Anne Bonny. Wikimedia Commons. 10 January 2016.
Discover French, Spanish, and British colonies along the coast and find out how colonists explored, settled, and lived.
Charlesfort
Come learn more about the French and Spanish Colonial landmarks on what is now Parris Island. This island has been home to Charlesfort (1562-1563) and Santa Elena (1566-1587) as well as Native American settlements and British plantations.
Circle of Inheritance
- A Struggle for Power
Learn about early Spanish settlements and Charles Town Landing. - Carolina Medley
Watch this history of Charles Town and the influences of Barbadians, Scots, French Huguenots, and Germans. - A World Apart
Discover more about growth of the rest of the state as a Royal Colony, the dominance of the Anglican parishes, and colonial life at the start of the Revolution.
People
- Eliza Lucas Pinckney
Eliza Lucas Pinckney is best known for her experiments with creating blue dye from indigo plants. - Elizabeth Timothy
Elizabeth Timothy was America’s first female newspaper editor. - Lord Proprietors
Find out more about each of the eight original Lord Proprietors, who were given a huge section of the North American continent to control. - Henrietta Johnston
Henrietta Johnston was America's first female professional artist.
Economy
- South Carolina Colonization
Read about the first explorers of South Carolina and the Spanish, French, and British colonies that were formed. - Indigo
Indigo was grown in South Carolina to make blue dye. - Cow Hunters of Colonial South Carolina
Did you know that there were black cowboys in colonial South Carolina? - Riches to Ruin: Pharaohs of the New World
Read this in-depth article about the rice planters that shaped the Lowcountry. - King's Highway
Charles II of England had a road built through the colonies, 1,300 miles long from Boston to Charleston
Culture
- Early Epidemics in South Carolina
Find out what diseases were prevalent in the colonies. - Colonial Dorchester
Learn more about Colonial Dorchester, a town that no longer exists but that we discover through documents and archaeological remains. - South Carolina Pirates
Meet Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Calico Jack, and other pirates that came to South Carolina’s ports. - 1628 in the Southeast
What was 1628 like throughout the Southern Colonies?
Slavery & The Stono Rebellion
- Contract of Indenture
This contract was for a three year period of indenture, which was relatively uncommon in South Carolina. - What is Gullah?
- The Lives of African-American Slaves in Carolina During the 18th Century
Read this quick introduction to how South Carolina’s first African-Americans lived. - The Stono Rebellion
The slave uprising known as The Stono Rebellion took place outside of Charleston in 1739. - Slave Code of South Carolina, May 1740
The Slave Code was a series of laws designed to control the slave population. - Slavery Timeline
Find out about African slavery in America from the earliest slaves sold in Virginia in 1619 to free blacks that fight in the Revolutionary War.
Relations with Native Americans
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| Charleston, South Carolina, 1671. From the Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, George E. Waring, Jr., 1887. Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. |
- Yamasee War
The Yamasee War in 1715 was fought between Native Americans and British colonists in South Carolina. - 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. - Fort Frederick (c1726 - c1758)
Fort Frederick in Beaufort was built to defend against hostile Native Americans and protect trade routes. - "A Treaty of Peace and Friendship..." Indian Treaty between the Cherokee Nation and South Carolina, 1761
Explore one treaty between the Cherokee Nation and the colonial government designed to end the Cherokee War.
