South Carolina from A to Z

“B” is for Blue Ridge Railroad. Chartered in 1852, the Blue Ridge Railroad revived earlier plans to connect Charleston to the Midwest by rail. Built by Irish and German immigrants and local enslaved persons, the Blue Ridge Railroad was intended to return Charleston to commercial prominence in the American South. Funding was problematic, and only a massive infusion of state funds kept the railroad...

“B” is for Blue Ridge. The Blue Ridge in South Carolina forms the smallest of the geological provinces. There are commonly two understandings of the Blue Ridge. The first is the geologic Blue Ridge (found only in Oconee County). The second is the geographic Blue Ridge, which includes both the Blue Ridge Mountains and inner Piedmont mountains such as Sassafras, Pinnacle, and Table Rock. This area,...

“B” is for Blue granite. State stone. Blue granite was designated the state stone by law in 1969.  The state is famed for Winnsboro blue granite, which was quarried for many years in Fairfield County. The stone is of light blue color and contains particles of mica, feldspar, and quartz. It is much prized in construction and decoration. The Winnsboro Granite Company quarried and shipped the “beauti...

“H” is for Honey Hill, Battle of (November 30, 1864). The Battle of Honey Hill was the first in a series of engagements fought at the headwaters of the Broad rRver along the Charleston and Savannah Railroad in November and December 1864. On November 29, 1864, a six-thousand-man division of United States Army troops was transported up the Broad River and disembarked at Boyd's landing for an attack...

“G” is for Greenville and Columbia Railroad. The Greenville and Columbia Railroad was the first railroad to enter the South Carolina upcountry. When the road was completed in 1853, the160-mile route included spurs to Anderson and Abbeville. The success of those spurs inspired the creation of other short routes that extended the reach of the Greenville and Columbia in the upstate. By 1859 spurs con...

"D” is for DuBose, William Porcher (1836-1918). Professor, theologian. Dubose was born near Winnsboro and studied for the ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church. As a deacon, he served as chaplain to Confederate soldiers. He was ordained a priest in 1866 and served as rector of Trinity Church, Abbeville. From 1871 to 1883 he was chaplain at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee wher...

“D” is for Drovers. From the late1790s until the 1880s, livestock from Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina were driven through Greenville County to the seaport of Charleston, destined for northern markets in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York or south to Florida and the West Indies. These drives were made possible by the completion of a road from Greenville County across the mounta...

“C” is for Christensen, Abby Mandana Holmes (1852-1938).  Folklorist. Born in Westborough, Massachusetts in 1852, Christiansen moved to South Carolina with her abolitionist family in 1864. A pioneer in the field of African American folklore, she published her first story, “De Wolf, De Rabbit an’ de Tar Baby.” Her career as a collector of Gullah folklore culminated in her book Afro American Folklor...

“C” is for Christ Church Parish. Located on the low, sandy strip of land southeast of the Wando River in modern Charleston County, Christ Church was one of the ten original parishes created by the Church Act of 1706. With the introduction of rice as a staple crop in the early eighteenth century, Christ Church quickly became a parish of planters and enslaved persons. By 1720 enslaved Africans made-...

“C” is for Citizens’ Councils. Founded in 1954 in Mississippi, citizens councils quickly spread across the South. The organizations promoted membership as a respectable way for disgruntled segregationists to protest civil rights activism. They publicly renounced violence but encouraged organized economic pressure against African Americans and Whites who were sympathetic to the Black freedom strugg...

“C” is for Childress, Alice (1920-1994 ). Actress, theater director, playwright, novelist. Childress was born in Charleston but was taken to New York City quite early and raised by her grandmother. However, she maintained a connection to the lowcountry through a network of Charlestonians living in Harlem. She first worked professionally as an actress in 1940, when she joined the American Negro the...

“P" is for Pisé de Terre. Pisé de Terre or rammed earth, is an ancient form of building construction. Clay is the basic material in rammed earth buildings. After a foundation of brick or stone is laid, clay is poured into wooden molds and then tamped until solid. Additional layers are added until the walls reached the desired height, and the finished walls are coated with stucco. In 1821 Dr. Willi...

“M” is for Molloy, Robert (1906-1977). Novelist, editor, critic. Born in Charleston, at age twelve Molloy moved with his family to Philadelphia and then New York City. By 1936 he was working as a book reviewer and copy editor for the New York Sun and was later its literary editor. He wrote short stories that were published in national magazines and then a friend suggested he try novel writing. His...

“P” is for Piracy. Charleston was the chief port of Carolina, a region contested by the Spanish, French, and English in the frequent wars of the era. The proprietary government was often weak and sometimes corrupt. Pirates thrived in such an uncertain and turbulent setting. Charleston’s bustling trade also attracted raids by foreign privateers. Among the most notorious of the pirates sailing off S...

“M” is for Milliken, Roger (1915-2010). Businessman, political activist. Born in New York Milliken graduated from Yale and joined the textile firm his grandfather had founded--Deering Milliken company. In 1947 he moved to Spartanburg and also started to concentrate the company's operations in the South Carolina Piedmont. He turned Deering Milliken into one of the biggest and most successful textil...

“M” is for Miller, Thomas Ezekiel (1849-1938). Political leader, college president. Born in Beaufort District, Miller regarded himself as a Black man but his fair complexion led to persistent speculation and controversy about his racial identity. He graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. A loyal Republican, Miller served in the state House of Representatives 1874-1880) and state Senate...

“M” is for Miller, Stephen Decatur (1787-1838). Congressman, governor, U.S. Senator. Miller was born in Lancaster District and graduated from South Carolina College. He read for the law and settled in Stateburg. Miller's public service began in 1816 when he was elected to Congress. From 1822 to 1828 Miller was a member of the South Carolina Senate and an early leader in the movement toward nullifi...

“L” is for Lords Proprietors of Carolina. King Charles II granted the land that became North and South Carolina to eight English noblemen in 1663. Before the government of King George II bought out the last owners in 1729, nearly fifty individuals owned or claimed to own these eight shares. Settlement attempts by New Englanders and Barbadians failed, but the foundering colonial enterprise was resc...

“H” is for Hootie and the Blowfish. Founded in 1986, Hootie and the Blowfish emerged as the most popular rock band on the University of South Carolina college scene in the late 1980s an early 1990s. Consisting of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Darius Rucker, lead guitarist Mark Bryan, drummer Jim Sonefeld, and bassist Dean Felber, the band suddenly grew into a national phenomenon with the releas...

“H “is for Hookworm. Long before hookworm was identified as a parasitic disease, its mostly White victims were a common presence in the South. Pale and listless, with vacant stairs and winged shoulder blades, these lazy southerners were a staple of northern literature. In the early 1900s the shiftless Southerners thesis was debunked as their traits had a biological basis: infestation by a worm, Ne...

“P” is for Pinkney, Bill (1925-2007). Musician. A native of Dalzell, Pinkney began singing gospel songs as a child working in South Carolina’s cotton fields. As a pitcher with the  New York Blue Sox of the Negro Baseball League, in 1949 he met a fellow gospel singer, Clyde McPhatter. That relationship evolved into a new musical group, the Drifters. In 1953 the Drifters signed a contract with Atlan...

“M” is for Miller, Kelly, Jr. (1863-1939). Educator, writer. Born a free Black man in Winnsboro, Miller attracted the attention of northern missionaries and received a scholarship to Howard University. He was the first Black American to attend Johns Hopkins University. In 1890 he was appointed a professor at Howard where he remained for his professional career.  From his position at Howard and his...

“M” is for Mill villages. Early textile entrepreneurs built not only factories but frequently entire villages. Employment contracts were signed with entire families, rather than with individuals, and mill villages were central to retain employees. The mill villages declined many reasons, beginning in the 1920s. Automobiles made it easier for workers to commute to jobs. Tougher child labor laws und...

“M” is for Mill schools. Textile mill entrepreneurs remade the South Carolina landscape in the late nineteenth century. They surrounded their mills with villages and provided schools to educate the children of mill workers and to demonstrate to the public their concern for the community’s well-being.  The mill school was a reflection of the individual community and was run with little interference...

“B” is for Blenheim ginger ale. Blenheim's ginger ale has its origins in the Marlboro County village of Blenheim. During the late 1890s Doctor C. R. May began adding Jamaican ginger to the mineral water gathered from a local artesian spring. Originally the concoction was marketed as a palatable digestive aid. Until 1993 Blenheim bottling company avoided any attempts at modernization. Each bottle w...