Camden is the largest city in and the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Kershaw County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 7,764 in the
2020 census, and the 2022 population estimate is 8,213. It is part of the
Columbia, South Carolina, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Camden is the oldest inland city in South Carolina, and home to the
Carolina Cup and the National Steeplechase Museum.
Geography

Camden is located in the
Midlands of South Carolina, in the south-central part of Kershaw County. It sits on the northeast side of the
Wateree River, a south-flowing tributary of the
Santee River. According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, Camden has a total area of , of which are land and , or 6.21%, are water.
U.S. Route 521 runs through downtown as Broad Street, leading southeast to
Sumter Sumter may refer to:
People Given name
* Sumter S. Arnim (1904–1990), American dentist
* Sumter de Leon Lowry Jr. (1893–1985), United States Army general
Surname
* Rowendy Sumter (born 1988), Curaçaoan footballer
* Shavonda E. Sumt ...
, and north to
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...
.
US 601 runs with US 521 through downtown, leading north with US 521 to
Kershaw, and south on its own to
St. Matthews and to
Orangeburg.
US Route 1 (DeKalb Street) intersects with US 521 and 601 in downtown, leading southwest to the state capital,
Columbia, and northeast to
Cheraw
The Cheraw people, also known as the Saraw or Saura,Sebeok, Thomas Albert''Native Languages of the Americas, Volume 2.''Plenum Press, 1977: 251. were a Siouan-speaking tribe of Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands,Swanton''The Indians ...
.
Interstate 20 passes south of the city's center; it leads east to
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
and southwest to Columbia.
Neighborhoods
*
East Camden
*Knights Hill
*Dusty Bend
*Windsor Heights
*White Gardens
*Arrowwood
*The RaceTracks
*Sunnyhill
History
Colonial years
Camden is the oldest inland city and the fourth oldest city in South Carolina. It is near the center of the
Cofitachequi chiefdom that existed in the 1500s.
In 1730, Camden became part of a township plan ordered by
King George II. Kershaw County's official website states, "Originally laid out in 1732 as the town of Fredericksburg in the
Wateree River swamp (south of the present town) when King George II ordered eleven inland townships established along South Carolina's rivers, few of the area settlers chose to take lots surveyed in the town, choosing the higher ground to the north. The township soon disappeared." In 1758, Joseph Kershaw from
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
, England, came into the township, established a store, and renamed the town "Pine Tree Hill". Camden became the main inland trade center in the colony. Kershaw suggested that the town be renamed Camden, in honor of
Lord Camden, a champion of colonial rights in the British Parliament. In the 1770s it was the site of an early American porcelain factory, established by
John Bartlam.
American Revolution and antebellum era
May 1780 brought the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
to
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...
, when it fell under the Crown's control. Lord Charles
Cornwallis and 2,500 of his Loyalist and British troops marched to Camden and established there the main British supply post for the Southern campaign. The
Battle of Camden
The Battle of Camden (August 16, 1780), also known as the Battle of Camden Court House, was a major victory for the Kingdom of Great Britain, British in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War. On August 16, 1780, British forces ...
, the worst American defeat of the Revolution, was fought on August 16, 1780, near Camden, and on April 25, 1781, the
Battle of Hobkirk's Hill was fought between about 1,400 troops led by General
Nathanael Greene
Major general (United States), Major General Nathanael Greene (August 7, 1742 – June 19, 1786) was an American military officer and planter who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War. He emerge ...
and 950 Loyalists and British soldiers led by Lord
Francis Rawdon. The latter battle was a costly win for the British and forced them to leave Camden and retreat to the coast.
After the Revolution, Camden's prominence and wealth grew as a major interior trading town with direct ties to Charleston and the world. Regional products, augmented with goods from the interior of
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
and far lands to the west were transported from Camden to Charleston on flat-bottom riverboats that plied the adjacent Wateree River before the railroad arrived in 1842. An Episcopal seminary opened in the town in 1857, but the campus burned during Sherman's invasion. The school did not reopen.
American Civil War and later years
Camden was the source of six
Confederate generals during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
.
Richard Rowland Kirkland
Richard Rowland Kirkland (August 1843 – September 20, 1863), known as "The Angel of Marye's Heights", was a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War, noted by both sides for his bravery and the story of his humanitarian actions dur ...
– "The Angel of Marye's Heights" – is interred in the
Old Quaker Cemetery. At the end of the war, components of
Sherman's army burned Confederate and nearby properties, including a full block of downtown buildings. The last Federal officer killed in the Civil War was 1st Lt E.L. Stevens of the
54th Massachusetts
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry ...
Infantry who died in a skirmish 9 miles south of Camden at the
Battle of Boykin's Mill on April 18, 1865.
Starting in the mid-1880s the Camden area became an increasingly popular destination for wealthy northern families to spend the winter. Eventually, three resort hotels provided winter tourism activities well into the 1930s and beyond. The town became associated with many equestrian activities and is now the home of the third oldest active
polo
Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...
field in America. In the winter, more than 1,500
thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...
s call the area home. According to Kershaw County's web site, "Horse-related activities became very popular. That interest in equine activities has continued and today the horse industry is a major part of the county's economy. For that reason, the city is known as the '
Steeplechase Capital of the World'."
In 1950, Dupont opened the Dupont May Plant in Camden which manufactured
Orlon. The plant was located on five miles of land and employed over 2,000 people. For many years it was the town's largest employer. In 1977, DuPont notified the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the List of United States federal agencies, United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related occ ...
of a study the company conducted which showed an "excessive incidence and cancer mortality" rate among a cohort of workers who worked at the plant from 1950 to 1955. The findings were liked to a major chemical component of Orlon,
acrylonitrile
Acrylonitrile is an organic compound with the formula and the structure . It is a colorless, volatile liquid. It has a pungent odor of garlic or onions. Its molecular structure consists of a vinyl group () linked to a nitrile (). It is an im ...
. Citing issues with foreign competition, Dupont ended the production of Orlon in 1990.
Since the closure of the Orlon plant, the town has attracted a number of manufacturing companies such as Hengst GmbH & Co. and
Haier
Haier Group Corporation () is a Chinese multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong. Its Haier Smart Home Company affiliate, of which it owns 35%, designs, develops, manufactures and se ...
. In 2003, Target opened an $85 million distribution center in the town.
Jewish community
Camden has long had a Jewish community. Members of the community have included
David Camden de Leon,
Mordecai M. Levy,
Chapman Levy, and
Bernard Baruch
Bernard Mannes Baruch (August 19, 1870 – June 20, 1965) was an American financier and statesman.
After amassing a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange, he impressed President Woodrow Wilson by managing the nation's economic mobilization in W ...
.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the
2020 United States census, there were 7,788 people, 2,905 households, and 1,810 families residing in the city.
2010 census
As of the census
of 2010, there were 6,838 people living in the city limits, in 2,967 households and 1,800 families. The population density was . There were 3,544 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 62.2%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 35.1%
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.20%
Native American, 0.7%
Asian, 0%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 2.7% from
other races, and 1.1% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Latino people of any race were 2.4% of the population.
There were 2,967 households, out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.1% were married couples living together, 16.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.3% were non-families. 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.94.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 21.9% under the age of 18, 20.1% from 18 to 39, 34.5% from 40 to 64, 17.3% from 65 to 84, and 4.3% who were 85 years of age or older. The median age was 45.3 years. 45.0% of the population was male and 55.0% of the population was female.

The median income for a household in the city was $48,313, and the median income for a family was $62,140. Males had a median income of $42,597 versus $32,524 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,385. About 13.7% of families and 15.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.3% of those under age 18 and 13.2% of those aged 65 or over.
Government
Camden has a city manager–council form of government. Alfred Mae Drakeford, an African American woman, was elected
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of Camden in November 2016. Current City Council members are Hamilton Boykin; Joanna B. Craig and Stephen R. Smoak.
Camden has been represented in the
South Carolina Senate
The South Carolina State Senate is the upper house of the South Carolina General Assembly, the lower house being the South Carolina House of Representatives. It consists of 46 senators elected from single member districts for four-year terms at ...
by
Vincent Sheheen, who was born in Camden;
Penry Gustafson,
Thomas McElveen, and currently by
Jeffrey R. Graham, a former Camden Mayor and City Council member. Camden is part of
South Carolina's 5th Congressional District, which is represented by
Ralph Norman
Ralph Warren Norman Jr. (born June 20, 1953) is an American real estate developer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for since 2017. His district includes most of the South Carolina side of the Charlotte metropolitan ...
.
Education
The
Kershaw County School District is the governing body of the public schools in the area. The district operates Pine Tree Hill Elementary School, Jackson Elementary School, Camden Elementary School, Woolard Technology Center (WTC), Camden Middle School, and
Camden High School.
Camden Military Academy, the Montessori School of Camden, and Cornerstone Christian School are private institutions.
Central Carolina Technical College has two branches located in Camden.
Camden has a
public library
A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...
, a branch of the Kershaw County Library.
Arts and culture
The
Carolina Cup is an annual event held on either the final Saturday in March or the first Saturday of April. The first race was held on March 22, 1930, and has been held every year since, with the exception of 1943 and 1945 during World War II and 2020 due to the
coronavirus
Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...
. The races have become a South Carolina tradition, and normally draw a crowd of over 70,000 spectators. "The Cup" has become a premier social sporting event in Camden and in South Carolina. The race is held at the Springdale Race Course, just north of Camden. The National Steeplechase Museum is located near the course. Among major steeplechase horse races, the Carolina Cup is unique that in South Carolina state law prohibits gambling on horse racing.
Held annually on the first Saturday of March, Irish Fest Camden draws over 2,000 visitors to its celebration of Saint Patrick's Day and Irish and Celtic culture. Founded in 2017, the festival features live Irish music and dancing, the Lucky Leprechaun 5K race, heavy event athletics, a kids zone, arts & crafts, a Medieval/Renaissance encampment, Irish wolfhounds, Gypsy Vanner horses, exotic birds, food trucks, and festive green beer.
Revolutionary War Field Days are the signature event of Historic Camden, held the first full weekend of November since 1970. Hundreds of reenactors from across the country converge on the grounds to camp, battle, and celebrate over the weekend. Visitors have a chance to be a spectator for a battle each day, and they will be able to walk through the camps of the combatants while seeing demonstrations of Colonial crafts and skills. Colonial sutlers (merchants) and scholars giving talks about the war are on site as well. More than 3,400 spectators and 350 reenactors and demonstrators attended the 2017 event.
Transportation
*
Seaboard Air Line Railway Depot
*
Woodward Field (Kershaw County Airport)
Media
The ''Chronicle-Independent'' has served as the local
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
of Camden since 1889.
WPUB-FM is a
radio station
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
licensed to Camden that broadcasts
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music.
Since 2 ...
format.
WCAM 1590 is another radio station licensed to Camden, which broadcasts in
adult standards
Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.
Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...
format.
Notable people
*
Thomas Austin,
NFL player
*
Bernard Baruch
Bernard Mannes Baruch (August 19, 1870 – June 20, 1965) was an American financier and statesman.
After amassing a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange, he impressed President Woodrow Wilson by managing the nation's economic mobilization in W ...
, financier and presidential adviser
*
Charles Bennett, NFL player
*
Brook Benton
Benjamin Franklin Peay (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988), known professionally as Brook Benton, was an American singer and songwriter whose music transcended rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music genres in the 1950s and 1960s, with ...
, singer
*
Mary Chesnut, author and Civil War diarist
*
Robert Clarkson, lawyer, tax protester
*
Larry Doby
Lawrence Eugene Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003) was an American professional baseball player in the Negro league baseball, Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball color line, bas ...
, first African American to play in the
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...
, member of
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...
*
Bobby Engram, NFL player
*
Vonnie Holliday, NFL player
*
Lorenzo James, 19th-century politician
*
Joseph Brevard Kershaw (1822–1894), lawyer, judge and general
*
Lane Kirkland (1922–1999), union leader of
AFL–CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...
*
Michael Kohn,
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
player
*
Kathleen Parker, journalist, winner of
2010 Pulitzer Prize for commentary; resident of Camden
*
Vincent Sheheen,
state senator
A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature.
History
There are typically fewer state senators than there ...
and 2010 Democratic nominee for
governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
*
Mendel L. Smith, politician and judge who served as
Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives[https://kershawcountyhistoricalsociety.org/2013/10/20/october-program-mendel-l-smith-legislator-judge/]
*
Jacqueline Van Landingham, Central Intelligence Agency officer
*
Scipio Vaughan, former slave and founder of the influential
Vaughan family in the United States and
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
.
*
John C. West, Governor of South Carolina (1971–1975)
*
Lois Rhame West, First Lady of South Carolina (1971–1975), first woman to chair the
Muscular Dystrophy Association
Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS, and related Neuromuscular disease, neuromuscular diseases. Founded in 1950 by Paul Cohen, who lived wi ...
.
*
Johnson Chesnut Whittaker (1858–1931), one of the first black men to win an appointment to the
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
at
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
*
Richie Williams,
CFL player
*
Samuel E. Wright, actor and Broadway performer
*
Shawn Elliott, Head Collegiate Coach, Georgia State University
See also
*
List of historic landmarks in Camden, South Carolina
References
Further reading
* Inabelt, Joan & L. Glen Inabinet, ''A History of Kershaw County, South Carolina''. (University of South Carolina Press, 2011). 718 pg. See pp. 90, 237, 271, 328, 398, 427,431, 433, 538, 558–59.
* Lewis, Kenneth E. ''The Carolina Backcountry Venture: Tradition, Capital, and Circumstance in the Development of Camden and the Wateree Valley, 1740—1810'' (University of South Carolina Press, 2017). xviii, 436 pp.
* Stokes, Karen D., ed. "Sherman's Army Comes to Camden: The Civil War Narrative of Sarah Dehon Trapier", ''South Carolina Historical Magazine,'' 109 (April 2008), 95–120.
External links
Official websiteHistoric CamdenKershaw County Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center
{{Authority control
Cities in South Carolina
Cities in Kershaw County, South Carolina
County seats in South Carolina
Populated places established in 1732
Columbia metropolitan area (South Carolina)