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James S. White of Rock Hill kept a scrapbook of his activities as a Second Lieutenant in Company G of the first South Carolina Infantry during the Spanish-American War. Here he and his friend J.C...
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Recruits for the army that was raised to fight the Spanish-American War, begun in 1898 when the battleship "Maine" exploded in a Cuban harbor, were trained at Camp Wetherill near Greenville. This Army...
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The Constitution of 1895. This is the present Constitution of the State of South Carolina, which defines state and local governmental power. However, over the last 94 years it has been so amended, or...
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Postcard from Wm. H. Cobb and Co. 5 & 10 Cent Stores, Greenville. "Two South Carolina Products: A County Dispensary and Yoked Oxen as Motive Power." Ca. 1910. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library...
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The official Dispensary liquor label. One of the most controversial political issues in a period when political controversy dominated state politics, was the State Dispensary, a plan under which all...
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George W. Shell, Benjamin R. Tillman, and John L.M. Irby pose for an 1890 photograph with the caption, "Leaders of the Farmer's Movement in South Carolina." The rise and rule of Tillmanism in South...
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In the early 1880s, the federal government began to purchase land in the Port Royal area for a permanent naval base. Plans for such a base had long been the dream of Robert Smalls, the U.S...
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Scarcely had the city of Charleston recovered from the 1886 earthquake than the entire coast, including Charleston, was struck by a devastating hurricane in 1893. It created extensive damage in the...
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Hundreds of people were left homeless by the destruction of the 1886 earthquake. Others feared to stay in their homes lest there should be another quake, or weakened walls collapse. Here, families...
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The force of the 1886 Charleston earthquake knocked this train from its tracks. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
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At 9:45 p.m. on August 31, 1886, a major earthquake struck Charleston. There were 27 people killed in the collapse of buildings, and another 33 died later of injuries. Buildings were destroyed, roads...
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Senator Ben Tillman's "cow cartoons." Elected to the United States Senate in 1894, Tillman went to Washington determined to give the business end of a pitchfork to what he considered federal waste of...
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The South Carolina State Legislature in 1874 was known as the "Republican House," a majority of whom were African-American. Engraving from "Leslie's Illustrated Weekly," September 26, 1874. Courtesy...
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Portrait of Daniel H. Chamberlain, 1864. The events surrounding his election to the governorship in 1876 are dramatic enough to make into a movie or a television series, and can scarcely be done...
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This "composite photograph" brings together 63 members of the 1868 Reconstruction legislature of South Carolina. Of that body, 50 were African-American, 30 were white. Colonel James G. Gibbes of...
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In the aftermath of the 1876 election, Wade Hampton III stood on the steps of the State House on November 28, 1876, urging his followers to avoid acts of violence. Hampton and the Democrats elected to...
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In this Reconstruction-era cartoon labeled "The Present Stage," Governor Franklin Moses, Jr. (see Franklin I. Moses) is pictured in the embrace of African-American voters. Moses had been a supporter...
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The Chester County courthouse was the site of a meeting of the Union League, the Republican organization that dominated Reconstruction politics in the county, uniting African-Americans and a few...
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The Constitution of 1868. Dominated by radical Republicans, the U.S. Congress closed down the South's state governments in 1867 and ordered each state to call a constitutional convention. The Union...
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The Emancipation Proclamation has often been misunderstood, even by those who admire it. Abraham Lincoln disliked the system of slavery, but he made it clear from the beginning that the war effort was...
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Both the Union and the Confederacy had to resort to creative efforts to finance the heavy expenses of the Civil War. Both taxed their citizens. That was not enough, and both governments resorted to...
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Members of the Palmetto Regiment, using authentic Civil War naval uniforms, re-enact the arrest of a Confederate sailor (Gordon Jones) for failing to salute an officer. Confederate and Union naval...
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In an effort to disrupt the federal blockade, the Confederacy resorted to many ingenious plans, but perhaps the most daring of all was the attempt to build and use a submarine. The "Hunley" eventually...
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The Ironclad "Chicora" of the Confederate navy played an important role in attempting to break the federal blockade of the Southern coast during the war. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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A Confederate ram under construction in Charleston. From "Leslie's Illustrated Weekly." Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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A raid of the Second South Carolina Volunteers among the rice plantations along the Combahee. Published in the July 4, 1863, issue of "Harper's Weekly." Courtesy of the Pratt Memorial Library.
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Forfeited estate plat from Port Royal Island. The surveyor reported, "This tract subject to Mrs. Poingsett's Right of Dower during her life." The plat--an official map made by a surveyor that gave the...
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The occupation of the Beaufort area enabled many slaves to flee their masters. In the chaos of war and occupation, many brought with them household goods, furniture, and clothing from the homes their...
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Federal forces under General Stevens march triumphantly into the town of Beaufort on December 5, 1861. "Harper's Weekly" reported to its readers, "The beautiful rural town of Beaufort came into...
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August 19th 1780, three days after the Battle of Camden, another battle was fought. British Provincials from Ninety Six were camped near Edward Musgrove’s grist mill on the Enoree River, with many...