SOUTH CAROLINA

constituent state of the United States of America, one of the 13 original colonies. It lies on the southern Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Shaped like an inverted triangle with an eastwest base of 285 miles (459 kilometres) and a northsouth extent of about 225 miles, the state is bounded on the north by North Carolina, on the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the southwest by Georgia. It ranks 40th among the 50 states in size and has a geographic area of 31,113 square miles (80,583 square kilometres). Columbia, located in the centre of the state, is the capital and largest city. Settled by the English in 1670, South Carolina had a wealthy, aristocratic, and influential colonial society based on a plantation agriculture that relied on a labour force of black slaves. By 1730, blacks had come to represent two-thirds of the colony's total population. The plantation system spread into the Piedmont in the early 19th century, and the new state became part of the Cotton Belt that stretched across the South. The Civil War shattered South Carolina's economy and influence, and for a century thereafter the state suffered economic, social, and political turmoil. The 1960s brought a major change as South Carolina's economy industrialized, its metropolitan areas grew, and the civil rights movement swept across the state. The Deep South. constituent state of the United States of America, lying in the South Atlantic region of the country. Roughly triangular in shape, South Carolina faces the Atlantic Ocean along the southeast and is bounded by North Carolina on the north and northeast and by Georgia on the southwest. The capital is Columbia. The state extends about 225 miles (362 km) from north to south and 285 miles (459 km) from east to west. At the time of initial European settlement, South Carolina was inhabited by Yamasee Indians. Spanish and French settlements were established and abandoned along the coast in the 16th century. A 1629 land grant by Charles I of England was settled, and in 1663 Charles II rechartered it to a group of eight proprietors. The first permanent European settlement was made in 1670 by 143 whites and 5 black slaves at Charles Town on the Ashley River. The settlers moved their town to the present site of Charleston in 1680. The colony reverted to British crown rule in 1729. In spite of constant threats from the Spanish, French, pirates, and Indians, the settlements, mostly along the rivers, thrived from a healthy trade in pelts, rice, and indigo. Charleston became the commercial and cultural centre of the southeastern coast. During the American Revolution there were several military campaigns in the state, the most notable being the British defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens. In 1788 South Carolina was the eighth state to ratify the Constitution. Even before the Revolution, a fundamental rivalry had developed between the wealthy plantation aristocrats of the coastal lowlands and the more numerous frontier settlers inland. As a compromise the capital was moved inland to Columbia in 1786. With the invention of the cotton gin, slavery also moved inland, and up-country people grew wealthy raising cotton. In spite of lingering cultural differences, the state's white population was unified by proslavery sentiments, and a strong states' rights movement developed out of objection to high federal tariffs that were harmful to Southern commerce. South Carolina was the first Southern state to secede from the Union (Dec. 20, 1860), and the engagement with federal troops at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour in April 1861 led the nation into the Civil War. The state's readmission to the Union occurred in 1868. After black participation in government during a severely administered Reconstruction period, white South Carolinians in 1876 regained control of the government. Constitutional revisions in 1895 disenfranchised almost all the state's blacks, and a rigid policy of racial segregation developed that rendered blacks almost powerless until the mid-1960s. Physiographically, South Carolina can be divided into two main regions: the broad Coastal Plain and the rolling Piedmont farther inland. Along the coast is a fringe of sandy islands separated from the mainland by marshes and lagoons. The state drains generally southeastward through parallel river systems, the largest of which are the Pee Dee, Santee, Cooper, Edisto, and Savannah. The South Carolina climate is subtropical with long, hot, humid summers and mild winters. Average January temperatures range from 38 to 50 F (3 to 10 C). Mean July temperatures vary from 71 to 81 F (22 to 27 C). Most of the state receives about 49 inches (1,245 mm) of rain per year. The growing season varies from 200 days inland to 300 days on some coastal islands. Soils are well-suited for agriculture, but forests cover about two-thirds of the land. The early white settlement of South Carolina was primarily by English-speaking peoples. Immigrants from southern and central Europe largely bypassed the state. The black population exceeded the white population between 1810 and the 1920s. By 1980, however, the percentage of blacks had declined to about 30. The state was predominantly rural until the 1970s, but the 1980 census revealed that more than half of the population lived in areas classified as urban. The population is generally clustered in small portions of the state, leaving vast areas almost uninhabited. South Carolina is a leader in American textile manufacturing. Cotton fabrics make up much of the output, but synthetics and wool are also important. Chemicals, clothing, and paper and allied products are other leading manufactures. Nearly all the giant industrial firms in the country have plants in South Carolina, and it has been among the most successful in the nation in encouraging foreign investments. Tourism is the state's second largest industry. Agriculture contributes significantly to the economic base, with the main crops being tobacco, soybeans, cotton, peaches, peanuts (groundnuts), and watermelons; poultry and cattle are also important. Clays, cement, stone, and sand and gravel are the most valuable mining products. Reforestation and other forest-management programs have caused a rapid increase in the state's supply of timber. Shrimp, crabs, and oysters are the main products of the coastal commercial-fishing industry. The state is easily accessible to the nation's highway and railroad systems, airways, and sea-lanes. Charleston is notable for its atmosphere and architecture, reflecting the antebellum heritage that pervades many parts of the state. Beaufort, Georgetown, and Columbia also provide examples of early American architectural design. The University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and The Citadel are noted institutions of higher learning. Area 31,113 square miles (80,582 square km). Pop. (1990) 3,486,703. Additional reading Charles F. Kovacik and John J. Winberry, South Carolina: A Geography (1987), discusses historical and economic geography. Writers' Program, South Carolina: A Guide to the Palmetto State (1941, reprinted as South Carolina: The WPA Guide to the Palmetto State, 1988), still provides useful general information. DeLorme Mapping Company, South Carolina Atlas & Gazetteer (1998), contains topographic maps of the state. Jack Bass, Porgy Comes Home: South Carolina . . . After 300 Years (1972), looks at the social and economic revolutions of the 1960s. Pat Conroy, The Water Is Wide (1972, reissued 1987), depicts the changing society in the Sea Islands. Articles on South Carolina's geography, people, history, and traditions may be found in the magazine Sandlapper (quarterly).David Duncan Wallace, The History of South Carolina, 4 vol. (1934), remains the classic history of the state. A more recent work is Louis B. Wright, South Carolina: A Bicentennial History (1976). Specific eras are dealt with in Robert M. Weir, Colonial South Carolina: A History (1983, reissued 1997); Alfred Glaze Smith, Economic Readjustment of an Old Cotton State: South Carolina, 18201860 (1958); John Barnwell, Love of Order: South Carolina's First Secession Crisis (1982); and Ernest McPherson Lander, A History of South Carolina, 18651960, 2nd ed. (1970). Ongoing historical research is printed in South Carolina Historical Magazine (quarterly). John J. Winberry The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica