"The Muse of History has been so much in love with Mars, that she has seldom conversed COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY W. J. DUFFIE, NEWBERRY, S. C. PRINTED BY WALKER, EVANS & CO. CHARLESTON. 1858 AND WHO, AFTER TWO REVOLUTIONS, IN LESS THAN ONE CENTURY, HAVING ACQUIRED LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE, MADE A PRUDENT USE OF THESE INESTIMABLE BLESSINGS, BY ESTABLISHING, ON THE BASIS OF REASON AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN, A SOLID, EFFICIENT, AND WELL BALANCED GOVERNMENT, WHOSE OBJECT IS PUBLIC GOOD, WHOSE END 18 PUBLIC HAPPINESS, BY WHICH INDUSTRY HAS BEEN ENCOURAGED, AGRICULTURE EXTENDED, LITERATURE CHERISHED, RELIGION PROTECTED, AND JUSTICE CHEAPLY AND CONVENIENTLY ADMINISTERED TO A RAPIDLY INCREASING POPULATION. 1 IN HOPES THAT THE DESCENDANTS OF SUCH SIRES WILL LEARN, FROM THEIR EXAMPLE TO LOVE THEIR COUNTRY AND CHERISH ITS INTERESTS, THE FOLLOWING HISTORY IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. The growing importance of the United States excites an increasing curiosity to be acquainted with their early history. Of their wars and of their late revolution much has been written, but a development of the causes which, in less than two centuries, have raised them from poverty to riches-from ignorance to knowledgefrom weakness to power-from a handful of people to a mighty multitudefrom rude woodsmen to polished citizens-from colonies guided by the leading strings of a distant island to a well regulated, self-governed community, has not been sufficiently the subject of attention. It is a work of too much magnitude to be incorporated in a general history of the whole, and cannot be done to purpose otherwise than by local histories of particular provinces or states. Much useful knowledge on these subjects is already lost, and more is fast hastening to oblivion. A considerable portion of it can now only be recovered by a recurrence to tradition-for records of many events worthy of being transmitted to posterity have either never been made, or if made have been destroyed. Every day that minute local histories of these states are deferred is an injury to posterity-for by means thereof more of that knowledge which ought to be transmitted to them will be irrecoverably lost. These views were so forcibly impressed on the author of the following work, that he began many years ago to collect materials for writing a detailed history of the State in which Providence had cast his lot. In vain did he expect complete information from public records. On many interesting subjects they were silent-the most early were illegible-others were lost in the hurricanes or fires which at several successive periods have desolated Charleston, Much of what escaped from these calamities was destroyed in the invasions of the State by the British in 1779 and 1780. Of what remained every practicable use was made; but to remedy their defects, application was made to the only repositories of facts on which reliance could be placed. This was the recollection of old citizens and especially of such as were the descendants of the first settlers. To them, in the year 1798, he addressed a circular letter and queries on a variety of subjects connected with the history of Carolina.* These were sent to *SIR--Having made some progress in collecting materials for a general HISTORY of SOUTH-CAROLINA from its first settlement, I beg the favor of you to furnish me, in Charleston, with information on any subjects that may properly be incorporated in such a work; and in particular, with answers to all or any of the following inquiries, at least as far as they respect the vicinity of your residence. If you should not have leisure for this purpose, I request that you would put them in the hands of some suitable person who may be willing to collect and transmit the wished-for information. Charleston, November 19, 1798. I am, your most obedient, humble servant, DAVID RAMSAY. The time when the settlement of your parish or county began? the date of the oldest grants of land; and the place from which the first settlers migrated, with some account of the most remarkable of them? The Indian name of your parish or county: what tribes of Indians formerly occupied it? notice of their monuments and relics which may remain? if they have disappeared, when and by what means? if still in your settlement, or the vicinity, what is their present state, condition and number? Biographical anecdotes of persons in your settlement, who have been distinguished for their ingenuity, enterprise, literature, talents civil or military? Topographical descriptions of your parish or county, or its vicinity--its mountains, rivers, ponds, animals, useful and rare vegetable productions; stones, especially such as may be useful for mills, lime, architecture, pavements, or for other purposes; remarkable falls, caverns, minerals, sands, clays, chalk, fint, marble, piteoal, pigments, medicinal or poisonous substances, their uses and antidotes? The former and present state of cultivation; what changes has it undergone; an account of the first introduction of rice, indigo, &c. Your ideas of further improvements, either as to the introduction of new staples or the improvement of the old, or with respect to roads, bridges, canals, opening the navigation of the rivers or boatable waters? An estimate of the expenses and profits of a well-cultivated field, of any given dimensions, say 20 acres, in tobacco, cotton, rice, wheat, or corn, with the average price of land? The distinction of soils, with a notice of the productions to which they are respectively best adapted: a notice of the different kinds of useful timber; the proportion between cleared and uncleared land; and of the proportions between the number of inhabitants and number of acres? What are the natural advantages in your vicinity for the erection of mills, and for other labor-saving machinery; for catching and curing fish, and for raising stock? Singular instances of longevity and fecundity? observations on the weather, epidemic and other diseases, and the influence of the climate or of particular situations, employments or aliments; and especially the effects of spirituous liquors on the human constitution? Is your population, distinguishing white from black, increasing, decreasing, or stationary; and the causes and evidences thereof? |