The Palmetto State: The Making of Modern South Carolina

A South Carolina Chronology

a south carolina chronology 1526 The first European settlement in what is today South Carolina is established by Spanish explorer Lucas Allyon near Georgetown. This settlement becomes the site of the first North American slave revolt. African slaves and native peoples band together against the Spanish, who abandon the settlement the following year. 1660 Charles II is restored to the English throne. Three years later, he grants the territory that today includes South Carolina to eight English nobles who supported him. Anthony Ashley Cooper takes the lead in organizing the colonial venture by the Lords Proprietors. 1670 The first boatload of settlers arrives in Carolina and settles on a tidal swamp above the entrance to the Ashley River. At year’s end African slaves arrive. The population of the colony is about 155 people, of whom 15 are African slaves. The native population is somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 people. 1680 The settlement moves to Oyster Point, today’s Charleston Peninsula. The population of the colony,excluding natives,is roughly 1,200,including 200 enslaved Africans. 1696 South Carolina enacts its first slave code, modeled on the Barbadian code that gives masters absolute authority over their slaves. 1700 The Colonial Assembly votes funds for what would become the first library in the colony, a private lending library for the city elite. The colony’s population includes 5,500 whites and perhaps as many as 2,000 Africans. 1708 South Carolina’s population exceeds 8,000, being almost evenly divided between whites and black slaves with roughly 4,100 Africans and 4,080 white settlers. 1715 The English colony in Carolina faces near extinction due to the Yamassee War. Settlers fight and defeat a large alliance of native tribes led by the Yamassee. 1720 The population continues to grow with the import of African slaves; of it’s 18,500 people, roughly 12,000 are slaves. 1730 The colony becomes free of proprietary rule as a royal colony directly under the oversight of the monarchy. The population has grown to 30,000 people, over two-thirds of whom are African. 1740 Slave imports occasioned by the rice boom have boosted the population to 60,000, two-thirds of whom are Africans. The Stono Rebellion in 1739, the major slave rebellion in South Carolina history, has shaken the colony and leads to the execution of forty slaves and to a more stringent slave code. 1749 Congregation Beth Elohim is organized by Sephardic Jews who had been arriving in South Carolina since the 1690s. Slave imports slowed after 1740. The total population of the colony stands at 65,000. 1760 South Carolina is in the midst of a war with the Cherokees that ends in 1761 with an English victory and drives the Cherokees into the northeast corner of what is today South Carolina. The white population of the colony has risen with the opening of the South Carolina backcountry to immigrants, who are largely Scots-Irish. Population is roughly 80,000 in the colony; 65 percent are African slaves. 1770 After several tumultuous years, Charleston’s political leadership symbolically challenges royal British authority by placing a statue of William Pitt at the crossroads of Meeting and Broad streets. Pitt, an English parliamentarian , has been an outspoken opponent of the king’s imperial policy. The population of the colony stands now at 130,000, including 80,000 African slaves. 1780 Charleston falls to British forces after a month long siege. By the end of the year, South Carolina partisans are waging a guerrilla campaign that will upset the British“Southern strategy”and help lead to their eventual defeat.In 1780 the state’s population of 180,000 includes 100,000 African slaves. The white population in the upcountry continues to grow. Over the next three years the Cherokee will be driven out of South Carolina entirely. 208 a south carolina chronology 1791 French sugar planters arrive in Charleston, fleeing the Haitian revolution .These planters become the core of St.Mary’s Church of Charleston, the first Roman Catholic parish in South Carolina, North Carolina, or Georgia. The 1790 census reflects a new white majority in the state, with 140,178 white residents, 107,094 slaves and 1,801 free blacks. 1800 The state legislature passes a law making it difficult to manumit slaves through will or deed. This move reflects concern about the number of masters,especially...