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My Country
In honor of my grandparents, who fled Vietnam in 1979 and arrived in South Carolina with five children and almost nothing else. My grandfath...
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South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union and the first to fire on it — Fort Sumter fell before a single major battle had been fought, and the war that followed killed 620,000 Americans.
From the Low Country to the Upcountry
The Cherokee, Catawba, Yemassee, and dozens of smaller nations inhabited South Carolina’s varied landscapes before Spanish and French explorers arrived in the sixteenth century. The English established Charles Town in 1670 on the Ashley River — moving it to its present peninsula site in 1680 — and it quickly became the wealthiest city in British North America. That wealth was built on rice and indigo grown by enslaved Africans, many of them brought directly from the rice-growing regions of West Africa whose agricultural knowledge made the Low Country plantations possible.
South Carolina ratified the Constitution on May 23, 1788, becoming the eighth state. The plantation economy dominated by a small Low Country elite shaped its politics from the start. John C. Calhoun — vice president under both Adams and Jackson, senator, and nullification theorist — provided the intellectual framework for states’ rights that eventually justified secession. South Carolina called a Nullification Convention in 1832 to declare federal tariffs void within the state, a preview of 1860.
South Carolina was the first state to secede, on December 20, 1860, and Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861. The fort fell after 34 hours of bombardment with no Union deaths — the bloodless beginning of the war that killed more Americans than any other. Sherman’s army burned Columbia to the ground in February 1865, in one of the war’s most controversial acts. Reconstruction produced Black political leadership: Joseph Rainey became the first Black congressman in 1870, and the state’s Reconstruction-era constitution was among the most progressive in the country.
The Gullah Geechee people of the Sea Islands — descendants of enslaved West Africans who developed a distinct language, cuisine, and culture in the relative isolation of the barrier islands — represent one of the most intact African-derived cultural traditions in North America. Their sweetgrass baskets, coiled from coastal grasses in patterns traced directly to Senegal and Sierra Leone, are sold along Highway 17 north of Charleston and displayed in the Smithsonian. The culture faces pressure from rising real estate values on the Sea Islands, but Gullah Geechee activists have won federal recognition and protections.
Modern South Carolina has diversified dramatically. BMW’s first American factory opened in Spartanburg in 1994; Boeing assembles 787 Dreamliners in North Charleston. Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand draws 14 million visitors a year, more than Yellowstone and Grand Canyon combined. The Charleston tech and medical sectors grow steadily. In 2015, the Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston — nine Black parishioners killed during Bible study — and the subsequent removal of the Confederate battle flag from the State Capitol grounds marked a reckoning that reshaped South Carolina’s public identity, even if the deeper work continues.
1670
Charles Town Founded
English colonists establish Charles Town on the Ashley River — the first permanent English settlement in the Carolinas, soon the wealthiest city in British North America.
1788
Eighth State
South Carolina ratifies the Constitution on May 23, becoming the eighth state. Its Low Country planter elite will dominate national politics for the next seventy years.
1832
Nullification Crisis
South Carolina’s legislature declares federal tariffs null and void within the state. President Jackson threatens military force. The crisis is resolved but the logic of secession is now in print.
1860
First to Secede
South Carolina votes to leave the Union on December 20 — the first state to secede. The ordinance passes unanimously in a convention that meets in Columbia, then moves to Charleston when smallpox breaks out.
1861
Fort Sumter Falls
Confederate batteries open fire on Fort Sumter on April 12. The fort surrenders after 34 hours. No one dies in the bombardment. Over the next four years, 620,000 Americans will die in the war it starts.
1865
Columbia Burns
Sherman’s army occupies Columbia on February 17. The city burns — whether by Confederate retreating forces, drunken Union soldiers, or accident remains disputed. The State House still bears bronze stars marking where Confederate shells struck it during the occupation.
1870
First Black Congressman
Joseph Rainey of Georgetown becomes the first Black member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing South Carolina’s first congressional district during Reconstruction.
1994
BMW Opens in Spartanburg
BMW opens its first American manufacturing plant in Spartanburg — transforming the Upstate’s economy and beginning South Carolina’s emergence as a major automotive and aerospace manufacturing state.
2015
Emanuel AME Shooting
A white supremacist kills nine Black parishioners during Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Governor Haley signs legislation removing the Confederate battle flag from the State Capitol grounds within weeks.
2024
First Presidential Primary
South Carolina holds its Republican presidential primary — the first in the South every cycle — cementing its outsized influence on the nominating process for both parties.
