S.C. Encyclopedia | The South Carolina phosphate mining industry began after the Civil War and dominated world production in the 1880s. Mining began in late 1867 on plantations near Charleston after the gentlemen-scientists Francis S. Holmes and St. Julien Ravenel and the chemists N. A. Pratt and C. U. Shepard discovered that local “stinking stones” contained unusually high amounts of bone phosphate of lime (BPL).
S.C. Encyclopedia | Established on March 16, 1778, All Saints Parish comprised the Waccamaw Neck of what came to be Horry and Georgetown Counties. In 1721 the peninsula became part of Prince George Winyah Parish, but separated from the rest of the parish by the Waccamaw River, it remained isolated and sparsely settled for decades. Because they could only reach […]
Battles of Ninety Six: Situated in the South Carolina backcountry at the crossroads of important trade routes, Ninety Six was a newly established courthouse town on the eve of the Revolutionary War. The question of independence deeply divided the inhabitants of the district.
Little is known of Revolutionary War Sgt. William Jasper’s origins. Traditionally he has been identified as Irish, but others have argued that he was of German ancestry.
Civil rights activist, writer and college president Benjamin Elijah Mays was born on August 1, 1894, in rural South Carolina near Rambo in Edgefield County (now Epworth in Greenwood County).
Historic Charleston Foundation (HCF) sprang from the activities of the Carolina Art Association. In 1941 the association began a survey of historic buildings in Charleston, published in 1944 as This Is Charleston.
Constructed between 1857 and 1859, Redcliffe was the homeplace of South Carolina Governor James Henry Hammond and three generations of his descendants. Located in western Aiken County near Beech Island, Redcliffe served as an architectural and horticultural showplace, as well as the center of domestic life for the Hammond family. By 1860 it functioned primarily as a headquarters for Hammond’s extensive cotton plantations, which were sustained by more than three hundred slaves.
Patriot and merchant Christopher Gadsden was born in Charleston on February 16, 1724, the son of Elizabeth and Thomas Gadsden, a collector of customs.
End of the Civil War: Whether bitter amid defeat, devastation, and memories of the past or optimistic amid victory, freedom, and expectations for the future, South Carolinians would struggle with the results—and the legacy—of the war for generations to come.
A mule is a hybrid animal that results from breeding a male donkey with a female horse. Although mules have gender (males are called “horse mules” and females “mare mules”), they are sterile and cannot reproduce.
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