Olde English District

South Carolina was one of the thirteen colonies that first formed the United States. European exploration of the area began in April 1540 with the Hernando de Soto expedition, which unwittingly introduced diseases that decimated the local Native American population. In 1663, the English Crown granted land to eight proprietors of what became the colony. The first settlers came to the Province of Carolina at the port of Charleston in 1670. They were mostly wealthy planters and their slaves coming from the English Caribbean colony of Barbados. They started to develop their commodity crops of sugar and cotton. The Province of Carolina was split into North and South Carolina in 1712. Pushing back the Native Americans in the Yamasee War (1715–17), colonists next overthrew the proprietors' rule in the Revolution of 1719, seeking more direct representation. In 1719, South Carolina became a crown colony.

In the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765, South Carolina banded together with the other colonies to oppose British taxation and played a major role in resisting Great Britain. In March 1776, South Carolina statesmen adopted a temporary system of provincial government, a precursor to the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. During the American Revolutionary War, South Carolina was the site of major activity amongst the American colonies, with more than 200 battles and skirmishes fought within the state. South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788.

Upon South Carolina's statehood, the states economy was centered on the cultivation of cotton on plantations in the sea islands and Low Country, along with rice, indigo and some tobacco as commodity crops, which was worked by indentured servants, most from America. The invention of the cotton gin enabled profitable processing of short-staple cotton, which grew better in the Piedmont than did long-staple cotton. The hilly upland areas, where landowners were generally subsistence farmers with few slaves, were much poorer; a regional conflict between the coastal and inland areas developed in the political system, long dominated by the Low Country planters. In the early-to-mid 19th century, with outspoken leaders such as John C. Calhoun, the state vied with Virginia as the dominant political and social force in the South. It fought federal tariffs in the 1830s and demanded that its rights to practice slavery be recognized in newly established territories. With the 1860 election of Republicans under Abraham Lincoln, who vowed to prevent slavery's expansion, many voters demanded secession. In December 1860, the state was the first to secede from the Union, and in February 1861, it joined the new Confederate States of America.

The American Civil War began in April 1861, when Confederate forces attacked the American fort at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. After the collapse of the Confederacy in 1865, South Carolina underwent Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877. The Civil War would ruin the states economy, and continued reliance on agriculture cultivation as its main economic base, made South Carolina one of the poorer states economically in the country. During Reconstruction, Congress shut down the civilian government in 1867, put the army in charge, gave African American men the opportunity to vote, and prevented former Confederates from holding office. A Republican legislature supported by Freedmen, northern carpetbaggers and local white Southern scalawags, created and funded a public school system, and created social welfare institutions. The constitution they passed was kept nearly unaltered for 27 years, and most legislation passed during the Reconstruction years lasted longer than that.

During the late 19th century, conservative Southern Democrats calling themselves "Redeemers", had regained political power. In the 1880s, Jim Crow laws were passed that were especially severe in the state, to create public segregation and control movement of African American laborers. After 1890, almost all blacks had lost their political voice due to disfranchisement. State educational levels were low, as public schools were underfunded, especially for African Americans. Most people lived on small farms and grew crops such as cotton. The more affluent landowners subdivided their land into farms operated by tenant farmers or sharecroppers, along with land operated by the owner using hired labor. Gradually more industry moved into the Piedmont area, with textile factories that processed the state's raw cotton into yarn and cloth for sale on the international market.

In the first half of the 20th century, many blacks left the state to go to northern cities during the Great Migration. During the Jim Crow era, segregation was rigidly enforced, limiting African Americans' chances for education, free public movement, and closing them out of the political system. The federal Civil Rights laws of the 1960s ended segregation, and protected the voting rights of African Americans. Until the mid-20th century, the state was politically a part of the Democratic Solid South. Many African Americans had been affiliated with the Republican Party, but after 1964, became mostly loyal Democrats, while most white conservatives flipped to being Republican.

During the mid-to-late 20th century, South Carolina started to grow more economically. The main economic driver of cotton production started to fade during the mid-20th century, due to mechanization. As more factories were built across the state, the great majority of farmers left agriculture occupations for jobs in other economic sectors. Service industries such as tourism, education, and medical care would grow rapidly within the state. Textile factories started to fade after the 1970s, with offshore movement of those jobs to other countries. By the late 20th century, South Carolina voted solidly Republican in presidential elections, although state and local government elections would be contested by both parties. In the early 21st century South Carolina's economic industries included markets such as aerospace, agribusiness, automotive manufacturing, and tourism. By the 2020 U.S. census, South Carolina's population had reached 5 million.

Pre-Columbian history

The earliest date of human habitation in what would later become South Carolina is disputed. Since the 1930s, the prevailing theory concerning the Settlement of the Americas is that the first human inhabitants were the Clovis people, who are thought to have appeared approximately 13,500 years ago."Clovis Culture" entry in the ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology'': "9,500–9,000 BC". Artifacts of the Clovis people have been found throughout most of the United States and beyond, including South Carolina. Since the early 21st century, however, this standard theory has been challenged based on the discovery and dating of pre-Clovis sites. One of these, the Topper Site, is located on the Savannah River in modern-day Allendale County. In 2004, worked stone tools were found there were dated by radiocarbon techniques possibly to 50,000 years ago, but those dates are highly disputed. Regardless, the first stage of human habitation is termed the Lithic stage, and marked by the widespread use of lithic flaked stone tools for hunting. Around 10,000 BC, they began to use spears and hunted big game. At the time this would have included the Elk, White-tailed deer, and American Bison, and possibly some species of Pleistocene megafauna.

During the Archaic period of 8000 to 2000 BC, the peoples of South Carolina gathered nuts, berries, fish and shellfish as part of their diets. Trade between the coastal plain and the piedmont developed. Stallings Island, located in modern-day Georgia close to its border with South Carolina, is home to the oldest known pottery in North America. Beginning as early as 3,800 BCE, Stallings Island-style fiber- tempered pottery spread down the Savannah River and along the coast to the north and south. Stallings Culture sites were semi-permanent; pottery here preceded crop domestication and inhabitants relied mainly on shellfish harvesting. After about 500 years, Stallings Culture sites disappear from the archeological record for as yet unclear reasons they also like greg.

The Woodland Period began around 1000 BCE, lasting (depending on the chronology used) until contact with Europeans. It saw the development of more serious agriculture, more sophisticated pottery, and the bow and arrow.Edgar 1998, pp. 11–12 From 800 BCE to 700 CE, the coastal regions of South Carolina participated in the Deptford culture. This culture was characterized by the appearance of elaborate ceremonial complexes, increasing social and political complexity, mound burial, permanent settlements, population growth, and an increasing reliance on cultivated plants. After 800 CE, the Deptford Culture was superseded by the Early Mississippian Culture, with the peoples of South Carolina belonging to the South Appalachian Mississippian sub-group. It is believed that they adopted Mississippian traits from their northwestern neighbors. In the Midlands and Lowcountry, typical settlements were located on riverine floodplains and included villages with defensive palisades enclosing platform mounds and residential areas. In the Piedmont, villages with single platform mounds were more typical of the river valley settlements. Mississippian sites in South Carolina include Chauga Mound and Adamson Mounds. From 1200 CE, archeological artefacts from South Carolina exhibit the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, a regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture. It coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization.

By the time of the first European exploration, twenty-nine tribes or nations of Native Americans, divided by major language families, lived within the boundaries of what became South Carolina. These peoples are generally considered part of the Southeastern Woodlands cultural group. Algonquian-speaking tribes lived in the low country, Siouan and Iroquoian-speaking in the Piedmont and uplands, respectively.

Colonial period

By the end of the 16th century, the Spanish and French had left the area of South Carolina after several reconnaissance missions, expeditions and failed colonization attempts, notably the short-living French outpost of Charlesfort followed by the Spanish town of Santa Elena on modern-day Parris Island between 1562 and 1587. In 1629, Charles I, king of England, granted his attorney general a charter to everything between latitudes 36 and 31. He called this land the Province of Carolana, which would later be changed to "Carolina" for pronunciation, after the Latin form of his own name.

In 1663, Charles II granted the land to the eight Lords Proprietors in return for their financial and political assistance in restoring him to the throne in 1660. Charles II intended that the newly created Province of Carolina would serve as an English bulwark to the contested lands claimed by Spanish Florida and prevent Spanish expansion northward. The eight nobles ruled the Province of Carolina as a proprietary colony. After the Yamasee War of 1715–1717, the Lords Proprietors came under increasing pressure from settlers and were forced to relinquish their charter to the Crown in 1719. The proprietors retained their right to the land until 1719, when the South Carolina was officially made a crown colony.

In April 1670, settlers arrived at Albemarle Point, at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. They founded Charles Town, named in honor of King Charles II. Throughout the Colonial Period, the Carolinas participated in many wars against the Spanish and the Native Americans, including the Yamasee and Cherokee tribes. In its first decades, the colony's plantations were relatively small and its wealth came from Native American trade, mainly in Native American slaves and deerskins.

The slave trade adversely affected tribes throughout the Southeast and exacerbated enmity and competition among some of them. Historians estimate that Carolinians exported 24,000–51,000 Native American slaves from 1670 to 1717, sending them to markets ranging from Boston in North America to Barbados. Planters financed the purchase of African slaves by their sale of Native Americans, finding that they were somewhat easier to control, as they did not know the territory to make good an escape.

Perhaps the most notable moment in history for South Carolina was the creation of the Regulators in the 1760s, one of the first organized militias in the New World. The militia proposed ideas of independence and brought increased recognition to the need for backcountry rights in the Carolinas. This led to the War of the Regulators, a battle between the regulators and the British soldiers, led mainly by British Royal Governor William Tryon, in the area. This battle was the first catalyst in the American Revolution.

Native people

Divided roughly along the Santee River were the two main groups of Native American peoples— Eastern Siouan & the Cusaboan tribes. Relative to the Siouans were mostly the Waccamaw, Sewee, Woccon, Chickanee (a smaller offshoot of the northern Wateree), Winyaw & the Santee (not to be confused with the Dakota Santee of the west.)."The Unabridged Version of Tribes of the Carolina Lowland: Pedee – Sewee – Winyaw – Waccamaw – Cape Fear – Congaree – Wateree – Santee." Stanley South. University of South Carolina – Columbia, [email protected] (1972) Most of the region south of the Santee River was controlled by the Muskogean Cusabo tribes. Some Muskogean speaking tribes, like the Coree lived among the Siouans, however. North of the Sewee were the Croatan, an Algonquian nation related to the Chowanoke, Piscataway, Nanticoke & Powhatan further north. Many descendants of the Croatan survive among the Lumbee, who also took in many Siouan peoples of the region. Deeper inland were the lands of the Chalaques, or ancestral Cherokees.

Other tribes who entered the region over time were the Westo, an Iroquoian people believed to have been the same as the Erie Indians of Ohio. During the Beaver Wars period, they were pushed out of their homeland by the Iroquois & conquered their way down from the Ohio River into South Carolina, becoming a nuisance to the local populations & damaging the Chalaques. They were destroyed in 1681, and, afterward, the Chalaques split into the Yuchi of North Carolina & the Cherokee to the south, with other fragment groups wandering off into different areas. Also, after this conflict, Muskogeans wandered north and became the Yamasee. When the Cherokee & Yuchi later reformed into the Creek Confederacy

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