South Carolina from A to Z

“G” for Gullah. The term “Gullah,”or “Geechee,” describes a unique group of African Americans descended from enslaved Africans who settled in the Sea Islands and lowcountry of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. Some believe the term “Gullah” derives from “Angola”; or it could refer to the Gola people of Liberia.  The origin of the term “Geechee” (for residents of the Georgia low...

“C” is for Converse, Dexter Edgar (1829-1899). Industrialist. Born in Vermont, Converse worked in a New York cotton mill and learned how mill machinery worked and how the business was operated. In 1854 he moved to Spartanburg and worked at the Bivingsville Cotton Factory. He soon became the mill’s manager. In 1868 Converse and his brother-in-law purchased the company and in 1870 they changed its n...

“C” is for Continental Regiments. In the aftermath of the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Continental Congress passed resolutions that created the Continental army in June 1775. Congress then delegated the recruitment of soldiers up to the  individual states. The First and Second Provincial Congresses of South Carolina in 1775 and 1776 created six regiments that were adopted into the Contine...

“C” is for Conroy, Donald Patrick (1945-2016). Author. In 1961 the Conroy family moved to Beaufort. After graduating from Beaufort High School, Pat enrolled at The Citadel and graduated in 1967. Conroy then taught at an elementary school on Daufuskie Island. Fired for his unorthodox approach to teaching his nearly illiterate Black students, Conroy turned to writing to vent his frustration and earn...

“C” is for Conner, Henry Workman (1797-1861). Merchant, banker. A native of North Carolina, Conner arrived in Charleston in 1822 where he opened a factory and commission house. The firm pioneered the use of steamships to carry freight and passengers between Charleston and towns in the interior of South Carolina and Georgia. Conner was among the original directors of the Bank of Charleston when it...

“B” is for Brawley, Benjamin Griffith (1882-1939). Educator, author, editor, clergyman. Born in Columbia, Brawley earned degrees from the University of Chicago and Harvard. Between 1902 and 1939 he taught English at predominantly Black colleges in the South and East, including Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina and Howard University in Washington, D.C.  He developed into a prolific writer...

“B” is for Brown, Morris (1770-1849). Clergyman. Brown, a free mulatto, was born in Charleston. He became a licensed Methodist preacher and organized an African congregation in Charleston in the early 1810s. After White church officials reduced the control that Black Methodists had heretofore exercised over their church affairs, Brown led most of them from the denomination in 1817 in protest. They...

“S” is for Southern 500. The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway was the oldest and one of the most storied races on the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing’s (NASCAR) Winston Cup circuit. With a seventy-five car field, the first race was held on Labor Day 1950. It was the first Grand National later Winston Cup race contested on a paved super Speedway and NASCAR's first 500 mile race. Eq...

“S” is for South Carolina Highway Patrol. Operating under the South Carolina Department of Safety, the South Carolina Highway Patrol is a law enforcement organization that concentrates on traffic violations. The State Highway Patrol was originally a field unit of the State Highway Department’s Motor Vehicle Division. Troopers were given uniforms, badges, guns, summons books, and motorcycles. Motor...

“P” is for Post and Courier . Published in Charleston, the Post and Courier is the oldest daily newspaper in South Carolina. The publication’s lineage can be traced through three newspapers. The oldest, the Charleston Courier , began publication in 1803. The Charleston Daily News began in 1865. The owners of the Daily News purchased the Courier , and the first issue of the News and Courier was pub...

“M” is for Moxon, Barbara Wischan (1921-2011). Political activist. Born in Philadelphia, Barbara Moxon moved to Columbia in 1963 where she immediately became involved in the League of Women Voters, serving as state president for three terms. She was appointed and reappointed by governors to the South Carolina Commission on Women. Moxon was also active in the American Association of University Wome...

“G” is for Guerard, Benjamin (died 1788). Governor. Benjamin Guerard’s birth date is unknown, but he was baptized in Charleston in 1740. His family sent him to England in 1756 to study law at Lincoln's Inn. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1761. During the Revolutionary War, he lent over £20,000 to the state and served in the militia. After Charleston fell to the British in 1780, Guera...

“C” is for Congaree River.  At the fall line in Columbia the Broad and Saluda Rivers form the Congaree River. For little over a mile, the river rolls over rapids, shoals, and interspersed islands before it enters the coastal plain. As is typical of slowly moving mature streams, it meanders through the coastal plain, changing its course frequently. Its main tributaries are Gills Creek, Sandy Run, C...

“C” is for Compromise of 1808. Under the constitutions of 1778 and 1790, the House of Representatives was apportioned to benefit the lowcountry while the majority of the voting (White) population lived in the upcountry. In 1794 the Representative Reform Association was founded and undertook an unsuccessful petition drive to compel the General Assembly to consider reapportionment. In 1808 the Gener...

“C” is for Commons House of Assembly (1670 to 1776) The dominant political institution in colonial South Carolina was the Commons House of Assembly. It served as the lower house of the provincial legislature and was the only popularly elected branch of government and the colony. Over time it evolved from an impotent institution to an imperious political body that jealously guarded its immense auth...

“B” is for Bratton, William (ca. 1742-1815). Soldier, legislator. Bratton was born in Northern Ireland and immigrated with his family to America. In the 1760's the family relocated to South Carolina and settled into the area of present day York County. In 1766 Bratton purchased two hundred acres of land on the south fork of Fishing Creek. During the Revolutionary War, Bratton served as a South Car...

“B” is for Bratton, John (1831-1898). Soldier, congressman. Born in Winnsboro, Bratton attended Mount Zion Institute and later graduated from South Carolina college. He then enrolled at the Medical College of South Carolina and returned to Fairfield District to practice medicine. When South Carolina seceded from the Union, Bratton joined a local volunteer company and was elected as first Lieutenan...

“S” is for South Carolina Educational Television Network. The South Carolina Educational Television Network (SCETV) is a state agency providing educational, cultural, and historic programming to South Carolina through telecom communications. It is also responsible for the state’s emergency preparedness network. SCETV began in 1957 with a resolution by the General Assembly calling for a study of th...

“P” is for Port Royal Naval Station. The conquest of the Sea Islands by the United States Navy in November 1861 was the beginning of more than a century of US naval involvement with Port Royal Sound. With nearly thirty feet of water over the bar at all times, Port Royal Sound is the deepest natural harbor on the Atlantic seaboard south of New York. In 1883 the U.S. Navy began purchasing land on Pa...

“M” is for Mulberry Plantation (Berkeley County). Completed in 1714 Mulberry is one of the most distinctive eighteenth-century houses in America. The building is stylistically unique and has variously been described as having Jacobean, French, and Anglo- Dutch baroque origins. Its design blends seventeenth-century forms with the formality of eighteenth-century Georgian architecture in a unified co...

“G” is for Grosvenor, Vertamae (1938-2016). Writer, culinary anthropologist. A woman with varied interests Grosvenor traveled abroad and became interested in the African diaspora and how African foods and recipes travelled and changed as a result of it. Her first book Vibration Cooking; or The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl , was published in 1970. It is a unique combination of recipes, reminiscen...

“C” is for Congaree National Park. South Carolina's only National Park, Congaree is located on 22,000 acres in the Congaree River floodplain of lower Richland County. Congaree protects the last significant stand of old growth, bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the United States. The forest is the tallest in eastern North America and one of the tallest temperate deciduous forests in the world...

“C” is for Commission of Indian Trade. In 1707 the Commons House of Assembly created the Board of Indian Commissioners to regulate the traffic between Indian traders and such nations as the Cherokees, Creeks, and Catawbas. The commission issued licenses to private traders. The inability of the board to end abuses by the traders led to the disastrous Yamassee War (1715-1718.) After the war, the Sou...

“C” is for Coming, Affra Harleston (circa 1651-1698). Pioneer of early South Carolina. The Harleston family's property had been so ravaged by the English Civil War that two of the family’s children, Charles and Affra, left for South Carolina in 1669. Affra came on the Carolina as an indentured servant with a two year obligation to her sponsor. When she was free from her indenture, Affra married Jo...

“C” is for Columbia Theological Seminary. An institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the seminary was founded in 1828 in Georgia, and moved to Columbia, South Carolina in 1831. Following the model of Andover and Princeton seminaries, a three-year curriculum was organized around the study of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, church history, and systemic itheology. While Colombia attracted a su...