Expansion of South Carolina 1729 - 1765 by Robert Lee Meriwether, 1890-1958 Southern Publishers, Inc...1940   South Carolina Genealogy Trails Transcribed by Dena Whitesell

PREFACE The peoples who settled in the uplands bordering the southern Blue Ridge and in corresponding areas of the northern colonies established a new and distinct American frontier. There was an essential unity in this "Old West," as F. J. Turner pointed out in 1908, but while similarity of industry and society bound its settlers together, other forces and factors split the section into segments. The first advance into the back country was by rivers and land routes from the nearest seaboard communities; colonial boundaries paralleled these natural transportation lines and cut across the piedmont. Thus provincial expansion and political authority established ties with the coast which were strengthened as trade increased. At the same time strong sectional feeling was developing, the South Carolina phase of which is effectively traced  in W. A. Schaper's "Sectionalism and  Representation." The process which filled the back country with small farmers was not the only colonial expansion. An older and more spectacular movement, long before the settlement of the piedmont, carried English trade and influence into the heart of the continent. The earlier chapters of this story have been written with rare skill by Verner W. Crane in his Southern Frontier. The progress of the South Carolina back country, as in the case of several other colonies, was at times profoundly affected by the Indian trade and its accompanying alliances, and a subordinate but important part of my work has been to set forth, from a superabundance of material, the later stages of imperial development. For the actual processes of South Carolina settlement—the primary concern of this book—there are, in comparison with other states, enormous and surprisingly complete records. Of material for some of the most important phases of intellectual life and daily routine, however, there is little or none. It is partly to compensate for the incompleteness of the picture, partly for their own inherent interest, that I have devoted so much attention to the prosaic yet eloquent records of individual settlers in their eager quest of land. This volume began with settlement and frontier studies under Professors M. W. Jernegan and W. E. Dodd of the University of Chicago. It has been completed under the supervision of Professor E. B. Greene of Columbia University, to whom grateful thanks are tendered for counsel and assistance. Professors G. P. Voigt of Wittenberg College, Ohio, and J. H. Easterby of the College of Charleston, and Miss Leah Townsend of Florence, South Carolina, have read portions of the manuscript and have given aid on difficult problems. Professor D. D. Wallace of Wofford College offered helpful criticisms on the draft of the first nine chapters which he had in hand while writing the first volume of his History of South Carolina, and suggested additional material. Professor J. A. Krout of Columbia University, Miss Anne King Gregorie of Columbia, South Carolina, and Mr. C. L. Epting of Clemson College, have likewise read portions of the manuscript and made suggestions. The Social Science Research Council assisted by a grant covering a summer's work. My chief debt, however, is to my wife, Alargaret Babcock Meriwether, for invaluable aid in the task of revision and in reading proof. Among curators and librarians I am most of all obliged to Mr. A. S. Salley, Secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina, who gave every facility for use of the records in his custody, secured duplicates from the British Public Record Office when this research disclosed gaps in series, and constantly assisted in identification of material. To Miss Harriet J. Clarkson and Mr. F. M. Hutson of the Historical Commission staff, to the staff of the office of the Secretary of State, and to Miss Mabel L. Webber, Secretary of the South Carolina Historical Society, are due likewise cordial appreciation and thanks. The gracious aid of Miss Ellen M. Fitzsimons, Librarian of the Charleston Library Society, and the help of her assistants, made the use of the files of newspapers there a pleasure. I am also indebted to the custodians of other libraries and offices noted in the bibliography and footnotes. (refer to a copy of this book to view the footnotes) This list of acknowledgements would not be complete without grateful mention of the fine courtesy and helpfulness of farmers, tenants and field laborers who discussed with me soil problems and helped to identify forgotten roads and sites of the old back country. Robert L. Meriwether. Contents The Background of Expansion I. South Carolina in 1729..........3 II. Governor Johnson's Township..........17 The Settlement of the Middle Country - The Western Townships III. Purrysburg..........34 IV. Amellia and Orangeburg..........42 V. Saxe Gotha and the Congarees..........66 The Settlement of the Middle Country - The Eastern Townships VII. Williamsburg and Kingston..........79 VIII. Queensboro and the Welsh Tract..........89 IX. Fredericksburg and the Waterees..........99 The Settlement of the Back Country X. The Northwest Frontier..........117 XI. The Waxhaws and the Upper Wateree..........136 XII. The Dutch Fork and Upper Broad River..........147 Back Country and Frontier XIII. The Back Country in 1759..........160 XIV. The Southern Indians and Their Trade..........185 XV. The Cherokee War..........213 XVI. The Growth of the Back Country, 1760 - 1765..........241 Maps 1. South Carolina in 1729..........2 2. The Western Townships..........32 3. The Congarees..........52 4. The Eastern Townships..........78 5. The Back Country..........112 6. The Northwest Frontier..........116 7. The Back Country in the Cherokee War..........212 Abbreviations CSCHS: Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society JC: Journal of the Council JCHA: Journal of the Commons House of Assembly JUHA: Journal of the Upper House of Assembly P: Plats PR: Public Records of South Carolina SCAGG: South Carolina and American General Gazette SCG: South Carolina Gazette SCGGJ: South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal SCHGM: South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine States: Statutes at Large of South Carolina