A New Description of Carolina: A 1676 map of the Carolina colony. Wikimedia Commons.
Discover French, Spanish, and British colonies along the coast and find out how colonists explored, settled, and lived.
Primary Documents
- Indian Trader John Lawson’s Journal of Carolina, 1709
Read the journal of a trader who described the people, animals, plants, and landscape of the frontier in the Carolinas. - "He Lov’d the English Extraordinary Well": Enoe Will Guides John Lawson Through the Carolina Interior, 1709
This account comes from John Lawson, an explorer who traveled through the interior, meeting Native Americans and describing the natural world around him. - Letters of Thomas Newe to His Father, from South Carolina (1682)
Can you visualize Charles Town in 1682 from this letter of a 27 year colonist to his father in Barbados? - Robert Horne, A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina (1666)
This pamphlet was designed to entice English men and women to migrate to the colony.
People & Places
- Charles Fort
Watch this video of archaeologists working to discover the history of Charles Fort, the earliest French settlement in America. - Routes of South Carolina Explorers
This map shows the routes of 5 explorers that first came to South Carolina. - Francisco de Chicora
Francisco de Chicora was an Indian slave from South Carolina who was brought back to Spain in 1521. - South Carolina Pirates
Meet Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Calico Jack, and other pirates that came to South Carolina’s ports. - Eighteenth Century Overseers
Find out what archeologists have learned about life as an overseer in the 18th century. - The Walled City of Charleston
Did you know that Charleston used to have a thick wall around it for protection?
Maps
- Colonial Maps
Choose from a wide variety of maps that show what South Carolina looked like as a colony and where people lived. - Degrees of Latitude: Mapping Colonial America
Learn more about how maps were made and used in Colonial America.
Culture
Polly Ouldfield of Winyah, ca. 1761 by Jeremiah Theus, a Swiss-born painter who moved to South Carolina around 1735. Image from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
- South Carolina Colonization
Read about the first explorers of South Carolina and the Spanish, French, and British colonies that were formed. - Contract of Indenture
This contract was for a three year period of indenture, which was relatively uncommon in South Carolina. - Furniture of the American South
Take a look at chairs, clocks, tables, and other furniture made in South Carolina and other southern colonies. - Cow Hunters of Colonial South Carolina
Did you know that there were black cowboys in colonial South Carolina? - Cattle Brand Records, 1697-1699
Livestock in the colonies was branded to identify ownership. - 1628 in the Southeast
What was 1628 like throughout the Southern Colonies?
Nature
- Southern Nature: Scientific Views of the Colonial American South
Learn more about the naturalists who explored and recorded the natural history of the southern colonies.
