South Carolina from A to Z

“R “is for Rosemond, James R. (1820 to 1902). Clergyman. Rosemond was born an enslaved person. He eventually was sold to a Greenville planter and lived with a family of White Methodists under whose influence he was baptized in 1844. The following year he was appointed a class leader in the Greenville Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1854 he was licensed to preach. Emancipated after the Civil...

“P’ is for Pocotaligo, Battle of (October 22, 1862). In the fall of 1862, the Union commander of the Department of the South planned an operation to break the railroad connections between Charleston and Savannah near the towns of Pocotaligo and Coosawhahatchie. If the railroad were cut and a base of operations established, then Federal Forces could move overland against Charleston or Savannah. On...

“P” is for plantations. In the seventeenth century the term “plantation,” which formerly referred to any colonial outpost, evolved to refer specifically to large agricultural estates whose land was farmed by a sizable number of workers, usually enslaved persons, for export crops. Englishmen initially created plantation societies in the West Indies, and in the 1670s South Carolina became a northern...

“D” is for Dorn, William Jennings Bryan (1906-2005). Congressman. A native of Greenwood, Dorn was elected to the S. C. House of Representatives in 1938 and two years later to the S.C. Senate. He resigned his seat to join the armed forces during World War II. In 1946 he won his first election to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Third Congressional District. In 1950 Dorn was re-elected to...

“C” is for Chattooga River. The Chattooga River begins as springs and rivulets near Cashiers in the North Carolina mountains. It flows a narrow, twisting mostly southwestwardly route before joining the Tallulah River in Lake Tugaloo. For most of its forty miles, the Chattooga forms the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina. The river’s watershed includes approximately 278 square miles. The 1...

“C” is for the Charleston Riot [1876]. As the crucial local, state, and national elections of 1876 approached, tensions between the races in South Carolina reached a boiling point. In Charleston black Republicans were especially incensed by Democratic attempts to induce blacks to vote Democratic. On September 6th, after a Democratic rally, a group of Republicans pursued the participants. A white D...

“C” is for Charleston Renaissance (ca. 1915-1940). The Charleston Renaissance was a multifaceted cultural renewal that took place in the years between World Wars I and II. Artists, musicians, writers, historians, and preservationists, individually and in groups, fueled a revival that shaped the city’s destiny. The Charleston Renaissance benefited from a large number of books, many illustrated with...

“B” is for Bishopville (Lee County; 2020 population 2,994). In 1790 Bishopville, Lee County’s seat, began as a small settlement, Singleton’s Crossroads. In the early nineteenth century the village was renamed Bishopville. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad extended its main line from McBee to Bishopville in 1887, and the town was incorporated the following year. Aside from its role as the seat of Lee...

“P” is for Pinckney, Josephine Lyons Scott (1895-1957). Poet, novelist, civic leader. A native Charlestonian, Pinckney played a key role in the literary revival that swept through the South after World War. She was one of the founders of the Poetry Society of South Carolina and was involved with a number of local cultural institutions such as the Carolina Art Association, the Dock Street Theatre,...

“P” is for Pinckney, Henry Laurens (1794-1863). Legislator, congressman, editor. A graduate of the South Carolina College, Pinckney was elected by St. Phillip’s and St. Michael’s Parishes to the S.C. House of Representatives where he served from 1816-1828, including two terms as Speaker. As editor of the Charleston Mercury (1822-1832), Pinckney made the newspaper one of the most influential states...

“M” is for Miles, William Porcher (1822-1899). Educator, congressman. A native of Walterboro, Miles graduated from the College of Charleston and later taught mathematics there. In 1855 he was elected mayor of Charleston and reformed the city’s corrupt police department. Although he did not own enslaved persons, Miles considered it a right under the Constitution for others to own them. In 1857 he w...

“M” is for Milburn, Frank Pierce (1868-1926). Architect. A native of Kentucky, Milburn was one of the new South’s most successful and prolific architects. In 1899 he received the commission to complete the South Carolina State House and moved to Columbia. By adding a neoclassical dome and porticos to the building he placed the finishing touches on a project that had dragged on for half a century....

“M” is for Mignot, Louis Rémy (1831-1870). Painter. Mignot was born in Charleston. At the age of seventeen he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts at the Hague. In 1854 he returned to the United States and became actively involved in the New York Art World. In the manner of the Hudson River school painters, he went on sketching forays in the Catskill Mountains. He specialized in landscape painting...

“H” is for Hopsewee Plantation (Georgetown County). Hopsewee Plantation was the birthplace and boyhood home of Thomas Lynch, Jr, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. It is located about thirteen miles south of Georgetown at the point where U.S. Highway 17 crosses the north branch of the Santee River. This was also the site of the main colonial thoroughfare running north and South, the” Kin...

“H” is for Hoppin' John. Hoppin' John is a pilaf made with beans and rice. The recipe came directly to America from West Africa and is typical of the one-pot cooking of the South Carolina lowcountry. As the recipe moved inland, it became the traditional dish for good luck on New Year's Day throughout the American South. The origins of the dish and its ingredients are unknown. Whatever its origins,...

“G” is for Greenville County Museum of Art. Located on Heritage Green in downtown Greenville, the Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA) collects and exhibits American art. In 1963 the South Carolina General Assembly established the Greenville County Museum Commission. In 1974 GCMA moved into its modernist building accommodating almost 90,000 square feet for spacious exhibition galleries, a museum...

“G” is for Greenville County (790 square miles; 2020 population 532,486). Greenville County was created in 1786 out of Cherokee land. Originally part of Ninety Six District, the county consisted of the land between the Saluda River and the Indian boundary line of 1767. After the Revolutionary War settlers moved into the area--most numerous were veterans who applied for state bounty lands. The ante...

“D” is for Dueling. Duels took place in South Carolina from colonial times until 1880, when the General Assembly officially outlawed the practice. The practice of dueling reached its peak between 1818 and 1860. Though it occurred throughout the English colonies and the United States, the practice was concentrated in the South, and South Carolina was the site of a disproportionate number of duels....

“C” is for Citadel, The. The Citadel originated in 1822 as an arsenal and guard house. In 1842 the General Assembly created the South Carolina Military Academy. Like other southern states, South Carolina believed military education would instill education, discipline, character, and patriotic devotion in its young men. During the Civil War Citadel cadets helped shore up defenses around Charleston...

“C” is for Circular Congregational Church (Charleston). Circular Congregational Church, dedicated in 1892, is the fourth house of worship on this site at 150 Meeting Street. Its Richardsonian Romanesque style reflects Charleston's tradition of adopting current architectural fashion for ecclesiastical buildings, despite the city's famous conservatism in residential design. The Dissenters Society, o...

“C “is for Church of the Nativity (Union). Located in Union, the Church of the Nativity (consecrated in 1859) is a remarkably effective example of the Ecclesiological architectural style favored by the Episcopal Church in America and the Anglican Communion throughout the world in the 1840s and 1850s. Ecclesiologists, strongly influenced by the Oxford movement with its emphasis on sacrament and mys...

“C” is for Church of the Cross (Bluffton). Sited on a wooded bluff above a curve in the May River, the Church of the Cross is a beautiful and serene lowcountry chapel. The handsome cruciform Gothic building was consecrated in 1857. It was built of cypress with a shingled cypress roof. Entered through an arched door under a trefoil window and flanking shuttered lancet windows, it opened to an inter...

“C” is for Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC was a New Deal federal initiative. In South Carolina the CCC worked with state and federal agencies, especially the National Park Service and the US Forest Service, to develop seventeen state parks, several fish hatcheries, and National Forest recreation areas. The CCC's most important legacy was the role it played in the transformation of South Caro...

“C” is for Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. One of the seven largest African American denominations, the CME church was originally titled the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. Organized in 1870 it amicably emerged from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1954 the church title was changed from “Colored” to “Christian.” The smallest of the three Black Methodist groups, the CME has close...

“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...