This book describes the turbulent transformation of South Carolina from a colony rent by sectional conflict into a state dominated by the South's most unified and politically powerful planter leadership. Rachel Klein unravels the sources of conflict and growing unity, showing how a deep commitment to slavery enabled leaders from both low- and backcountry to define the terms of political and ideological compromise. The spread of cotton into the backcountry, often invoked as the reason for South Carolina's political unification, actually concluded a complex struggle for power and legitimacy. Beginning with the Regulator Uprising of the 1760s, Klein demonstrates how backcountry leaders both gained authority among yeoman constituents and assumed a powerful role within state government. By defining slavery as the natural extension of familial inequality, backcountry ministers strengthened the planter class. At the same time, evangelical religion, like the backcountry's dominant political language, expressed yet contained the persisting tensions between planters and yeomen. Klein weaves social, political, and religious history into a formidable account of planter class formation and southern frontier development.

Describes the history of South Carolina from the time of the earliest European settlers to the formulation of a new country.

How is the state produced? In what ways did enslaved African Americans shape modern governing practices? Ryan A. Quintana provocatively answers these questions by focusing on the everyday production of South Carolina's state space—its roads and canals, borders and boundaries, public buildings and military fortifications. Beginning in the early eighteenth century and moving through the post–War of 1812 internal improvements boom, Quintana highlights the surprising ways enslaved men and women sat at the center of South Carolina's earliest political development, materially producing the state's infrastructure and early governing practices, while also challenging and reshaping both through their day-to-day movements, from the mundane to the rebellious. Focusing on slaves' lives and labors, Quintana illuminates how black South Carolinians not only created the early state but also established their own extralegal economic sites, social and cultural havens, and independent communities along South Carolina's roads, rivers, and canals. Combining social history, the study of American politics, and critical geography, Quintana reframes our ideas of early American political development, illuminates the material production of space, and reveals the central role of slaves' daily movements (for their owners and themselves) to the development of the modern state.

This hardbound, coffee-table-size, heirloom quality book contains 565 pages and features 144 photos. The author begins with a framework of regional and national events. Onto this backdrop he weaves a mesmerizing true story of evolving society in a small South Carolina community. Readers experience horrors of the American Revolutionary War, then stability and prosperity in the fabled Cotton Kingdom. The author paints a graphic picture of initial euphoria, followed by privation and suffering, during the brutal American Civil War. The little village prospered thereafter, but disaster struck in the early 1900s. The dreaded boll weevil, demise of the small farmer, death of King Cotton, and Great Depression sucked lifeblood out of the town. Hard times forged unity, and families bonded together. Togetherness honed interpersonal skills and responsible citizenship. When venturing into mainstream America, town natives rose head-and-shoulders above the masses. In the sciences, the arts, the humanities, and the professions they excelled. Most credit their experience in the little town for their many worldly successes. The author weaves a spellbinding story. He uses plats, maps, deeds, letters, photos, and newspaper articles to breathe life into this riveting saga of life in rural America. The mystical lure of the laid-back little village has prompted many former residents to return in their later years. Most agree that their utopian rural home is truly "Heaven in South Carolina."

"Masculinity doesn't have to be toxic, but some men choose to put poison on their tongue ..." The Birth Of All Things is an eclectic mix of poems from Marcus Amaker, the first Poet Laureate of Charleston, SC.This personal collection delivers poems about a wide range of topics: life as a new dad, racism in America, Bjork, anxiety, Star Wars, masculinity, pandemics, black music, history, and more. Amaker is an award-winning graphic designer, musician, and performance poet. The Birth Of All Things is the sum of all of his talents.The book features an original illustration from Florida artist Nick Davis.