Antebellum South Carolina facts for kids
Antebellum South Carolina refers to the time in South Carolina between the end of the War of 1812 in 1815 and the start of the American Civil War in 1861. During this period, South Carolina's economy and politics were heavily shaped by cotton and the issue of slavery.
After the cotton gin was invented in 1793, both the Upcountry (the western part of the state) and the Lowcountry (the coastal part) became equally wealthy. Growing more cotton meant a huge demand for workers, which led to a big increase in the slave trade. The international slave trade was banned in the U.S. in 1808. At that time, South Carolina was the only state that had not already stopped importing enslaved people. After 1808, a large internal slave trade grew within the United States.
In 1822, Denmark Vesey, a free Black craftsman and preacher, was found guilty of planning a rebellion in Charleston. Because of this, white leaders set curfews for Black people and banned large gatherings of Black people. They also made it illegal to educate enslaved people.
In 1828, John C. Calhoun believed that state governments had more power than the federal government within their own states. He thought a state could "nullify" (cancel) any federal law it disagreed with, like the Tariff of 1828 and the Tariff of 1832. Calhoun resigned as Vice President to become a South Carolina Senator. He wanted to solve problems that were making people in South Carolina consider leaving the United States. Before federal troops arrived in Charleston, Calhoun and Henry Clay agreed on a Compromise Tariff of 1833. This agreement lowered the tariffs over ten years and temporarily solved the nullification crisis.
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Cotton's Big Impact in South Carolina
In 1786, state leaders decided to move the capital from Charleston to a more central spot. This was to ease tensions between people in the Upcountry and Lowcountry. Upcountry citizens had to travel two days to reach government offices in Charleston. The new city of Columbia, South Carolina was planned and built. In 1790, politicians moved there, but some state offices stayed in Charleston until 1865. The Upcountry and Lowcountry even had separate treasury offices.
In 1800, the Santee Canal was finished, connecting the Santee and Cooper Rivers. This made it easier to transport goods from the new capital to Charleston. In 1801, the state started South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) in Columbia.
The Lowcountry was settled first because it was on the coast and had more people. It became wealthy early on by growing rice and long-staple cotton. Long-staple cotton was easier to process by hand. In the Upcountry, only short-staple cotton could be grown. This type of cotton was very hard to process by hand.
In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. This machine made it profitable to process short-staple cotton. Upcountry landowners then started growing much more cotton. They also brought in more enslaved Africans and free Black people to work the crops. The Upcountry developed its own wealthy planter class. These planters began working with Lowcountry planters to protect the institution of slavery.
South Carolina relied too much on cotton, which led to poverty after the Civil War. First, planters ruined large areas of land by growing too much cotton. Second, small farmers in the Upcountry stopped growing food for themselves and focused only on cotton. Third, better profits in other states caused many talented people, both white and Black, to leave South Carolina. From 1820 to 1860, almost 200,000 white people left the state. Many took enslaved people with them, or sold them to traders for plantations in the Deep South. Also, because planters wore out land or moved instead of investing in fertilizer or factories, South Carolina did not start to industrialize until much later.
The Nullification Crisis Explained
In 1811, British ships attacked American ships, leading to the War of 1812. During the war, taxes (called tariffs) on imported goods were raised to help pay for the military. After the war, the North started building many factories. Northern lawmakers passed higher taxes on imports to protect these new industries. The South, however, had an agricultural economy. It did not benefit from these tariffs and felt they hurt its trade of cotton and rice with Great Britain and Europe.
In the 1820s, many South Carolinians began talking about leaving the United States. They wanted to be an independent state with trade laws that suited their own interests. Even John C. Calhoun, who was from South Carolina, started to change his mind. He had once supported a strong central government. But he began to believe that his home state's rights were being ignored for the benefit of the North. He also knew that leaving the Union was politically dangerous.
In 1828, Calhoun decided that "states' rights" were most important. He believed that each state government had more power within its own state than the federal government. So, if a state thought a federal law was unfair, it had the right to "nullify" (cancel) that law within its borders.
Most South Carolinians thought this was a good idea. However, some, like Joel J. Poinsett and James L. Petigru, believed that while a state could leave the Union, it could not cancel a federal law while still part of the Union. The federal government saw nullification as an attack on its power. In 1832, South Carolina's government quickly "nullified" the tariffs. President Andrew Jackson declared this an act of rebellion. He ordered U.S. ships to South Carolina to enforce the law.
In December 1832, Calhoun resigned as Jackson's vice president. He was the only vice president to resign until Spiro Agnew did so much later. Calhoun planned to become a senator in South Carolina. He wanted to stop the state from leaving the Union and solve the problems troubling his fellow Carolinians. Before federal forces arrived in Charleston, Calhoun and Senator Henry Clay agreed on a compromise. Clay convinced Congress to pass the Compromise Tariff of 1833. This law gradually lowered the tariff over 10 years. This agreement prevented a conflict.
The debate about states' rights versus federal power became a major issue between the North and South. This political discussion was linked to how fast the regions were growing. More immigrants came to the North, leading to faster population growth. This gave the North an advantage in Congress, even with the 3/5 compromise that allowed the South to count enslaved people for representation.
In the 19th century, a religious revival in the South was first led by Methodist and Baptist preachers who were against slavery. But gradually, they started to accept the Southern view. The Methodist and Baptist churches grew as their preachers allowed slaveholding. Southern slaveholders used the Bible to justify controlling enslaved people. They saw people who wanted to end slavery as dangerous outsiders. They argued that Northerners had no right to judge slavery because they did not own slaves.
Slave rebellions, like the Denmark Vesey conspiracy in 1822 and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, silenced moderate voices against slavery, especially in the South. These events increased fears and pushed Southerners to strongly oppose ending slavery. This effectively stopped any calm discussion about the issue. South Carolinians had once seen slavery as a necessary evil. But over time, they began to claim it was a positive good. They argued it helped enslaved people and was a proper response to "natural" differences between white and Black people.
Some people, like Thomas Harper, argued that the wage system in the North was worse than slavery. By 1856, Governor James Hopkins Adams even suggested bringing back the foreign slave trade. A powerful group of slaveholders began arguing that every white man should be required by law to own at least one enslaved person. They claimed this would give everyone a stake in the issue and teach responsibility. The Charleston Mercury newspaper spoke out against the slave trade. However, some newly captured enslaved people were brought into Charleston against federal law.
Vesey Plot and Native American Lands
Since colonial times, South Carolina had a large population of free Black people. Many were descendants of mixed-race enslaved people freed by their white fathers. Others were freed for loyal service. Some African Americans bought their freedom with money they earned while being "hired out." White people were always nervous about the presence of free Black people.
In 1822, Denmark Vesey, a free Black craftsman and preacher, was found guilty of planning a rebellion. He planned for both enslaved and free African Americans to overthrow white people in Charleston. After this, white leaders set curfews and banned large gatherings of African Americans. They also made it illegal to educate enslaved African Americans. They believed that if enslaved people learned to read and write, they would become unhappy and harder to control. Free African Americans challenged slavery just by existing. So, South Carolina leaders made it illegal for slaveholders to free their slaves without special permission from the state government. This was similar to what Virginia had done when its slaveholders became worried about freedmen.
Like Denmark Vesey, most of South Carolina's free Black people lived in Charleston. There were more job opportunities and community there. A free African American culture grew in Charleston. Black people in Charleston held over 55 different jobs, including many artisan and craft positions. Some African Americans, like William Ellison, a cotton gin-maker from Sumter, became very wealthy. He made his fortune the same way most wealthy white people did: by using the labor of enslaved Black people.
As settlers moved into western lands controlled by Native Americans, there were often conflicts. Andrew Jackson became President in 1830. He wanted to clear the way for American settlers. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act. This law offered Native Americans land west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands in existing states. Some tribes accepted this, while others resisted. By this time, most of the Cherokee Nation had been pushed west and south out of South Carolina into Georgia.
Mexican-American War and Slavery
South Carolina strongly supported the Mexican–American War. Its leaders believed that winning the war would allow the U.S. to gain new lands where slavery could expand. They hoped this would give slaveholding states more power in the U.S. Congress. The state formed a group of volunteers called the Palmetto Regiment. Cadets and faculty from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in Charleston trained the Palmetto Regiment for the war. The Citadel created a training system that is now known as boot camp. The cadets who trained the regiment were called drillmasters, a term that later became drill instructors.
Under leaders like Pierce M. Butler, the Palmetto Regiment's flag was the first to enter Mexico City. However, mainly due to disease, only 300 men returned alive out of the 1,100 South Carolinian volunteers who fought.
As the Mexican-American War ended, a proposal called the Wilmot Proviso caused new tensions in Congress. This proposal stated that slavery would not be allowed in any territory gained from Mexico. Both national political parties then split along regional lines. The South had provided more soldiers for the war (435,248 compared to the North's 22,136). They expected to be rewarded with new slave states from the conquered lands. Although the proviso passed twice in the House of Representatives, it was defeated in the Senate. However, the argument over whether slavery should expand into new American territories was far from over. This issue eventually became one of the main causes of the American Civil War.
Protest Against the Negro Act of 1740
John Belton O'Neall wrote about the Negro Act of 1740 in his book, The Negro Law of South Carolina. He stated: "A slave may, by the consent of his master, acquire and hold personal property. All, thus required, is regarded in law as that of the master." Across the South, state supreme courts supported this law.
In 1848, O'Neall was the only one to speak out against the Act. He argued that enslaved Africans (many of whom were Christians by then) should be allowed to give testimony under oath. He said:
"Negroes (slave or free) will feel the sanctions of an oath, with as much force as any of the ignorant classes of white people, in a Christian country."
