Subject Guides: South Carolina History: Early History

A View of Charles Town the Capital of South Carolina in North America (1758-60)

Credit: A View of Charles Town the Capital of South Carolina in North America, from 'Scenographia Americana', engraved by Pierre Charles Canot (1710-77) published 1758-60 (engraving), Mellish, Thomas (c.1748-82) (after) / Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, USA / The Bridgeman Art Library

Charleston in 1856

From Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century

Bird's Eye View of Charleston. Charleston was considered the cultural center of South Carolina and its largest city. Engraving from The Progress of the Republic by R. S. Fisher, 1856. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Title-page of 'A new description of that fertile and pleasant province of Carolina'

From Bridgeman Images: Peter Newark American Pictures

Credit: Title-page of 'A new description of that fertile and pleasant province of Carolina', printed in London by John Archdale, late Governor of Carolina, 1707 (newsprint), English School, (18th century) / Private Collection / Peter Newark Pictures / The Bridgeman Art Library

General History

American Colonies: Carolinas and Georgia
From Reader's Guide to British History
Much the best studied of the three colonies is South Carolina, which enjoyed spectacular economic growth in the second quarter of the 18th century as exports of slave-produced rice and indigo soared to meet the demands of expanding European markets.
American Revolution: Topic Page
1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States.
Charleston in the American Enlightenment
From The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment
As the wealthiest city in the wealthiest colony in British North America, Charleston, South Carolina was a center of the American Enlightenment.
Plantation: Topic Page
The plantation appeared on the North American continent with the first British colonists in Virginia in 1607.
Rice Culture from Angola to South Carolina
From World History Encyclopedia
Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, rice cultivation increased in acreage in Japan and migrated to the New World.
Settlement of South Carolina
From The New Encyclopedia of the American West
In 1663 Charles II granted a charter to eight English courtiers for a vast territory, called Carolina, located just south of Virginia.
South Carolina delegates to the Continental Congress
From The Encyclopedia of The Continental Congresses
South Carolina Exposition and Protest
From Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia
The South Carolina Exposition and Protest, publications against federal tariff laws, were introduced in the state legislature in 1828 and mark the start of the nullification crisis.
Thirteen Colonies: Topic Page
Original North American colonies that signed the Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776,
Tobacco: Topic Page
Tobacco is indigenous to the Americas and was unknown to Europeans until the late 16th century.