South Carolina - The Palmetto State 2

South Carolina – The Palmetto State

By the second half of the 1700s South Carolina was one of the richest of what were about to become the Thirteen Colonies.

In February, 1778, South Carolina became the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, the initial governing document of the United States, and in May 1788, South Carolina ratified the United States Constitution, becoming the eighth state to enter the union.

During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), about a third of combat action took place in South Carolina, more than in any other state.  Inhabitants of the state endured being invaded by English forces and an ongoing civil war between loyalists and partisans that devastated the backcountry.

In the period before the Civil War the state’s economy and population grew.  Cotton became an important crop after the invention of the cotton gin.

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Cotton Gin

As dissatisfaction with the federal government grew, in the 1820s John C. Calhoun became a leading proponent of states’ rights, limited government, nullification of the US Constitution, and free trade.  Abraham Lincoln was elected president on 6 November 1860. The state House of Representatives immediately passed the “Resolution to Call the Election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. President a Hostile Act, 9 November 1860”, and within weeks South Carolina became the first state to declare secession from the United States.

On April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries began shelling the Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, after US troops refusal to leave the fort peacefully, and the American Civil War began.

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Fort Sumter

In November of that year the Union attacked Port Royal Sound and soon occupied Beaufort County and the neighboring Sea Islands. For the rest of the war this area served as a Union base and staging point for other operations.

Although the state was not a major battleground, the war ruined the economy.

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Civil War Devastation in Charleston

Under conscription, all men aged 18–35 (later 45) were drafted for Confederate service. More than 60,000 served, and the state lost nearly one-third of the white male population of fighting age.

At the end of the war in early 1865, the troops of General William Tecumseh Sherman marched across the state devastating plantations and most of Columbia.

Early in the 20th century, South Carolina developed a thriving textile industry. The state also converted its agricultural base from cotton to more profitable crops; attracted large military bases through its powerful Democratic congressional delegation; and created tourism industries.

The struggle of the civil rights movement took place in South Carolina as they did in other Southern states.  However, South Carolina experience a much less violent movement than Mississippi, Alabama, North Louisiana, or North Florida.  This tranquil transition from a Jim Crow society occurred because the state’s white and black leaders were willing to accept slow change.

As the 21st century progresses, South Carolina attracts new business by having a 5% corporate income tax rate, no state property tax, no local income tax, no inventory tax, no sales tax on manufacturing equipment, industrial power or materials for finished products; no wholesale tax, no unitary tax on worldwide profits.

Economy:

Major agricultural outputs of the state are tobacco, poultry, cotton, cattle, dairy products, soybeans, hay, rice, and swine.  Industrial outputs include textile goods, chemical products, paper products, machinery, automobiles, automotive products and tourism.

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