South Carolina from A to Z

“B” is for Bosc, Louis Augustin Guillaume (1759-1828). Naturalist. Born in Paris, France Bosc attended natural history lectures at the Garden of the King where he met prominent French naturalists and became a friend of the botanist-horticulturist Andre Michaux. Wishing to escape the turmoil of post-revolutionary France, Bosc decided to visit Michaux in Charleston, with the hopes of collecting natu...

“B” is for Boonesborough Township. Boonesborough was one in the second wave of townships that South Carolina laid out during the mid-eighteenth century to defend her frontier from the Cherokee. Patrick Calhoun, father of John C Calhoun, surveyed the 20,500-acre Township on the headwaters of Long Cane Creek in 1762. Boonesborough lay between the Carolinians and the Lower Cherokee towns. The majorit...

“W “is for Women's suffrage. The earliest suffrage clubs in the state were not organized until the 1890s but suffragists were beginning to receive notice. Virginia Durant Young of Fairfax almost single handedly transformed the South Carolina woman suffrage climate in the 1890s. Through her weekly newsletter, Fairfax Enterprise, she championed prohibition and votes for women. In 1890 she and others...

“S” is for Slave trade. The Atlantic slave trade was one of the most important demographic, social, and economic events of the modern era. It extended across four centuries and fostered the involuntary migration of millions of African peoples from their homelands to forced labor in the Americas and elsewhere. The major stream of African labor went to sugar-producing regions in the West Indies or L...

“S” is for slave religion. Enslaved Africans arriving in South Carolina brought their traditional belief systems with them and until the early nineteenth century Christianity only marginally affected them and their descendants. By the late 1820s slaveholders allowed, and even supported, missionary efforts to evangelize enslaved persons. Conversions occurred because eventually the power of African...

“S” is for slave patrols. Slave patrols were a crucial mechanism of slave control in the colonial and antebellum periods of South Carolina history. Like South Carolina's earliest slave codes, the earliest slave patrol systems were based on Barbadian models. Official slave patrolling began in 1704. Following the Stono Rebellion of 1739, the Commons House of Assembly passed the Negro Act of 1740, wh...

“R” is for Russell, Donald Stewart (1906-1998). University president, governor, U.S. senator, jurist. As a protégé of James F. Byrnes, Russell had a successful career in government and the law. From 1951 to 1957 he served as president of the University of South Carolina. In 1958 he lost the 1958 Democratic Party primary for governor, but four years later again ran for governor and was elected. Fol...

“P” is for Pompion Hill Chapel (Berkeley County). Built in 1763, Pompion Hill Chapel is among the finest remaining examples of the Anglican parish churches of the lowcountry. Situated near Huger, the chapel stands on a bluff along the eastern branch of the Cooper River. The chapel is built on a rectangular plan and features Georgian styling. Its exterior features include a steeply pitched, slate-c...

“M” is for Moore, Samuel Preston (1813-1889). Surgeon general of the Confederacy. Born in Charleston, Moore graduated from the Medical College of South Carolina and was commissioned an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1835. In 1861 he resigned from the U.S. Army and sought a commission in the Confederate military. Upon being appointed acting surgeon general of the Confederacy, he faced the da...

“M” is for Moore, James, Sr. (ca.1650-1706. Governor. Moore arrived in South Carolina from Barbados around 1675 and became a leading Indian trader. A shrewd politician, by 1690, he was the acknowledged leader of the anti-proprietary faction, the Goose Creek Men. In 1700, with the death of the governor, the Goose Creek Men were able to maneuver Moore temporarily into the governorship—a move the Pro...

“M” is for Moore, James, Jr. (ca.1682-1774). Governor. South Carolina's first native-born governor, Moore was the eldest son of former governor James Moore, Sr. James, Jr., established himself as a prosperous planter and represented Berkeley and Craven Counties in the Commons House of Assembly. He participated in the 1713 expedition against the Tuscarora Indians. During the Yamassee War, Moore--no...

“L “is for Ludvigson, Susan (b.1942). Poet. Born in Wisconsin, Ludvigson received an M. A. in English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and then studied with James Dickey at the University of South Carolina. For many years she was a professor of English at Winthrop University. Since1979 Ludvigson’s work has earned many awards, including Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships. In a 198...

“H” is for Hume, Sophia Wigington (ca. 1702-1774). Minister, writer. Born in Charleston, Hume was raised in the Anglican faith of her father and did not embrace Quakerism until midlife. Around 1740, Hume, now a widow and extremely ill, reexamined her Anglican faith as well as her life of luxury. She embraced a life of simplicity, moved to London, and joined the Society of Friends. Hume spent the r...

“D” is for Durban, Pam Rosa (b. 1947). Author. A native of Aiken, Durban attended the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. In 2001 she became Doris Betts Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her short stories as well as her novels Durban’s South Carolina roots are evident. The Lau...

“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...

“G” is for Gregorie, Anne King (1887 to 1960). Historian, teacher, author, editor. After graduating from Winthrop College, Gregorie began an eleven-year teaching career in Lynchburg, Chester, and Christ Church Parish. In 1925 she earned a master's degree in history from the University of South Carolina; and in 1929 became the first woman to receive a doctorate from the university’s Department of H...

“C” is for Clover (York County; 2020 population 6,800). Although Clover celebrated its Centennial in 1987, the town's history goes back to the mid 1870s when the Chester and Lenoir Railroad placed a five-thousand gallon water tank at the site of the future town. According to local legend, water spilling from the tank yielded a patch of Clover on the ground, giving the town its earlier name of Clov...

“C” is for Clinton (Laurens County; 2020 population 8,091). Clinton grew up around the intersection of two roads, one connecting Greenville with Columbia and the other Spartanburg with Augusta. In the 1850s the Laurens to Newberry Railroad began running through the intersection, known as the five points or five forks. In 1864 the town was incorporated as Clinton. By 1874 the main building of Thorn...

“B” is for Boone, Thomas (ca. 1730-1812). Governor. Born in England, Boone had strong hereditary ties to South Carolina. In the 1750s he was in South Carolina on family business and married a South Carolinian. In 1759 he was named governor of New Jersey, where he proved popular. In December 1761 Boone arrived in Charleston. His instructions from London directed him to obtain a revision of the Elec...

“B” is for Bonnet, Stede (1688-1718). Pirate. A native of Barbados, Bonnet was a member of the island's planter elite until 1717 when he purchased and armed the Sloop Revenge to pursue a career as a pirate. He sailed north to prey upon the crowded sea lanes of the North American coastline, plundering ships from New York to Charleston. He then joined forces with Blackbeard. In mid-May 1718, they bl...

“W” is for Women's clubs. The South Carolina women's club movement was a powerful force for social change. It challenged the landscape of the state's conventionalism and supported social reform for all South Carolinians. The core organizations of this movement were the South Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs (SCFWC) and the South Carolina Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (SCFCWC). Like state...

“W” is for Wofford, Kate Vixon (1894-1954). Educator. A native of Laurens, Wofford graduated from Winthrop College and soon began teaching at Laurens High School. In 1922 she was elected to the first of two terms as Laurens County superintendent of schools, the first female school superintendent in South Carolina and the first woman elected to public office in the state. Active in the South Caroli...

“S” is for Slave codes. South Carolina’s earliest formal code of law regarding enslaved persons (1690) borrowed heavily from statutes governing slavery on Barbados. In the first decade of the eighteenth century, the African population surpassed the White population. Shortly thereafter a new slave code went into effect in 1712. As with earlier statutes, enforcement of the revised code was difficult...

“S” is for Slave Badges. Slave badges served as the physical proof required to demonstrate the legal status of enslaved persons hired out by their masters. Laws controlling such hiring began early and badges or tickets were mentioned by 1751, with wearing them mandated by 1764. In 1800 Charleston’s laws became more uniform and the earliest surviving badges date from that year. By around 1806 badge...

“S” is for 6-0-1 Law (1924). The 6-0-1 Law, passed in March 1924, guaranteed at least a seven-month school term for all White children. Additionally, it shifted the financial responsibility away from local districts, which often lacked resources, to the state. Under the law, the state paid all teacher salaries for six months--provided that local school districts paid for one month. Counties were e...