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Antebellum South Carolina Antebellum South Carolina is typically defined
by historians as South Carolina during the period between the War of 1812 and the American
Civil War. Due to the invention of the cotton gin in 1786, the economies of the Upcountry
and the Lowcountry of the state became fairly equal in wealth. The expansion of cotton cultivation
in the Upcountry led to a great increase in labor demand, with a concomitant rise in the
slave trade. In 1822, free black craftsman and preacher Denmark Vesey was convicted for
having masterminded a plan to overthrow Charlestonian whites. In reaction, whites established curfews
for blacks, and forbade assembly of large numbers of blacks and the education of slaves.
In 1828, John C. Calhoun decided that constitutionally, each state government within that state had
more power than the federal government. Consequently, if a state deemed it necessary, it had the
right to "nullify" any federal law (the Tariff of 1828 and the Tariff of 1832) within its
boundaries. Calhoun resigned as vice president, as he planned to become a senator in South
Carolina to stop its run toward secession. He also wanted to resolve problems inflaming
his fellow Carolinians. Before federal forces arrived at Charleston in response to challenges
on tariffs, Calhoun and Henry Clay agreed upon a Compromise Tariff of 1833 to lower
rates over 10 years and the "nullification crisis" was resolved for the time being.
The cotton gin's effect on South Carolina In 1786, leaders of the state agreed to ease
tensions between Upcountry and Lowcountry citizens by moving the capital from Charleston
to a location more convenient to both regions. With the capital in Charleston, Upcountry
citizens had to travel two days simply to reach government offices and courts. The town
of Columbia, South Carolina, the first city in America to take that name, was planned
and erected. In 1790, the state's politicians moved in, although state offices remained
in Charleston until 1865. The Lowcountry and Upcountry even had separate treasury offices
with separate treasurers. In 1800, the Santee Canal was completed, connecting the Santee
and Cooper Rivers. This made it possible to transport goods directly from the new capital
to Charleston. In 1801, the state chartered South Carolina College (now the University
of South Carolina) in Columbia. Settled first because of its coastal access,
the Lowcountry had the greater population. It had achieved early economic dominance because
of wealth derived from the cultivation of both rice and long-staple cotton, a major
crop. This was easier to process by hand than short-staple cotton. In the Upcountry's soil,
only short-staple cotton could be cultivated. It was extremely labor-intensive to process
by hand. In 1793, Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton
gin made processing of short-staple cotton economically viable. Upcountry landowners
began to increase their cultivation of cotton and import increased numbers of enslaved Africans
and free blacks to raise and process the crops. The Upcountry developed its own wealthy planter
class and began to work with the Lowcountry to protect the institution of slavery.
The state's over-reliance on cotton in its economy paved the way for post-Civil War poverty
in three ways: planters ruined large swathes of land by over-cultivation, small farmers
in the upcountry reduced subsistence farming in favor of cotton, and greater profits in
other states led to continued departure of many talented people, both white and black.
From 1820-1860 nearly 200,000 whites left the state, mostly for Deep South states and
their frontier opportunities. Many of them took enslaved African Americans with them;
other slaves were sold to traders for the Deep South plantations. In addition, because
planters used up new lands in state or moved rather than invest in fertilizer or manufacturing,
South Carolina did not begin much industrialization until much later.
The Nullification Crisis In 1811, British ships plundered American
ships, inspiring outraged "War Hawk" representatives into declaring the War of 1812. During the
war, tariffs on imported goods were raised to support America's military efforts. Afterward,
as the North began to create manufacturing centers, Northern lawmakers passed higher
taxes on imports to protect the new industries. Because the South had an agricultural economy,
it did not benefit from the tariffs and believed they interfered with the South's trade with
Great Britain and Europe based on cotton and rice.
In the 1820s, many South Carolinians began to talk of seceding from the union to operate
as an independent state with trade laws tailored to its own best interests. Even South Carolina-born
John C. Calhoun, who had begun as a Federalist favoring a strong centralized government,
began to change his views. He believed rights of his home state were being trampled for
the "good" of the North, though he also recognized the political dangers of secession. In 1828,
Calhoun decided upon the primacy of "states' rights", a doctrine which he would support
for the rest of his life. He believed that constitutionally, the state government of
each state had more power within that state than did the federal government. Consequently,
if a state deemed it necessary, it had the right to "nullify" any federal law within
its boundaries. To most South Carolinians, this sounded like
a reasonable compromise. Some in the state, such as Joel J. Poinsett, novelist William
Gilmore Simms, and James L. Petigru, believed that while a state had the full right to secede
from the Union if it chose, it had no right, as long as it remained part of the Union,
to nullify a federal law. The federal government believed the concept of nullification was
as an attack on its powers. When in 1832, South Carolina's government quickly "nullified"
the hated tariffs passed by the full Congress, President Andrew Jackson declared this an
act of open rebellion and 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, 141 years later. Calhoun planned to become a senator
in South Carolina to stop its run toward secession. He wanted to work on solving the problems
that troubled his fellow Carolinians. Before federal forces arrived at Charleston, Calhoun
and Senator Henry Clay agreed upon a compromise. They had often worked effectively together
before. Clay persuaded Congress to pass the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which lowered the
tariff gradually over 10 years (see copy on the page). The passage of this tariff prevented
armed conflict. The debate about the relative importance of
states' rights versus federal power became a dividing line between the North and South.
The political discussion was related to the differing rates of growth of the regions.
Increased immigration to the North had meant a faster rate of growth in its population
and gave it an advantage in representation, despite the 3/5 compromise that allowed the
South to use its enslaved population in figuring Congressional representation.
The 19th century religious revival in the South had first been led by Methodist and
Baptist preachers who opposed slavery. Gradually they began to adopt the Southern viewpoint.
The Methodist and Baptist churches grew as their preachers accommodated slaveholding
as a principle of continuity. Southern slaveholders looked to the Bible for language to control
slaves. Southern slaveholders generally saw abolitionists as dangerous, self-righteous
meddlers who would be better off tending to themselves than passing judgement on the choices
of others. Pro-slavery apologists argued that the Northerners had no place in the debate
over the morality of slavery, because they could not own slaves and would therefore not
suffer the societal impacts that manumission would mean to the South.
The effect of bloody slave rebellions, such as the Vesey revolt of 1822 and John Brown's
massacre at Harper's Ferry in 1859, was to reduce moderate abolitionists to silence,
particularly in the South. These events inflamed fears and galvanized Southerners into an anti-abolitionist
stance that effectively ended reasoned debate on the issue. South Carolinians had earlier
tolerated slavery as a necessary evil. In an evolving concept, they came to proclaim
slavery a positive good, a civilizing benefit to the enslaved, and a proper response to
the "natural" differences between whites and blacks.
Apologists such as Thomas Harper argued that the wage-employee system of the North was
more exploitive than slavery itself. So avid had this defense become that by 1856, Governor
James Hopkins Adams recommended a resumption of the Foreign Slave Trade. A powerful minority
of slaveholders had begun arguing that every white man should legally required to own at
least one slave, which they claimed would give an interest in the issue and instill
responsibility. The Charleston Mercury denounced the slave trade; a number of newly captured
slaves were imported into Charleston against federal law.
The Vesey Plot and the Indian Removal Act Since colonial times, South Carolina had always
been home to a sizable population of free blacks. Many were descended from enslaved
mulattoes freed by their white fathers/owners. Others had been freed for faithful service.
Some African Americans purchased their freedom with portions of earnings they were allowed
to keep when being "hired out". As long as there had been free blacks, free blacks made
the white population nervous. In 1822, free black craftsman and preacher
Denmark Vesey was convicted of having masterminded a plan for enslaved and free African Americans
to overthrow Charlestonian whites. Afterward whites established curfews and forbade assembly
of large numbers of African Americans. They prohibited educating enslaved African Americans,
as they believed slaves' learning to read and write would make them unhappy and less
compliant. Free African Americans posed a challenge to slavery by their very presence.
South Carolina leaders prohibited slaveholders to free their slaves without a special decree
from the state legislature. This was the same path that Virginia had taken when its slaveholders
became uneasy about freedpeople. Like Denmark Vesey, most of South Carolina's
free blacks lived in Charleston, where there were opportunities for work and companionship.
A free African-American subculture developed there. Charlestonian blacks performed more
than 55 different occupations, including a variety of artisan and crafts jobs. Some African
Americans, such as Sumter cotton gin-maker William Ellison, amassed great fortunes. He
did so in the same fashion that most wealthy whites had - by using the labor of black slaves.
As settlers pressed against western lands controlled by Native Americans, violence repeatedly
erupted between them. Andrew Jackson came to the office of President determined to pave
the way for American settlers. In 1830 he signed the Indian Removal Act, by which he
offered Native Americans land in unsettled areas west of the Mississippi River, in exchange
for their lands in existing states. While some tribes accepted this solution, others
resisted. By this time, the Cherokee Nation had been mostly pushed west and south out
of South Carolina into Georgia. The Mexican-American War
South Carolina strongly supported the Mexican War, as its leaders believed success would
allow acquisition of additional lands open to slavery. They hoped for slaveholding states
to acquire greater power in the U.S. Congress. The State raised a regiment of volunteers
known as the Palmetto Regiment. The Palmetto Regiment was prepared and trained for the
Mexican-American War by cadets and faculty at The Citadel, The Military College of South
Carolina in Charleston. The Citadel created a training system which is known today as
"Boot Camp" or "Recruit Training" to prepare the men for combat. The Citadel Cadets that
trained the Palmetto Regiment were known as "Drillmasters" a term which later evolved
to be "Drill Instructors." Under Pierce M. Butler, J.P. Dickinson, and A.H. Gladden,
the Palmetto Regiment's flag entered Mexico City before any other. Chiefly because of
disease, however, only 300 returned alive of the 1,100 South Carolinian volunteers who
fought in the war. As the war drew to a close, the introduction
of the Wilmot Proviso raised sectional tensions, this time over the issue of slavery. Introduced
by a northern congressman as a rider on a war appropriations bill, the proviso specified
that slavery would not be permitted in any territory obtained from Mexico. In the debate
that followed, both national parties split along sectional lines. The South had furnished
more men for the war (435,248 against the north's 22,136) and expected this sacrifice
to be rewarded with new slave states carved out of the conquered territory. Although twice
passed in the House, the proviso was defeated in the Senate. However, the debate over extending
slavery into the new territories was far from over: it would eventually be a major cause
of the Civil War.