Editing South Carolina (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of South Carolina}}

===Precolonial period===
[[File:Anonimo portoghese, carta navale per le isole nuovamente trovate in la parte dell'india (de cantino), 1501-02 (bibl. estense) 02.jpg|thumb|left|Top left, the shores of Florida and the future Carolina explored in 1500 and showed in 1502 on the [[Cantino planisphere]]]]

There is evidence of human activities in the area dating to about 50,000 years ago.<ref>University Of South Carolina. [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041118104010.htm "New Evidence Puts Man In North America 50,000 Years Ago."] ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, November 18, 2004.</ref> At the time Europeans arrived, marking the end [[Pre-Columbian era]] around 1600, there were many separate Native American tribes, the largest being the [[Cherokee]] and the [[Catawba people|Catawba]], with a total population being up to 20,000.<ref name=leifermann>{{cite book|last1=Liefermann|first1=Henry|last2=Horan|first2=Eric|title=South Carolina|date=2000|publisher=Compass American Guides|location=Oakland, CA|isbn=978-0-679-00509-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/compassamericang00henr/page/13 13–47, 252–254]|edition=3rd|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/compassamericang00henr/page/13}}</ref>

Up the rivers of the eastern coastal plain lived about a dozen tribes of [[Siouan languages|Siouan]] background. Along the [[Savannah River]] were the [[Apalachee]], [[Yuchi]], and the [[Yamasee]]. Further west were the Cherokee, and along the [[Catawba River]], the Catawba. These tribes were village-dwellers, relying on agriculture as their primary food source.<ref name="leifermann" /> The Cherokee lived in [[wattle and daub]] houses made with wood and clay, roofed with wood or [[Thatching|thatched]] grass.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reference.com/history/type-dwellings-did-cherokee-indians-live-a45ad525016b2b?qo=contentSimilarQuestions|title=What type of dwellings did the Cherokee Indians live in?|newspaper=Reference|access-date=February 12, 2017|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212163851/https://www.reference.com/history/type-dwellings-did-cherokee-indians-live-a45ad525016b2b?qo=contentSimilarQuestions|archive-date=February 12, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

About a dozen or more separate small tribes summered on the coast harvesting oysters and fish, and cultivating corn, peas and beans. Travelling inland as much as {{convert|50|mi|km}} mostly by canoe, they wintered on the coastal plain, hunting deer and gathering nuts and fruit. The names of these tribes survive in place names like [[Edisto Island, South Carolina|Edisto Island]], [[Kiawah Island, South Carolina|Kiawah Island]], and the [[Ashepoo River]].<ref name="leifermann" />

===Exploration===
{{Main|Spanish Florida|French Florida}}
[[File:Floride francaise Pierre du Val.jpg|thumb|left|Map of [[French Florida]], which included modern-day South Carolina]]

The Spanish were the first Europeans in the area. From June 24 to July 14, 1521, they explored the land around [[Winyah Bay]]. On October 8, 1526, they founded [[San Miguel de Gualdape]], near present-day [[Georgetown, South Carolina]]. It was the first European settlement in what is now the [[contiguous United States]]. Established with five hundred settlers, it was abandoned eight months later by one hundred and fifty survivors. In 1540, [[Hernando de Soto]] explored the region and the main town of [[Cofitachequi]], where he captured the queen of the [[Muscogee|Maskoki]] (Muscogee) and the [[Cherokee|Chelaque]] (Cherokee) who had welcomed him.

In 1562 French [[Huguenot]]s established a settlement at what is now the [[Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site|Charlesfort-Santa Elena]] archaeological site on [[Parris Island, South Carolina|Parris Island]]. Many of these settlers preferred a natural life far from civilization and the atrocities of the [[French Wars of Religion|Wars of Religion]]. The garrison lacked supplies, however, and the soldiers (as in the [[France Antarctique]]) soon ran away. The French returned two years later but settled in present-day Florida rather than South Carolina.<ref name="leifermann" />

===Colonization===
{{Main|Carolana|Province of Carolina|Province of South Carolina}}
{{see also|Mississippian shatter zone}}
[[File:Wpdms carolina colony grant.png|thumb|left|The Carolina Colony grants of 1663 and 1665]]
Sixty years later, in 1629, King [[Charles I of England]] established the province of [[Carolana]], an area covering what is now South and [[North Carolina]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[Tennessee]]. Carolana was granted to [[Sir Robert Heath]], who intended to allow French [[Huguenots]] to settle there; however, King Charles refused to grant permission to settle to anyone who was not a member of the [[Church of England|Anglican Church]], leading to the failure of the colony. In 1663, King [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] created the [[Province of Carolina]] by granting the same land to eight [[Lords Proprietors]] in return for their financial and political assistance in [[Restoration (1660)|restoring]] him to the throne in 1660.<ref>{{cite book|first=Danforth|last=Prince|title=Frommer's The Carolinas and Georgia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=43yVaZoByecC|date=March 10, 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-03341-8|page=11|access-date=September 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427112527/https://books.google.com/books?id=43yVaZoByecC|archive-date=April 27, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury|Anthony Ashley Cooper]], one of the Lord Proprietors, planned the [[Grand Model for the Province of Carolina]] and wrote the [[Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina]], which laid the basis for the future colony.<ref>Wilson, Thomas D. ''The Ashley Cooper Plan: The Founding of Carolina and the Origins of Southern Political Culture.'' Chapter 1.</ref> His [[utopia]] was inspired by [[John Locke]], an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism".

The Carolina slave trade, which included both trading and direct raids by colonists,<ref name=Ethridge2010>{{cite book|last=Ethridge|first=R.|year=2010|title=From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion and the Transformation of the Mississippian World, 1540–1715|location=United States|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn= 9780807899335}}</ref>{{rp|109}} was the largest among the British colonies in North America.<ref name=Ethridge2010/>{{rp|65}} Between 1670 and 1715, between 24,000 and 51,000 captive Native Americans were exported from South Carolina – more than the number of Africans imported to the colonies of the future United States during the same period.<ref name="gallay">{{cite book|last=Gallay|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Gallay|year=2002|title=The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South 1670–1717|location=New York|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-10193-7|page=299}}</ref><ref name=Ethridge2010/>{{rp|237}} Additional enslaved Native Americans were exported from South Carolina to other U.S. colonies.<ref name="gallay" /> The historian [[Alan Gallay]] says, "the trade in Indian slaves was at the center of the English empire's development in the American South. The trade in Indian slaves was the most important factor affecting the South in the period 1670 to 1715".<ref name="gallay"/>

In the 1670s, English planters from Barbados established themselves near what is now Charleston. Settlers from all over Europe built rice plantations in the [[South Carolina Lowcountry]], east of the [[Atlantic Seaboard fall line]]. Plantation labor was done by African slaves who formed the majority of the population by 1720.<ref name="sc-lib">{{cite web|title=South Carolina Information: History and Culture|url=http://statelibrary.sc.libguides.com/sc-information/history-culture|website=SC State Library|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213090530/http://statelibrary.sc.libguides.com/sc-information/history-culture|archive-date=February 13, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Another cash crop was the [[Indigofera|indigo plant]], a plant source of blue dye, developed by [[Eliza Lucas]].
 
Meanwhile, [[Upstate South Carolina]], west of the Fall Line, was settled by small farmers and traders, who due to resource competition fought a number of wars with confederated Native American tribes westward. Colonists overthrew the proprietors' rule, seeking more direct representation. In 1712, the former [[Province of Carolina]] split into North and South Carolina. In 1719, South Carolina was officially made a [[crown colony|royal colony]].

South Carolina prospered from the fertility of the lowcountry and the harbors, such as at [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]]. It allowed religious toleration, encouraging settlement, and trade in deerskin, lumber, and beef thrived. Rice cultivation was developed on a large scale on the back of slave labor.

By the second half of the 1700s, South Carolina was one of the richest of the [[Thirteen Colonies]].<ref name="sc-lib"/>

===The American Revolution===
{{Main|South Carolina in the American Revolution|Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War}}
[[File:Recto South Carolina 20 dollars 1777 urn-3 HBS.Baker.AC 1104492.jpeg|alt=A twenty-dollar banknote issued by South Carolina in 1777 with the inscription: "SOUTH CAROLINA. This Bill intitles the Bearer to Twenty Dollars or Thirty two Pounds ten shillings Current Money of this State pursuant to an Ordinance of the General Assembly passed the 14th Day of Feb. 1777." ; Denominations stated as: "TWENTY DOLLARS" and "L32.10". ; Within emblem: "UBI LIBERTAS IBI PATRIA" ; Verso: "XX Dollars. DEATH TO COUNTERFEIT. L. 32:10:0".|thumb|A twenty-dollar banknote issued by South Carolina in 1777]]
On March 26, 1776, the colony adopted the [[Constitution of South Carolina]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/sc01.asp |title=The Avalon Project : Constitution of South Carolina – March 26, 1776 |publisher=Avalon.law.yale.edu |date=June 30, 1906 |access-date=December 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117080717/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/sc01.asp |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> electing [[John Rutledge]] as the state's first president. In February 1778, South Carolina became the first state to ratify the [[Articles of Confederation]],<ref>{{cite web|title=South Carolina State and Local Government|url=http://www.thegreenpapers.com/slg/SC.html|website=The Green Papers|access-date=October 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170115104528/http://www.thegreenpapers.com/slg/SC.html|archive-date=January 15, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> 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,<ref name=gordon>{{cite book|last1=Gordon|first1=John W.|title=South Carolina and the American Revolution : a battlefield history|date=2007|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|location=Columbia|isbn=978-1570036613|edition=Paperback}}</ref> more than any other state.<ref name="sc-lib"/> Inhabitants of the state endured being invaded by British forces and an ongoing civil war between loyalists and partisans that devastated the backcountry.<ref name=gordon/> It is estimated 25,000 slaves (30% of those in South Carolina) fled, migrated or died during the war.<ref>Peter Kolchin, ''American Slavery: 1619–1877'', New York: Hill and Wang, 1994, p.73</ref>

===Antebellum===
{{Main|Antebellum South Carolina}}
[[File:Millford Plantation HABS color 2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Millford Plantation]] built 1839–41, is an example of [[Greek Revival architecture]]]]
America's first census in 1790 put the state's population at nearly 250,000. By the 1800 census, the population had increased 38 per cent to nearly 340,000 of which 146,000 were slaves. At that time South Carolina had the largest population of Jews in the sixteen states of the United States, mostly based in Savannah and Charleston,<ref name=har>[http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/01/a-portion-of-the-people.html Nell Porter Brown, "A 'portion of the People'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904052526/https://harvardmagazine.com/2003/01/a-portion-of-the-people.html |date=September 4, 2018 }}", ''[[Harvard Magazine]]'', January–February 2003</ref> the latter being the country's fifth largest city.<ref>{{cite web|title=POP Culture: 1800|url=https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1800_fast_facts.html|website=United States Census Bureau|access-date=February 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009050257/https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1800_fast_facts.html|archive-date=October 9, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the Antebellum period (before the Civil War) the state's economy and population grew. Cotton became an important crop after the invention of the [[cotton gin]]. While nominally democratic, from 1790 until 1865, wealthy male landowners were in control of South Carolina. For example, a man was not eligible to sit in the State House of Representatives unless he possessed an estate of 500 acres of land and 10 Negroes, or at least 150 pounds sterling.<ref>{{cite web|title=South Carolina Constitution of 1790|url=http://www.carolana.com/SC/Documents/sc_constitution_1790.html|access-date=February 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214181241/http://www.carolana.com/SC/Documents/sc_constitution_1790.html|archive-date=February 14, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Columbia, South Carolina|Columbia]], the new state capital was founded in the center of the state, and the State Legislature first met there in 1790. The town grew after it was connected to Charleston by the [[Santee Canal]] in 1800, one of the first canals in the United States.

As dissatisfaction of the planters ruling class with the federal government grew, in the 1820s [[John C. Calhoun]] became a leading proponent of [[states' rights]], [[limited government]], [[Nullification (U.S. Constitution)|nullification of the U.S. Constitution]], and [[free trade]]. In 1832, the [[Ordinance of Nullification]] declared federal tariff laws unconstitutional and not to be enforced in the state, leading to the [[Nullification Crisis]]. The federal [[Force Bill]] was enacted to use whatever military force necessary to enforce federal law in the state, bringing South Carolina back into line.

An 1831 House Report from the Committee on Military Affairs noted that {{blockquote |text=Before the commencement of the war with Great Britain, and for a long time afterwards, the State of South Carolina was almost destitute of any of the means of military protection, excepting as such could be furnished by her own resources. In the harbor of Charleston alone were there any forts, and these were in so feeble a condition, that at a period, when a British squadron was engaged in sounding the depth of water off the bar, and its commander apparently meditating an attack upon the forts, the quantity of gunpowder in the harbor, belonging to the United States, was not more than sufficient to have enabled the garrison to fire a single round.<ref>{{cite web |title=H. Rept. 22-1 - South Carolina claims. December 15, 1831 |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/SERIALSET-00224_00_00-002-0001-0000 |website=GovInfo.gov |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=21 June 2023}}</ref>}}

In the [[1860 United States presidential election|United States presidential election of 1860]], voting was sharply divided, with the South voting for the [[Southern Democrats]] and the North for [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]. Lincoln was anti-slavery, did not acknowledge the right to [[Secession in the United States|secession]], and would not yield federal property in Southern states. Southern secessionists believed Lincoln's election meant long-term doom for their slavery-based agrarian economy and social system.<ref>[[Avery Craven]], [http://lsupress.org/books/detail/the-growth-of-southern-nationalism-1848-1861/ ''The Growth of Southern Nationalism, 1848–1861''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525205452/http://lsupress.org/books/detail/the-growth-of-southern-nationalism-1848-1861/ |date=May 25, 2017 }}, 1953. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-0006-6}}, p. 391, 394, 396.</ref>

Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860. The state House of Representatives three days later passed the "Resolution to Call the Election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. President a Hostile Act",<ref>{{cite web|title=Resolution to Call the Election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. President a Hostile Act, 9 November 1860|url=http://www.teachingushistory.org/ttrove/ResolutiontocalltheelectionofAbrahamLincolnaHostileActNovember1860.html|website=Teaching American History in South Carolina|access-date=February 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301220726/http://www.teachingushistory.org/tTrove/ResolutiontocalltheelectionofAbrahamLincolnaHostileActNovember1860.html|archive-date=March 1, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> and within weeks South Carolina became the first state to [[Secession in the United States|secede]].<ref name="sc-lib"/>

===American Civil War 1861–1865===
{{Main|Ordinance of Secession|Confederate States of America|South Carolina in the American Civil War}}
[[File:Broad Street Charleston South Carolina 1865.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|[[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] after the end of the American Civil War, 1865]]
On April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries began shelling the Union [[Fort Sumter]] in Charleston Harbor, and the [[American Civil War]] began. In November of that year, the Union attacked [[Port Royal Sound]] and soon occupied [[Beaufort County, South Carolina|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. Whites abandoned their plantations,<ref name="palm-hist"/> leaving behind about ten thousand enslaved people. Several Northern charities partnered with the federal government to help these people run the cotton farms themselves under the [[Port Royal Experiment]]. Workers were paid by the pound harvested and thus became the first enslaved people freed by the Union forces to earn wages.<ref name="vcu">{{cite web|title=The Port Royal Experiment (1862–1865)|url=http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/civil-war-reconstruction/port-royal-experiment/|website=Virginia Commonwealth University|access-date=February 15, 2017|date=February 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215124037/http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/civil-war-reconstruction/port-royal-experiment/|archive-date=February 15, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although the state was not a major battleground, the war ruined the state's economy. More than 60,000 soldiers from South Carolina served in the war,<ref name="palm-hist">{{cite web|title=Civil War in South Carolina|url=http://www.sc150civilwar.palmettohistory.org/edu/cw-sc.htm|website=Palmetto History|access-date=February 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525205833/http://www.sc150civilwar.palmettohistory.org/edu/cw-sc.htm|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> with the state losing an estimated 18,000 troops.<ref>{{cite book|first=Walter B.|last=Edgar|title=South Carolina: A History|location=Columbia, South Carolina|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|year=1998|page=375}}</ref> Though no regiments of [[Southern Unionists]] were formed in South Carolina due to a smaller unionist presence, the [[Upstate South Carolina|Upstate]] region of the state would be a haven for Confederate Army deserters and resisters, as they used the Upstate topography and traditional community relations to resist service in the Confederate ranks.<ref>Carey, Liz. (July 5, 2014). [https://archive.independentmail.com/news/local/the-dark-corner-of-south-carolina-ep-413292035-345851752.html/ The dark corner of South Carolina]. ''Independent Mail''. Retrieved November 1, 2023.</ref> 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. South Carolina would be readmitted to the Union on July 9, 1868.

===Reconstruction 1865–1877===
{{Main|Reconstruction era}}
[[File:Joseph Rainey.jpg|upright=1.0|thumb|[[Joseph Rainey]] was the first black person to serve in the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]]. He represented [[South Carolina's 1st congressional district|SC's 1st congressional district]].]]
In ''[[Texas vs. White]]'' (1869), the Supreme Court ruled the ordinances of secession (including that of South Carolina) were invalid, and thus those states had never left the Union. However, South Carolina did not regain representation in Congress until that date.

Until the [[1868 United States presidential election|1868 presidential election]], South Carolina's legislature, not the voters, chose the state's electors for the presidential election. South Carolina was the last state to choose its electors in this manner. During Reconstruction, South Carolina maintained a majority-black government, which lasted until approximately 1876 when Democrats and former Confederates committed voter fraud to regain power.<ref name="Richardson2018">{{cite web |last=Richardson |first=Heather |date=16 March 2018 |title=South Carolina's Remarkable Democratic Experiment of 1868 |url=http://werehistory.org/south-carolinas-remarkable-democratic-experiment/ |access-date=26 May 2020 |website=We're History}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The First South Carolina Legislature After the 1867 Reconstruction Acts |url=https://www.facinghistory.org/reconstruction-era/first-south-carolina-legislature |access-date=26 May 2020 |website=Facing History and Ourselves|date=March 14, 2016 }}</ref><ref>Lawrence Edward Carter. ''Walking Integrity: Benjamin Elijah Mays, Mentor to Martin Luther King Jr.''. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1998, pp. 43–44</ref> On October 19, 1871, President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] suspended [[habeas corpus]] in nine South Carolina counties under the authority of the [[Ku Klux Klan Act]].<ref name="McFeely pp. 367-374">McFeely (1981), ''Grant: A Biography'', pp. 367–374</ref> Led by Grant's Attorney General [[Amos T. Akerman]], hundreds of Klansmen were arrested while 2,000 Klansmen fled the state.<ref name="McFeely pp. 367-374"/> This was done to suppress Klan violence against African-American and white voters in the South.<ref name="McFeely pp. 367-374"/> In the mid-to-late 1870s, white Democrats used paramilitary groups such as the [[Red Shirts (Southern United States)|Red Shirts]] to intimidate and terrorize black voters. They regained political control of the state under conservative white "[[Redeemers]]" and pro-business [[Bourbon Democrats]]. In 1877, the federal government withdrew its troops as part of the [[Compromise of 1877]] that ended Reconstruction.

===Populist and agrarian movements===

The state became a hotbed of racial and economic tensions during the Populist and Agrarian movements of the 1890s. A Republican-Populist biracial coalition took power away from White Democrats temporarily. To prevent that from happening again, Democrats gained passage of a new constitution in 1895 which effectively [[Disfranchisement#United States|disenfranchised]] almost all blacks and many poor whites by new requirements for [[Poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]], residency, and [[literacy test]]s that dramatically reduced the voter rolls. By 1896, only 5,500 black voters remained on the voter registration rolls, although they constituted a majority of the state's population.<ref>[https://ssrn.com/abstract=224731 Richard H. Pildes, "Democracy, Anti-Democracy, and the Canon", ''Constitutional Commentary'', Vol.17, 2000, p.12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121211213/https://ssrn.com/abstract=224731 |date=November 21, 2018 }}. Retrieved March 10, 2008.</ref> The 1900 census demonstrated the extent of disenfranchisement: the 782,509 African American citizens comprised more than 58% of the state's population, but they were essentially without any political representation in the [[Jim Crow]] society.<ref>[http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php Historical Census Browser, 1900 US Census, University of Virginia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823030234/http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php |date=August 23, 2007 }}. Retrieved March 15, 2008.</ref>

The 1895 constitution overturned local representative government, reducing the role of the counties to agents of state government, effectively ruled by the General Assembly, through the legislative delegations for each county. As each county had one state senator, that person had considerable power. The counties lacked representative government until home rule was passed in 1975.<ref name="governance">[http://www.charlestoncounty.org/MAP/FinalReport/pages219-238.pdf Charlie B. Tyler, "The South Carolina Governance Project"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629080345/http://www.charlestoncounty.org/MAP/FinalReport/pages219-238.pdf |date=June 29, 2019 }}, University of South Carolina, 1998, pp. 221–222</ref>

Governor [[Benjamin Tillman|"Pitchfork Ben" Tillman]], a Populist, led the effort to disenfranchise the blacks and poor whites, although he controlled Democratic state politics from the 1890s to 1910 with a base among poor white farmers. During the constitutional convention in 1895, he supported another man's proposal that the state adopt a [[one-drop rule]], as well as prohibit marriage between whites and anyone with any known African ancestry.

Some members of the convention realized prominent white families with some African ancestry could be affected by such legislation. In terms similar to a debate in Virginia in 1853 on a similar proposal (which was dropped), George Dionysius Tillman said in opposition:
<blockquote>If the law is made as it now stands respectable families in [[Aiken County, South Carolina|Aiken]], [[Barnwell County, South Carolina|Barnwell]], [[Colleton County, South Carolina|Colleton]], and [[Orangeburg County, South Carolina|Orangeburg]] will be denied the right to intermarry among people with whom they are now associated and identified. At least one hundred families would be affected to my knowledge. They have sent good soldiers to the Confederate Army, and are now landowners and taxpayers. Those men served creditably, and it would be unjust and disgraceful to embarrass them in this way. It is a scientific fact that there is not one full-blooded Caucasian on the floor of this convention. Every member has in him a certain mixture of{{nbsp}}... colored blood. The pure-blooded white has needed and received a certain infusion of darker blood to give him readiness and purpose. It would be a cruel injustice and the source of endless litigation, of scandal, horror, feud, and bloodshed to undertake to annul or forbid marriage for a remote, perhaps obsolete trace of Negro blood. The doors would be open to scandal, malice and greed; to statements on the witness stand that the father or grandfather or grandmother had said that A or B had Negro blood in their veins. Any man who is half a man would be ready to blow up half the world with dynamite to prevent or avenge attacks upon the honor of his mother in the legitimacy or purity of the blood of his father.<ref>"All Niggers, More or Less!" ''The News and Courier'', Oct. 17 1895, 5</ref><ref>Joel Williamson, ''New People: Miscegenation and Mulattoes in the United States'' (New York, 1980) 93</ref><ref>Lerone Bennett Jr., ''Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America'', 6th rev. ed. (New York, 1993) 319</ref><ref>Theodore D. Jervey, ''The Slave Trade: Slavery and Color'' (Columbia: The State Company, 1925), p. 199</ref></blockquote>

The state postponed such a one-drop law for years. Virginian legislators adopted a one-drop law in 1924, forgetting that their state had many people of mixed ancestry among those who identified as white.

===20th century===
[[File:Some of the children who go to school half a day.jpg|thumb|Children workers {{circa|1912}}. Some children who worked in South Carolina textile mills went to school half a day and worked before and after school—and eight or nine hours on Saturday.]]
Early in the 20th century, South Carolina developed a thriving [[textile industry]]. The state also converted its main agricultural base from cotton, to more profitable crops. It would attract large [[military base]]s during [[World War I]], through its majority Democratic congressional delegation, part of the one-party [[Solid South]] following disfranchisement of blacks.

In the late 19th century, South Carolina would implement [[List of Jim Crow law examples by state|Jim Crow laws]] which enforced [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] policies until the 1960s. During the early-to-mid part of the 20th century, millions of African Americans left South Carolina and other southern states for jobs, opportunities, and relative freedom in U.S. cities outside the former Confederate states. In total from 1910 to 1970, 6.5&nbsp;million blacks left the South in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]]. By 1930, South Carolina had a white majority population for the first time since 1708.<ref name="info">[http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/us/south-carolina-history.html "South Carolina: The Decline of Agriculture and the Rise of Jim Crowism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210220713/http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/us/south-carolina-history.html |date=December 10, 2014 }}, infoplease (''Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia''), 2012</ref> South Carolina was one of several states that initially rejected the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] (1920) giving women the right to vote. The South Carolina legislature later ratified the amendment on July 1, 1969.

{{See also|South Carolina in the civil rights movement}}
The struggle of the [[civil rights movement]] took place in South Carolina, as they did in other Southern states and elsewhere within the country. South Carolina would experience a much less violent movement than other Deep South states.<ref>Mickey, Robert; ''Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South'', 1944–1972, p. 29 {{ISBN|0691149631}}</ref> This tranquil transition from a [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] society occurred because the state's white and black leaders were willing to accept slow change, rather than being utterly unwilling to accept change at all.<ref>Edgar, Walter; ''South Carolina in the Modern Age'', pp. 104, 107 {{ISBN|087249831X}}</ref> Other South Carolina political figures, like Sen. [[Strom Thurmond]], on the other hand, were among the nation's most radical and effective opponents of social equality and integration.

During the mid-to-late 20th century, South Carolina started to see economic progress first in the textile industry and then in manufacturing. Tourism also started to form into a major industry within the state during the 20th century, especially in areas such as [[Myrtle Beach, South Carolina|Myrtle Beach]] and [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]].<ref>[https://guides.statelibrary.sc.gov/sc-information/history-culture History and Culture - South Carolina State Library]. Retrieved June 24, 2021.</ref>

===21st century===
[[File:Myrtle Beach, North Ocean Boulevard 100420-F-4155R-021.jpg|thumb|right|North Ocean Boulevard in [[Myrtle Beach, South Carolina|Myrtle Beach]], 2010]]
As the 21st century progresses, South Carolina has attracted 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, and no unitary tax on worldwide profits.<ref>[http://sccommerce.com/sc-advantage/pro-business-environment Pro Business Environment] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119184652/http://sccommerce.com/sc-advantage/pro-business-environment |date=January 19, 2016 }} SC Department of Commerce, Accessed on May 10, 2012</ref>

South Carolina was one of the first states to stop paying for "early elective" deliveries of [[Infant|babies]], under either [[Medicaid]] and private insurance.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Galewitz |first=Phil |date=December 8, 2014 |title=Despite Decline, Elective Early Births Remain A Medicaid Problem |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/12/08/369378083/despite-decline-elective-early-births-remain-a-medicaid-problem |access-date=September 7, 2023 |website=NPR }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dahlen |first1=Heather M. |last2=McCullough |first2=J. Mac |last3=Fertig |first3=Angela R. |last4=Dowd |first4=Bryan E. |last5=Riley |first5=William J. |date=March 2017 |title=Texas Medicaid Payment Reform: Fewer Early Elective Deliveries And Increased Gestational Age And Birthweight |url=http://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0910 |journal=Health Affairs |language=en |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=460–467 |doi=10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0910 |pmid=28264947 |issn=0278-2715|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The term early elective is defined as a [[labor induction]] or [[Cesarean section]] between 37 and 39 weeks. The change was intended to result in healthier [[Infant|babies]] and fewer costs for the state of South Carolina.<ref name="urlSC DHHS">{{cite web|url=http://www.scdhhs.gov/press-release/non-payment-policy-deliveries-prior-39-weeks-birth-outcomes-initiative|title=Non Payment Policy for Deliveries Prior to 39 weeks: Birth Outcomes Initiative &#124; SC DHHS|access-date=December 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216075303/http://www.scdhhs.gov/press-release/non-payment-policy-deliveries-prior-39-weeks-birth-outcomes-initiative|archive-date=December 16, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

On November 20, 2014, South Carolina became the 35th state to legalize [[Same-sex marriage in South Carolina|same-sex marriages]], when a federal court ordered the change.<ref>WCNC [http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/19/gay-marriage-begins-in-south-carolina/19285427/ Same-sex marriage begins in South Carolina] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129045149/https://www.wcnc.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/19/gay-marriage-begins-in-south-carolina/19285427/ |date=November 29, 2014 }} 2014/11/19</ref>

As of 2022, South Carolina had one of the lowest percentages among all states of women in state legislature, at 17.6% (only five states had a lower percentage; the national average is 30.7%; with the highest percentage being in [[Nevada]] at 61.9%).<ref>{{cite web |title=Women in State Legislatures for 2022 |url=https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2022.aspx |website=ncsl.org |publisher=National Conference for State Legislatures |access-date=August 5, 2022 |archive-date=August 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220805152241/https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2022.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>