraveling some of the mysteries of the historical geography of urban areas in the United States. CAMDEN AT THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION. During the two decades preceding the American Revolution, Camden grew from a collection of farmsteads to the most important inland trading center in South Carolina. Located along the "Fall Zone," the village served as a collection point for wheat, tobacco...