Recounting more than three centuries of Spanish and French exploration, English and Huguenor agriculture, and African slave labour, this text traces the history of one of North America's oldest settlements, covering what are now Jasper, Hampton, and part of Alllendale countries.

Crescent Moon over Carolina examines the life of Major General William Moultrie (1730-1805) who is best remembered for his valiant defense of an unfinished log fort on Sullivan's Island at the entrance to Charleston harbor against a determined British naval attack on June 28, 1776. While the Continental Congress in Philadelphia considered a draft of the Declaration of Independence, Moultrie and his garrison of South Carolinians proved that untested, but courageous, American soldiers could stand firm and prevail against British might. Every fort that has since occupied the site has borne his name, but Moultrie was more than the iconic defender of Charleston. Postwar he served two terms as governor and became one of South Carolina's most influential elder statesmen during the early years of the American Republic. In this first and only book-length biography of William Moultrie, C. L. Bragg combines a scholarly survey of lowcountry South Carolina culture, the American Revolution, and the early political history of the state and the United States. Bragg also brings to light primary sources that are published here for the first time—revealing documents that provide fresh insight into the political and cultural values of Moultrie and his fellow South Carolinians. Crescent Moon over Carolina offers engaging narrative, detailed maps, and beautiful illustrations that will stand as an important addition to the body of literature for those interested in Revolutionary South Carolina. Bragg leaves us with a clearer understanding of Moultrie—a political and military leader who counted among his friends, associates, and correspondents many of our nation's ardent patriots and founding fathers. Moultrie's service to state and country has earned him a respected place in history.

Often called the most "Southern" of Southern cities, Charleston was one of the earliest urban centers in North America. It quickly became a boisterous, brawling sea city trading with distant ports, and later a capital of the Lowcountry plantations, a Southern cultural oasis, and a summer home for planters. In this city, the Civil War began. And now, in the twentieth century, its metropolitan area has evolved into a microcosm of "the military-industrial complex." This book records Charleston's development from 1670 and ends with an afterword on the effects of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, drawing with special care on information from every facet of the city's life—its people and institutions; its art and architecture; its recreational, social and intellectual life; its politics and city government. The most complete social, political, and cultural history of Charleston, this book is a treasure chest for historians and for anyone interested in delving into this lovely city, layer by layer.

“The compelling story of a colony besieged by meteorological, epidemiological, economic, and manmade catastrophes only to arise like the phoenix.” —Orville Vernon Burton, author of The Age of Lincoln During South Carolina’s settlement, a cadre of men rose to political and economic prominence, while ordinary colonists, enslaved Africans, and indigenous groups became trapped in a web of violence and oppression. John J. Navin explains how eight English aristocrats, the Lords Proprietors, came to possess the vast Carolina grant and then enacted elaborate plans to recruit and control colonists as part of a grand moneymaking scheme. But those plans went awry, and the mainstays of the economy became hog and cattle ranching, lumber products, naval stores, deerskin exports, and the calamitous Indian slave trade. The settlers’ relentless pursuit of wealth set the colony on a path toward prosperity but also toward a fatal dependency on slave labor. Rice would produce immense fortunes in South Carolina, but not during the colony’s first fifty years. Religious and political turmoil instigated by settlers from Barbados eventually led to a total rejection of proprietary authority. Using a variety of primary sources, Navin describes challenges that colonists faced, setbacks they experienced, and the effects of policies and practices initiated by elites and proprietors. Storms, fires, epidemics, and armed conflicts destroyed property, lives, and dreams. Threatened by the Native Americans they exploited, by the Africans they enslaved, and by their French and Spanish rivals, South Carolinians lived in continual fear. For some it was the price they paid for financial success. But for most there were no riches, and the possibility of a sudden, violent death was overshadowed by the misery of their day-to-day existence.

This book examines how, quite by accident and under very unfortunate circumstances, Britain's colony of South Carolina afforded women an unprecedented opportunity for economic autonomy. Though the colony prospered financially, throughout the colonial period the death rate remained alarmingly high, keeping the white population small. This demographic disruption allowed white women a degree of independence unknown to their peers in most of England's other mainland colonies, for, as heirs of their male relatives, an unusually large proportion of women controlled substantial amounts of real estate. Their economic independence went unchallenged by their male peers because these women never envisioned themselves as anything more than deputies for their husbands, fathers, brothers, and friends. As far as low country settlers were concerned, allowing women to assume the role of planter was necessary to the creation of a traditional, male-centered society in the colony. Fundamentally conservative, women in South Carolina worked to safeguard the patriarchal social order that the area's staggering mortality rate threatened to destroy. Critical to the perpetuation of English culture and patriarchal authority in South Carolina, female planters attended to the affairs of the world and helped to preserve English society in a wilderness setting.

John Rutledge (1739-1800) was a wealthy planter and successful lawyer, a leader in South Carolina's colonial Commons House of Assembly, and a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses. As chief executive of the state during most of the War for Independence, he was instrumental in its defense and recovery after the British conquest of 1780. One of the leading delegates to the United States constitutional convention in 1787, he served as chief justice of South Carolina, and briefly as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Compiles information and interpretations on the past 500 years of African American history, containing essays on historical research aids, bibliographies, resources for womens' issues, and an accompanying CD-ROM providing bibliographical entries.