S.C. Encyclopedia | To escape racial discrimination in Philadelphia’s Methodist Church, Richard Allen, a former slave, organized the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church there in 1787. It is the oldest African American religious denomination and existed mainly in the North before the Civil War.
S.C. Encyclopedia | Up until the Yamassee War of 1715, Indian languages were the most frequently spoken, but by 1730 the majority of people in South Carolina spoke African languages or an African-English creole language called Gullah or Geechee. At the beginning of the colonial era Africans numbered only a few hundred, but by 1775 their numbers had increased to 107,300. Europeans numbered only 71,300 by that date, and Indians had dwindled from 10,000 to 500.
S.C. Encyclopedia | Pork has been important to the diet and economy of South Carolina since colonial times. Hogs were probably introduced to South Carolina in the sixteenth century by Spanish explorers. Indians acquired some of these animals, and English settlers purchased swine from the natives when they arrived at Charleston in 1670.
Carol Jordan: “The article (History: Sgt. William Jasper) says that there appear to be no living relatives even though he apparently had at least two children. I would like to inform you that there are actually quite a few of us. “
S.C. Encyclopedia | The earliest ferries in South Carolina carried settlers across the Ashley, Cooper, Santee, and other Lowcountry waterways. Early ferries, sometimes called “boats” or “galleys,” were important for transportation but were frequently poorly constructed, haphazardly manned, and expensive to the everyday traveler.
S.C. Encyclopedia | The yellow, or Carolina, jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) was chosen as state flower by the General Assembly in 1924. In 1923 the legislature appointed a commission to select a floral emblem. Senator Thomas B. Butler and Representatives George B. Ellison and Thomas Savage Heyward recommended the yellow jessamine to the senate and house on Feb. 1, 1924, and it was promptly adopted by both chambers.
S.C. Encyclopedia | Located at the confluence of the Sampit River and Winyah Bay, Georgetown was founded by Elisha Screven in 1729 and is the third oldest town in South Carolina. Screven vested control of the town with three trustees in 1735. Two years later, all 224 lots had been sold, though not occupied. The General Assembly governed from 1785 until Georgetown was incorporated in 1805. In 1892 the city was reincorporated under a mayor and council.
S.C. Encyclopedia | Yellow fever was one of the most dreaded diseases in South Carolina during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Along with malaria, it helped establish the reputation of the South Carolina Lowcountry as a dangerously unhealthy place for whites and was used to justify African slavery. Like malaria, yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes and strikes in warm weather. Unlike malaria, which spread over most of the state, yellow fever was largely restricted to seaports by the habits of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
S.C. Encyclopedia | Historian Francis Butler Simkins was born on December 14, 1897, in Edgefield, the son of Samuel McGowan Simkins and Sarah Raven Lewis. He attended school in Edgefield and in 1918 received his B.A. from the University of South Carolina. He attended Columbia University in New York City and earned his M.A. in 1920 and a Ph.D. in 1926. In 1928 he accepted a position at Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia, and remained there until his retirement in 1966, except for various positions at other institutions as a visiting professor.
S.C. Encyclopedia | The historian Edward H. Beardsley concluded that the story of public health in South Carolina is a “history of neglect.” Indeed, since 1914, when data on vital statistics in South Carolina were first collected, the state’s residents have been significantly less healthy than most Americans.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
Charleston Currents is brought to you free of charge thanks to the generosity of our underwriters:
Charleston City Paper, an alt-weekly seen by more than 100,000 people, offers the latest on news, views, arts, dining and music. Sign up for newsletters that will keep you up-to-date all week.
Statehouse Report is a renowned statewide policy and politics forecast published every Friday that informs South Carolina’s opinion leaders with key insights and news.
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Use our feed
Send us your comments
Recent Comments