South Carolina from A to Z

“L” is for Ludwell, Phillip (1638-1723). Governor. Born in England, Ludwell travelled to Virginia where he became a member of the Grand Council and Speaker of the House of Burgesses. In 1689 he was appointed governor of North Carolina. In 1691 the Lords Proprietors appointed him governor of all Carolina and sent him to Charleston to reestablish order. This he failed to do, as the Goose Creek Men (anti-proprietary) faction and the proprietors’ supporters openly quarreled with each other and the governor. The pirate trade continued to flourish during Ludwell's tenure, but he did attempt to curb the illegal Indian slave trade...

“H” is for Humphreys, Josephine (b.1945). Novelist. Born in Charleston, Humphreys graduated from Duke and received a master of arts degree from Yale. After further study at the University of Texas she returned to Charleston to teach at Baptist College (now Charleston Southern University). Drawing praise for its finely honed language and strong characters, Humphreys first novel, Dreams of Sleep (1984) won the Ernest Hemingway Prize for a first book of fiction. Her second novel, Rich in Love (1987), was made into a film. Although Humphreys makes no attempt to capture the exact geography of Charleston, her first two novels bring the...

“G” is for Gressette, Lawrence Marion (1902-1984). Legislator. Born near St. Matthews, Gressette received his law degree from the University of South Carolina. He served state government as a legislator for more than a half century. Gressette represented Calhoun County for three terms in the state House of Representatives (1925-1932). He later served twenty-three terms in the South Carolina Senate (1937-1984), representing Calhoun County until 1966 then districts Nineteen, Eleven, and Thirteen after reapportionment. While in the state Senate, Gressette was a long-time member of a number of influential committees, including Judiciary, Education, Natural Resources, Rural Electrification, and many others. He s...

“D” is for Dutch Fork. The Dutch Fork lies in a fork between the Broad and Saluda Rivers that includes parts of the modern counties of Newberry, Lexington, and Richland. Many of the early settlers were German speakers, although others came from northern colonies to the Dutch Fork via the Great Wagon Road. The preponderance of German speaking settlers however gave the area its name Dutch fork for Deutsche volk (German people). During the Revolutionary War, Germans and the Dutch Fork were cool toward the patriot cause, believing that they owed their land and therefore their loyalty to King Geor...

“C” is for Cockfighting.  Cockfighting is a blood sport that has existed in South Carolina from colonial times into the twenty-first century, despite the fact that it was banned by the General Assembly in 1887 and carries a felony charge for participants and less severe penalties for spectators. Until 2023, the oldest continuously published magazine for cockers (as cockfighters signed styled themselves) was Grit and Steel, emanating from Gaffney. The University of South Carolina uses the gamecock as its mascot. In antebellum South Carolina cockfighting cut across a broad swath of society and cockfighting reached the height of its popularity before the C...

“C” is for Coastal Carolina University. Located in Horry County between Conway and Myrtle Beach, Coastal Carolina University is a public comprehensive liberal arts institution with more than 11,000 students. In 1954 local citizens opened Coastal Carolina Junior College as a branch of the College of Charleston. In 1958 the school became independent and a voter referendum approved county funding for the college. Coastal Carolina became a regional campus of the University of South Carolina (USC) in 1960. In 1962 after a major fundraising drive, ground was broken for the present campus. In 1993 by an act of the legislature, Coastal Carolina became an independent, stat...

“C” is for Clyburn, James Enos (b.1940). Congressman. Born in Sumter, Clyburn has had an extensive career in public service. From 1971 to 1974 he served on the staff of Governor John C. West. From 1974 to 1992, Clyburn was South Carolina human affairs commissioner. In 1992 he won the Sixth District congressional seat, becoming South Carolina's first African American congressman since 1897. In 1998 he was elected chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). As a congressman from the South with a large rural and poor constituency, Clyburn focused his agenda for the CBC on building coalitions with other congressional caucuses, to garner support for issu...

“B” is for Boudo, Louis (ca. 1786-1827), and Heloise Boudo (d. 1837). Silversmiths, goldsmiths, jewelers. Louis Boudo arrived in Charleston from Santo Domingo about 1809 and established himself as “goldsmith, jeweler and hairworker.” In addition to representing himself as a jeweler and watchmaker, he advertised the manufacture of silver spoons and other silver work. Boudo's best known piece is a silver map case made on behalf of the state of South Carolina for General Lafayette during his farewell tour of America in 1825. In 1811 Louis Boudo married Heloise Simonet. Following Louis’s death, Heloise Boudo administered his estate and continued in the manufactor...

“B” is for Bouchillon, Christopher Allen (1893-1968). Musician. A native of Oconee County, Bouchillon was raised in Greenville.  From his father he learned to play the old-time banjo. Bouchillon was the first person to popularize “the talking blues” form of song delivery. In 1926 Chris went to Atlanta for the first of six sessions for Columbia records. His initial effort resulted in “Talking Blues “and “Hannah (Won't You Open That Door),” both of which went on to become highly successful and widely copied numbers that sold nearly 100,000 copies. One of his 1927 recordings “Born in Hard Luck”/ “The Medicine Show” also did quite well. In all he...

“B” is for Bosc, Louis Augustin Guillaume (1759-1828). Naturalist. Born in Paris, France Bosc attended natural history lectures at the Garden of the King where he met prominent French naturalists and became a friend of the botanist-horticulturist Andre Michaux. Wishing to escape the turmoil of post-revolutionary France, Bosc decided to visit Michaux in Charleston, with the hopes of collecting natural history material while awaiting the possibility of appointment to a consular position in the United States. With no prospect of working with Michaux, Bosc set about collecting natural history specimens that he sent to his colleagues at the Muséum d’...

“B” is for Boonesborough Township. Boonesborough was one in the second wave of townships that South Carolina laid out during the mid-eighteenth century to defend her frontier from the Cherokee. Patrick Calhoun, father of John C Calhoun, surveyed the 20,500-acre Township on the headwaters of Long Cane Creek in 1762. Boonesborough lay between the Carolinians and the Lower Cherokee towns. The majority of the settlers were Irish or Scots-Irish, many of whom came in response to the Bounty Act of 1761, which authorized free land and other settlement incentives. Governor Thomas Boone, for whom the Township was named, and the Royal Coun...

“W “is for Women's suffrage. The earliest suffrage clubs in the state were not organized until the 1890s but suffragists were beginning to receive notice. Virginia Durant Young of Fairfax almost single handedly transformed the South Carolina woman suffrage climate in the 1890s. Through her weekly newsletter, Fairfax Enterprise, she championed prohibition and votes for women. In 1890 she and others formed the South Carolina Equal Rights Association. In 1919 the U.S. Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment and submitted it to the states for ratification. The South Carolina General Assembly overwhelmingly rejected the amendment:  the House of Representatives rejected the amend...

“S” is for Slave trade. The Atlantic slave trade was one of the most important demographic, social, and economic events of the modern era. It extended across four centuries and fostered the involuntary migration of millions of African peoples from their homelands to forced labor in the Americas and elsewhere. The major stream of African labor went to sugar-producing regions in the West Indies or Latin America. Over the course of the trade’s existence, Britain's North American colonies absorbed no more than five percent of Africans brought into the New World. South Carolina was the continent’s leading importer...

“S” is for slave religion. Enslaved Africans arriving in South Carolina brought their traditional belief systems with them and until the early nineteenth century Christianity only marginally affected them and their descendants. By the late 1820s slaveholders allowed, and even supported, missionary efforts to evangelize enslaved persons. Conversions occurred because eventually the power of African spirits diminished in the new environment and--Christianity offered an explanation of the suffering plight of the enslaved and a hope for the ultimate redemption. In addition, for all their differences, traditional African beliefs and Christianity had important points of convergence making the latter more easi...

“S” is for slave patrols. Slave patrols were a crucial mechanism of slave control in the colonial and antebellum periods of South Carolina history. Like South Carolina's earliest slave codes, the earliest slave patrol systems were based on Barbadian models. Official slave patrolling began in 1704. Following the Stono Rebellion of 1739, the Commons House of Assembly passed the Negro Act of 1740, which provided for constant, regular patrols. Patrol captains divided their beats systematically; most were not large and ranged between ten and fifteen miles. The typical patrol consisted of a handful of men on horseback with three principal tasks: to sear...

“R” is for Russell, Donald Stewart (1906-1998). University president, governor, U.S. senator, jurist. As a protégé of James F. Byrnes, Russell had a successful career in government and the law. From 1951 to 1957 he served as president of the University of South Carolina. In 1958 he lost the 1958 Democratic Party primary for governor, but four years later again ran for governor and was elected. Following the death of U. S. Senator Olin D. Johnston, Russell resigned the governorship and the state's new governor appointed him to fill Johnston's seat. Russell served in the Senate until 1966 when he was defeated in a s...

“P” is for Pompion Hill Chapel (Berkeley County). Built in 1763, Pompion Hill Chapel is among the finest remaining examples of the Anglican parish churches of the lowcountry. Situated near Huger, the chapel stands on a bluff along the eastern branch of the Cooper River. The chapel is built on a rectangular plan and features Georgian styling. Its exterior features include a steeply pitched, slate-covered jerkinhead (clipped gable) roof; arched windows; and a projecting chancel with a Palladian window. The interior is finished with white plaster walls, a cove ceiling, and a floor of red brick.The chancel is trimmed with...

“M” is for Moore, Samuel Preston (1813-1889). Surgeon general of the Confederacy. Born in Charleston, Moore graduated from the Medical College of South Carolina and was commissioned an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1835. In 1861 he resigned from the U.S. Army and sought a commission in the Confederate military. Upon being appointed acting surgeon general of the Confederacy, he faced the daunting task of creating Southern medical services from scratch. Moore was able eventually to field a medical corps of approximately three thousand officers. He oversaw each military hospital in the South through personal and military corr...

“M” is for Moore, James, Sr. (ca.1650-1706. Governor. Moore arrived in South Carolina from Barbados around 1675 and became a leading Indian trader. A shrewd politician, by 1690, he was the acknowledged leader of the anti-proprietary faction, the Goose Creek Men. In 1700, with the death of the governor, the Goose Creek Men were able to maneuver Moore temporarily into the governorship—a move the Proprietors approved because Moore was an Anglican and they wanted to establish the Church of England in the colony. With England and Spain at war, Moore led an assault that captured and sacked St. Augustine but failed...

“M” is for Moore, James, Jr. (ca.1682-1774). Governor. South Carolina's first native-born governor, Moore was the eldest son of former governor James Moore, Sr. James, Jr., established himself as a prosperous planter and represented Berkeley and Craven Counties in the Commons House of Assembly. He participated in the 1713 expedition against the Tuscarora Indians. During the Yamassee War, Moore--now a lieutenant general of the colonial militia--contributed greatly to colonists’ eventual victory. In December 1719 the proprietary government of South Carolina was overthrown in the bloodless revolution of 1719. As a recognized war hero and longtime leader in the anti-proprietary party, Moore was ch...

“L “is for Ludvigson, Susan (b.1942). Poet. Born in Wisconsin, Ludvigson received an M. A. in English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and then studied with James Dickey at the University of South Carolina. For many years she was a professor of English at Winthrop University. Since1979 Ludvigson’s work has earned many awards, including Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships. In a 1986 interview, she recalled that she first wrote poems while in her teens. Her first volume of poetry, Step Carefully in Night Grass, appeared in 1974. Ludvigsen has published a number of books of poetry since.  Sweet Conflue...

“H” is for Hume, Sophia Wigington (ca. 1702-1774). Minister, writer. Born in Charleston, Hume was raised in the Anglican faith of her father and did not embrace Quakerism until midlife. Around 1740, Hume, now a widow and extremely ill, reexamined her Anglican faith as well as her life of luxury. She embraced a life of simplicity, moved to London, and joined the Society of Friends. Hume spent the rest of her life inspiring others through her religious writings and dedication to the fake Quaker faith. She Wrote several religious treatises: An Epistle to the Inhabitants of South Carolina, A Caution to S...

“D” is for Durban, Pam Rosa (b. 1947). Author. A native of Aiken, Durban attended the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. In 2001 she became Doris Betts Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her short stories as well as her novels Durban’s South Carolina roots are evident. The Laughing Place, her first novel, is a major statement on the southern obsession with the past. So Far Back is a novel about the last descendant of an old Charleston family who discovers how her life...

“B” is for Bishopville (Lee County; 2020 population 2,994). In 1790 Bishopville, Lee County’s seat, began as a small settlement, Singleton’s Crossroads. In the early nineteenth century the village was renamed Bishopville. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad extended its main line from McBee to Bishopville in 1887, and the town was incorporated the following year. Aside from its role as the seat of Lee County government, the town has also served as a business and cultural center throughout its existence. Two blocks of Main Street are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Opera House (ca. 1900), which originally served as the c...

“G” is for Gregorie, Anne King (1887 to 1960). Historian, teacher, author, editor. After graduating from Winthrop College, Gregorie began an eleven-year teaching career in Lynchburg, Chester, and Christ Church Parish. In 1925 she earned a master's degree in history from the University of South Carolina; and in 1929 became the first woman to receive a doctorate from the university’s Department of History. The Depression ended her teaching career; in 1936 she became the director of the South Carolina Historical Records Survey, a WPA agency that inventoried county and church records. Gregorie was the author of Thomas Sumter, The History of Sumter County, and Ch...

“C” is for Clover (York County; 2020 population 6,800). Although Clover celebrated its Centennial in 1987, the town's history goes back to the mid 1870s when the Chester and Lenoir Railroad placed a five-thousand gallon water tank at the site of the future town. According to local legend, water spilling from the tank yielded a patch of Clover on the ground, giving the town its earlier name of Clover Patch. The town was chartered by the General Assembly in 1887 with around one hundred residents. The first of three textile mills (the Clover Spinning Mill) was constructed in 1890. In 1985 Duke Energy constructed the Cata...

“C” is for Clinton (Laurens County; 2020 population 8,091). Clinton grew up around the intersection of two roads, one connecting Greenville with Columbia and the other Spartanburg with Augusta. In the 1850s the Laurens to Newberry Railroad began running through the intersection, known as the five points or five forks. In 1864 the town was incorporated as Clinton. By 1874 the main building of Thornwell Orphanage had been completed. In the 1880s Clinton College opened; it was renamed Presbyterian College in 1890. The early twentieth century saw the opening of two textile mills. In 1920, the State Training School for the Feeble Minded—later known as the...

“B” is for Boone, Thomas (ca. 1730-1812). Governor. Born in England, Boone had strong hereditary ties to South Carolina. In the 1750s he was in South Carolina on family business and married a South Carolinian. In 1759 he was named governor of New Jersey, where he proved popular. In December 1761 Boone arrived in Charleston. His instructions from London directed him to obtain a revision of the Election Act of 1721 and thereby check the power of the Commons House of Assembly. When he raised the issue, it was received coldly. After Boone refused to give the oath of office to a duly...

“B” is for Bonnet, Stede (1688-1718). Pirate. A native of Barbados, Bonnet was a member of the island's planter elite until 1717 when he purchased and armed the Sloop Revenge to pursue a career as a pirate. He sailed north to prey upon the crowded sea lanes of the North American coastline, plundering ships from New York to Charleston. He then joined forces with Blackbeard. In mid-May 1718, they blockaded Charleston-- looting numerous vessels and seizing hostages for ransom.  Bonnet resumed command of the Revenge. After a successful voyage off Virginia, he decided to refit his pirate fleet at Cape Fear. In Se...

“W” is for Women's clubs. The South Carolina women's club movement was a powerful force for social change. It challenged the landscape of the state's conventionalism and supported social reform for all South Carolinians. The core organizations of this movement were the South Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs (SCFWC) and the South Carolina Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (SCFCWC). Like state federated organizations around the nation, members of individual clubs often held membership in numerous organizations. Most of the clubs in these organizations initially were formed for women's self-improvement. However, over time,  the focus of both organizations shifted to socia...

“W” is for Wofford, Kate Vixon (1894-1954). Educator. A native of Laurens, Wofford graduated from Winthrop College and soon began teaching at Laurens High School. In 1922 she was elected to the first of two terms as Laurens County superintendent of schools, the first female school superintendent in South Carolina and the first woman elected to public office in the state. Active in the South Carolina State Teachers Association, she was the first woman to serve as its president. In 1930 Wofford continued her education receiving her Ph.D. from Columbia University. She then became head professor and director of rural educ...

“S” is for Slave codes. South Carolina’s earliest formal code of law regarding enslaved persons (1690) borrowed heavily from statutes governing slavery on Barbados. In the first decade of the eighteenth century, the African population surpassed the White population. Shortly thereafter a new slave code went into effect in 1712. As with earlier statutes, enforcement of the revised code was difficult and frequently haphazard. The Stono Rebellion in 1739 resulted in a more rigid slave code, the Negro Act (1740) that laid out the basis for a mature colonial society based on enslaved labor. It codified the slaves’ lack of access to the righ...

“S” is for Slave Badges. Slave badges served as the physical proof required to demonstrate the legal status of enslaved persons hired out by their masters. Laws controlling such hiring began early and badges or tickets were mentioned by 1751, with wearing them mandated by 1764. In 1800 Charleston’s laws became more uniform and the earliest surviving badges date from that year. By around 1806 badges were valid for a calendar year and were sold at varying fees in specific categories: mechanics, fruiterers (hucksters), fishers, porters, and servants. Most badges bore the geographical locator Charleston. Badges were made of copper of various shapes...

“S” is for 6-0-1 Law (1924). The 6-0-1 Law, passed in March 1924, guaranteed at least a seven-month school term for all White children. Additionally, it shifted the financial responsibility away from local districts, which often lacked resources, to the state. Under the law, the state paid all teacher salaries for six months--provided that local school districts paid for one month. Counties were encouraged but not required to supply additional funding to further expand the school term.  Prior to this act, local districts funded their own schools largely from property taxes. Consequently, school terms varied widely depending on the resou...

“S” is for Seneca (Oconee County; 2020 population 8,850). Founded in 1873, as Seneca City, the town’s name was taken from an earlier Indian village and the nearby Seneca River. It was the arrival of the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad (intersecting with the Blue Ridge Railroad) that was responsible for the town’s establishment. In 1874 Seneca was chartered by the General Assembly. And it was reincorporated in 1908. The town quickly became a commercial center, especially for marketing the area’s cotton crop. Although the town suffered three fires in its first forty years, Seneca recovered without any lasting effects. The econom...

“R” is for Rock Hill Movement. Following the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery and the 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins in Greensboro, African Americans in Rock Hill took the lead in energizing the civil rights movement in South Carolina. In 1957 boycott of the local city bus company resulted in its bankruptcy and the creation of a Black-operated alternative transportation company. In 1960, students at Friendship Junior College organized sit-ins at downtown Rock Hill stores. In January 1961 students arrested refused bail. Their action was the first “jail, no bail” declaration of the civil rights movement and brought the Rock Hill demonstrators national attention. The sit-ins that beg...

“P” is for Pinckney, Eliza Lucas (ca. 1722-1793). Planter, matriarch. Born in the West Indies (probably Antigua), Eliza was educated in London and later moved with her family to a rice plantation on Wappoo Creek near Charleston. When her father returned to Antigua in 1739, he left his teenaged daughter in charge of the plantation. He sent Eliza indigo seed from the West Indies hoping that the crop might be grown in South Carolina. After five years of experimentation, she had cultivated enough indigo to justify the construction of an “indigo works” at Wappoo. In 1744 she married the widowed Charles Pinckney...

“P” is for Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth (1746-1825). Soldier, statesman, diplomat. Born in Charleston, Pinckney was educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, and the Middle Temple. Returning home, he was elected to the Commons House of Assembly. By 1775 Pinckney was a member of all the important revolutionary committees. With the outbreak of hostilities, he was appointed commander of the First Regiment of South Carolina troops. When Charleston fell, he was placed under house arrest and later exchanged. In 1787 Pinckney was an influential delegate to the constitutional convention where he ardently defended the exporting and slaveholding interests of southern planters. In 1796 Pinc...

“M” is for Mennonites. The Mennonites of South Carolina are a Protestant group descended from the Anabaptists of the Reformation. They believe in a conscious choice to join the church (adult baptism), a disciplined church in which members are responsible to each other, and a sharing church in which material needs are met by fellow members. They reject the union of church and state and the validity of oaths and self-defense, including military service. Mennonites began migrating to South Carolina in the late 1960s. By the early twenty-first century there were twelve Mennonite churches in the state—concentrated in Abbevi...

“S” is for Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy. In 1829 the Catholic Bishop John England founded Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy in Charleston. By the 1840s the congregation operated an orphanage, an academy, and a free school for girls and a school for free children of color. The community expanded its ministries in the twentieth century. St. Francis Xavier Hospital, Charleston, added a nursing school in 1900 and a social agency, the Neighborhood House, in 1915.  In York the Sisters opened Divine Savior Hospital and erected a nursing home. In 1989 Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Me...