South Carolina History (1711) from The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (Amerisearch, Inc., 2009):
<South Carolina was made a separate Colony from North Carolina. In 1629, England's Charles I granted a patent for the area of the Carolinas, but because it was never acted upon, it wasforfeited. In 1653, a small company of dissenting Quakers arrived from Virginia and began the Albemarle settlement. A few years later, New Englanders purchased land from the Indians on Cape Fear River, but later abandoned it.
In 1663, Charles II granted Sir George Carteret and seven others all of Carolina. Cape Fear was then settled by colonists from Barbados.
Though they established the Church of England, they allowed freedom of worship in order to attract settlers. Difficulty arose when the Constitution framed by the Earl of Shaftesbury, with assistance from philosopher Locke, proved impractical.
In 1670, the foundation of South Carolina was laid with a settlement on the Ashley River. In 1673, Charleston became a permanent settlement. A number of Dutch immigrants arrived from New York, as well as a shipload of slaves.
In 1683, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and Germans from the Rhineland arrived, followed by French Huguenots, driven out of France when the King revoked the Edict of Nantes.
Carolina's self-interested proprietors, stubborn governors, Quakers dissenting from the established Church of England, and the dangerous proximity of Spanish settlements, led to a revolt which banished the governor and, in 1689, resulted in martial law.
Only by the appointment of Quaker proprietor, John Archdale, as governor, was trouble averted. He made many concessions, as did his successor, Joseph Blake. In 1697, religious liberty was accorded to all "except Papists." Indeed, there is no record of any Catholic in South Carolina prior to the Revolution.
In 1704, Church of England settlers attempted to exclude dissenters from the Assembly, but the law was annulled by Queen Anne. From the next several decades, the proprietors tried to regain control of the colony, but the dissension culminated in the Crown dividing South Carolina from North Carolina in 1711 and taking complete royal control in 1729.
This contributed to the colony's animosity toward England's monarch prior to the Revolutionary War. In September of 1775, South Carolina's royal governor was forced to abdicate and flee on a British man-of-war.
South Carolina's first State Constitution was adopted March 26, 1776, and the State ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788. The population of South Carolina in 1820 was 502,741.
South Carolina jealously guarded its States' Rights, which made it the leader in the south prior the Civil War. The State passed a Nullification Act in 1832 in opposition to the high tariffs imposed by the northern Federal Government. On the day of Lincoln's election as President, both Houses of South Carolina's State Legislature passed a resolution considering withdrawal from the Union.
On December 20, 1861, an ordinance was unanimously adopted declaring the "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved."
The population of South Carolina in 1840 was 594,398 and in 1860 it was 703,708.
South Carolina insisted on immediate withdraw of Federal troops from Charleston harbor, but Lincoln refused, making clear he would defend Fort Sumter. On April 12, 1861, South Carolinians attacked Fort Sumter and the Civil War began.
After the War, a State convention was held in 1865 to set up a new government. On January 14, 1868, a convention composed of 34 whites and 63 blacks adopted the new Constitution, followed by 85 black men and 73 white men being elected to the State Legislature. On July 13, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified guaranteeing rights to freed slaves and on March 11, 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified guaranteeing former slaves the right to vote.
A generation after the Revolution, with the disestablishment of the Anglican Church, a diocese was created in 1820 for Catholics scattered in Georgia and the Carolinas. The Irish Rev. John England was consecrated as Bishop. He established the Seminary of Charleston for both Catholics and non- Catholics and founded America's first Catholic newspaper, "The United States Catholic Miscellany." In 1830, he organized the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, wrote a model Constitution of the Church and incorporated trustees.
Bishop England delivered the first Catholic Sermon in the U.S. Capital in the Sunday morning Church service that was held in the House of Representatives, January 8, 1826.
The overflow audience included President John Quincy Adams, who had previously stated, July 4, 1821, that Catholicism and Republicanism were incompatible. Bishop England stated: "we do not believe that God gave to the Church any power to interfere with our civil rights, or our civil concerns...I would not allow to the Pope, or to any bishop of our Church...the smallest interference with the humblest vote at our most insignificant balloting box."
In 1850, the Diocese of Charleston encompassed all the Carolinas, which had a Catholic population estimated at 8,000. The Civil War wrought havoc on Catholics and Church property in the south, culminating in Sherman's destructive march to the sea. After the War, Bishop Patrick Lynch helped rebuild the ruined and penniless diocese.
In 1868, the Diocese of Charleston encompassed all the State of South Carolina. There was an estimated Catholic population in the state 9,650, with 12 Churches served by 31 priests, 17 missions, 75 stations, 8 chapels, 108 religious women, novices and postulants, 5 academies for young ladies with 395 pupils, 9 parishes with 859 parochial school students; one Catholic hospital run by the Sisters of Mercy, at Charleston, and the diocese cared for 72 orphans.
The earliest record of Jewish presence in South Carolina dates from 1695. In 1749 the Jewish community of Kehilat Kadosh Beth Elohim was organized and in 1797 dedicated its first synagogue in Charleston. Built in the Sephardic tradition, Beth Elohim had men's seating on the ground floor facing the reader's desk in the center with accommodations for women in the upstairs gallery. American Reform Judaism traces its origins to the Beth Elohim congregation when a group of synagogue members withdrew in 1825 to establish the Reformed Society of Israelites. A 1872 map of Charleston featured "bird's-eye" view showing Charleston's "Sinagogue" and Hebrew Orphan Asylum, incorporated in 1802 as the first American Jewish orphan care agency.
In 1797, author and poet Penina Moise was born in Charleston. She was the first American Jewish woman to have her works published. A deeply religious woman, she composed hymns for use in prayer services and poems on biblical themes and on contemporary Jewish life.
The population of South Carolina in 1880 was 995,577, in 1900 it was 1,340,316, and in 1910 it was 1,515,400. The 1910 Census listed the State of South Carolina as 26th in population.
In 1910, Beaufort County had the fifth largest African American population of any county in the United States, with 90.5 percent. In 1790, South Carolina was second only to Virginia in the number of slaves, having 107,097. In 1909, there were 2,712 public schools in the State for white children, employing 933 men teachers and 3,247 women teachers for 153,807 pupils. In 1909, there were 2,354 public schools for African American children, employing 894 men teachers and 1,802 women teachers for 123,481 pupils.
There were 27 institutions of higher education for whites and 11 for African Americans. Of the 27 institutions for whites, 5 were non-sectarian, 5 were Presbyterian, 3 were Methodist, 3 were Baptist, and 2 were Lutheran.
As of 1910, the State allowed a rectory and two acres of land with building to be exempt from taxation, and no religious houses are taxed. Catholic religious societies which teach children had their parochial schools exempt from taxation.
Full liberty of conscience was granted in South Carolina, but not as to legalize willful or profane swearing or scoffing or prevent legislation prohibiting the conduct of secular business on Sunday. Sessions of the State Legislature are opened with prayer.> 1711SC001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1711SC001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). South Carolina History, beginning 1711, from William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).