People

Portrait of John C. Calhoun by Arthur E. Schmalz Conrad. Image courtesy of the United States Senate.

• William Gregg
  William Gregg was the founder of the Graniteville Company, an early cotton mill in Aiken County.
  • Old Graniteville Mill Headquarters
• Robert Wilson Gibbes
  Robert Gibbs was a physician and naturalist that wrote paleontology articles on marine fossils found in South Carolina.
• William Johnson, Jr.
  William Johnson was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice from Charleston who served from 1804 to 1834.

Wars & Politics

• "Blood-Stained" Mexican War Scarf
  Watch this video to see a “blood-stained” silk scarf that belonged to Private Thomas Tillman, who was killed in 1847 during the Mexican War.
• The Jacksonian Era: 1820 - 1850
  This useful timeline highlights significant events of the Jacksonian Era.
• John C. Calhoun
  Find out more about John C. Calhoun, a politician and vice-president from present-day McCormick County.
  • John C. Calhoun
  • Video on Clemson University and John C. Calhoun

Maps

• A new map of South Carolina with its canals, roads & distances…
  This 1833 map is the first to show the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company’s line.
• Antebellum Maps
  Maps from around the state show where people lived and gathered.

Culture

See also the section on Slavery for more information about slavery and the plantation system.

• Hamburg
  Click on the links under the Hamburg title to learn more about this extinct city near Augusta, Georgia.
• The Pre-Civil War South
  Read about the South’s economy and politics in the years leading up to the Civil War.
• Mills in the Upcountry
  Learn more about grist and saw mills in Spartanburg and other upcountry counties before and after the Civil War.
• Show and Splendor: Celebrating a Wedding in 1809
  Read a description of a wedding between two prominent Charleston families in 1809.
• Architecture of Charleston
  Architectural styles in Charleston changed several times in the antebellum city.

Higher Education

Advertisement for the Greenville Female College, Charleston Mercury, 1864.

For much of the early 1800s, the General Assembly refused to grant charters to schools competing with the South Carolina College in Columbia, SC. Several denominational schools such as Erskine, Furman, and Wofford were founded throughout the state during 1830-1860. Women could attend “finishing schools” until the first women’s colleges opened in the 1850s.

• Prospectus of the University of South Carolina
• Catalogue of the trustees, faculty, and students of the South Carolina College, January, 1834

Colleges established in South Carolina before the Civil War

Explore with DISCUS*

* Requires access to the DISCUS databases. Learn more here.

• Antebellum Charleston
  Explore the religion, art, education, and other cultural themes of antebellum Charleston.
• The Plantation
  The plantation system influenced almost every aspect of southern life.
• Andrew Jackson and the Jacksonian Democracy
  Jacksonian democracy promoted the strength of the presidency and sought to broaden the public’s participation in government.