South Carolina Genealogy

Charleston is a city in Charleston County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location in 1690. Up until 1800, Charleston was the fifth largest city in North America, behind Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and Quebec City. It adopted its present name in 1783. Also known as The Holy City, Charleston brims with the culturally unique, such as the joggling board. Read the rest of this entry »

Ninety Six was established in the early 1700s. It derived its name from the mistaken belief that it was 96 miles to the nearest Cherokee settlement of Keowee. The National Park Service has established a National Historic Site there to mark the location of the settlement.
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The Cherokee Path (also Keowee path) was the primary route from Charleston to Columbia, South Carolina in Colonial America, connecting all of the Cherokee territories. The path was mapped in 1730 by George Hunter, the Surveyor-General of the Province of South Carolina. It ran 130 miles from Charlestown to the colonial settlement of Ninety Six, then to Fort Prince George and the Cherokee village of Keowee, the principal town of the Cherokee Lower settlements (in present day Oconee, Greenville, Pickens and Anderson counties). Read the rest of this entry »

Purrysburg was a colonial town in Beaufort County, South Carolina. While the town itself was abandoned, the settlers were successful. The town was located on the South Carolina bank of the Savannah River.
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Fort Motte is significant in South Carolina history in that it appeared as a temporary fort during the revolutionary years; and, later, it was considered as a possible location for the capitol for the newly-formed state of South Carolina (before Columbia was chosen). Read the rest of this entry »

Francis Marion (circa 1732 – February 26 or February 27, 1795) was an American Brigadier General in the American Revolutionary War. He became known as the “Swamp Fox” for his ability to use decoy and ambush tactics to disrupt enemy communications, capture supplies, and free prisoners. Read the rest of this entry »

Fort Moultrie is the name of a series of forts on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, built to protect the city of Charleston, South Carolina. The first fort, built of palmetto logs, inspired the flag and motto (Palmetto State) of South Carolina. Read the rest of this entry »

St. Helena, South Carolina is one of the South Carolina Sea Islands in Beaufort County, South Carolina that are historic sites of early European colonization of North America. St. Helena is also the center of African-American Gullah culture and language. Read the rest of this entry »

Prior to the American Revolution, the British began taxing American colonies to raise revenue, particularly outraging South Carolinians with the Townsend Acts that taxed tea, paper, wine, glass, and oil. To protest the Stamp Act, South Carolina sent wealthy rice planter Thomas Lynch, 26-year old lawyer John Rutledge, and Christopher Gadsden to the Stamp Act Congress, held in 1765 New York. Other taxes were removed, but tea taxes remained. Soon South Carolinians, in emulation of the Boston Tea Party, began to dump tea into the Charleston Harbor, shortly followed by many boycotts and protests. Read the rest of this entry »

By the end of the 16th century, the Spanish and French had gone from the area of South Carolina after several colonization attempts and reconnaissance missions. In 1629 Charles I granted his attorney general a charter to everything between latitudes 36 and 31. Later, Charles II gave the land to eight nobles, the Lords Proprietors, who ruled over the Carolinas until 1719 when South Carolina was split off from North Carolina and became a British province. Read the rest of this entry »