Proud to be one of the Purple States of America
An Introduction to South Carolina

When I first moved here at the beginning of 2001, my only association with this state was that Charleston, the city where I settled, was the Capitol of the Confederacy in the war that I consider an embarrassing episode of our history second only to the systematic extermination and marginalization of the indigenous population. It took the inauguration of the SC DoP Campaign pages to force me to do some research and find some things about this state that would earn it a place among the leaders of propeace activism.

Charles Towne (now Charleston) was first settled in 1670 when the Morris Island lighthouse was established to help seagoing vessels in and out of our port, which is actually an inland peninsula. SC became the eighth state of the infant United States of America on May 23, 1788. Prior to that, SC and NC were a territory called Carolus that was granted by King Charles I of England to Sir Robert Heath in 1629. By the mid 1600s, parcels of the Carolinas were undergoing development by the Lords Proprietors. All through that century, the Appalachian Mountains were recognized as a natural dividing line, but the territory was not officially divided into North Carolina and South Carolina until 1710.

Charleston played a major role in the Revolutionary War by defending Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island (unnamed at that time) against the attack of the British, and this is the imagery that is shown on the state flag. The fort was made of palmetto logs - thus, the cabbage palmetto became the state tree. And that crescent does not represent the moon, as I had originally thought. During the revolutionary war, local soldiers wore such a crescent on the hats of their uniforms so that their home state could be identified.

SC enjoys some unique natural phenomena. A 4 ½-hour road trip brings us through three entirely different geographic regions. The coastal plain occupies the outer 2/3 of the state at sea level, more or less. Then a gradual 500-foot climb brings us to the piedmont plateau. As we travel, we can see the flat landscape with its sandy soil and semi-tropical vegetation give way to a more mixed vegetation growing in dark soil. The rolling hills raise our altitude until finally, just as we leave the state, we get to the Blue Ridge Mountains with our highest point, Sassafras Mountain, at just over 3500 feet. So we have everything from mountains to beaches - and speaking of beaches, while our continental coastline is only 187 miles, if we include the coastlines of our many barrier islands, we actually boast almost 3000 miles of beaches!

SC is a state full of contradictions. It was only recently that the confederate flag was removed from our statehouse, yet our ethnic heritage is very rich. There is a subculture along the coast of the Carolinas that is unique in the world. They call themselves the Gullah; they have their own dialect of black English along with their own style of music, dance, and cooking. The Gullah Shout is the call-and-response style of singing that originated in West Africa and then became blended with southern spiritual music. As for dance, you probably know about the Charleston from the roaring ‘20s, but did you know that a dance called the Big Apple originated in Columbia at about the same time? The current favorites include the shag, a flexible style of dance that can be done to any kind of music from rhythm and blues to beach music, and a full range of folk dances including square, round, contra, line, clogging, and other heritage dances. The cooking is very similar to the creole style in New Orleans, LA; in fact, Charleston is often called Little New Orleans. I guess when you start with the same basic ingredients - major port for access to spices, major body of water for access to seafood, and rich ethnic diversity - the end product is bound to be similar.

I live just three blocks from the College of Charleston, our first college, established in 1770. The town of Greenwood boasts the widest main street in the world. The town of Winsboro boasts the longest continuously operating town clock in the country. Columbia boasts the oldest brickworks in the country and was the boyhood home of Woodrow Wilson. And Charleston boasts several firsts: February 18, 1735, the performance of the first opera; 1772, the first public museum; 1786, the first golf club; 1822, the first fireproof building; and probably a few more that I've missed. In the Charleston area is also located the only domestic tea farm in the nation on Wadmalaw Island where American Classic Tea comes from, and the largest remaining stand of bald cypress and tupelo trees in the world.

This state is 40th in land area of the 50 states, and we have a population of about four million. As such, we have only six Congressional Districts and eight electoral votes, so we're a bit off the beaten political track. We have three major metropolitan areas, any of which could be considered the largest in the state, for whatever that's worth. Our capitol, Columbia, is in the geographic center of the state and has a population just over 116,000. Second is Charleston, about halfway up the coast, with a population just over 96,000; however, in spite of the fact that it has its own City Hall, we consider North Charleston as much a suburb of Charleston as West Ashley or Mt. Pleasant, so the metropolitan area actually boasts a population just over 176,000. Third, at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, is Greenville at just over 56,000, but I would guess that this is the largest metropolitan area by both measures of square mileage and population, since the folks that live there consider themselves as part of a tri-city area called Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson.

These three metropolises are connected by I-26 which crosses our state from southeast to northwest. Crossing from southwest to northeast we have I-20 which enters our state from Augusta, GA through the town of Aiken and continues through Columbia to I-95 in the small city of Florence; I-95 is the major north-south highway that enters our state from Savannah, GA at Hilton Head and goes all the way "up north." Our mid-state I-77 connects Columbia with Charlotte, NC.

I hope my fellow South Carolina peace activists have found something of which they can be proud in this little orientation tour, and that those of you from elsewhere now know a bit more about your comrades. Y'all come visit us soon, heah?

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