The Carolina Backcountry Venture

Kenneth E. Lewis

Description

A study of the transformative economic and social processes that changed a backcountry Southern outpost into a vital crossroads

The Carolina Backcountry Venture is a historical, geographical, and archaeological investigation of the development of Camden, South Carolina, and the Wateree River Valley during the second half of the eighteenth century. The result of extensive field and archival work by author Kenneth E. Lewis, this publication examines the economic and social processes responsible for change and documents the importance of those individuals who played significant roles in determining the success of colonization and the form it took.

Established to serve the frontier settlements, the store at Pine Tree Hill soon became an important crossroads in the economy of South Carolina's central backcountry and a focus of trade that linked colonists with one another and the region's native inhabitants. Renamed Camden in 1768, the town grew as the backcountry became enmeshed in the larger commercial economy. As pioneer merchants took advantage of improvements in agriculture and transportation and responded to larger global events such as the American Revolution, Camden evolved with the introduction of short staple cotton, which came to dominate its economy as slavery did its society. Camden's development as a small inland city made it an icon for progress and entrepreneurship.

Camden was the focus of expansion in the Wateree Valley, and its early residents were instrumental in creating the backcountry economy. In the absence of effective, larger economic and political institutions, Joseph Kershaw and his associates created a regional economy by forging networks that linked the immigrant population and incorporated the native Catawba people. Their efforts formed the structure of a colonial society and economy in the interior and facilitated the backcountry's incorporation into the commercial Atlantic world. This transition laid the groundwork for the antebellum plantation economy.

Lewis references an array of primary and secondary sources as well as archaeological evidence from four decades of research in Camden and surrounding locations. The Carolina Backcountry Venture examines the broad processes involved in settling the area and explores the relationship between the region's historical development and the landscape it created.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Plantations in the American South
• Andrew Williamson (soldier)
• Mulberry Plantation (James and Mary Boykin Chesnut House)
• Melrose Plantation
• Wright's Ferry
• Atlantic World
• Colonial war
• Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
• Antebellum South Carolina
• Plantation era
• Cherokee Path
• South Carolina Lowcountry
• Province of Carolina
• Province of Georgia
• The Carolinas
• State
• Slavery in the colonial United States
• Savannah River
• General officer
• South
• Atlantic slave trade
• History of the Americas
• Development
• General
• United States
• FL
• Local
• KY
• LA
• TN
• MS
• SC
• NC
• AR
• VA
• GA

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781611177459
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

The Carolina Backcountry Venture
The Carolina Backcountry Venture

Tradition, Capital, and Circumstance in the Development of Camden and the Wateree Valley, 1740-1810
Kenneth E. Lewis

T HE U NIVERSITY OF S OUTH C AROLINA P RESS
2017 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-744-2 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-61117-745-9 (ebook)
Front cover illustration map: An accurate map of North and South Carolina with their Indian frontiers , Henry Mouzon, 1775, courtesy of the Library of Congress
To the memory of Stephen I. Thompson, teacher, mentor, and friend, whose work inspired my interest in colonization and its impact on those involved in the processes of change associated with it
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Chapter 1. So Great a Change in a Small Community
Chapter 2. More Valuable to the Mother Country Than Any Other Province : The Economic Basis for Colonial Growth
Chapter 3. That Remote Part of the Province : Expansion into the Interior
Chapter 4. Those Townships Being the Frontier Places : Strategies for Settling the Backcountry
Chapter 5. The Great Inconveniences of People in Those Remote Places : Forging a Regional Economy
Chapter 6. The Pine Tree Store: Commercial Expansion into the Backcountry
Chapter 7. Kershaw Co s Store, Where All Sorts of Produce Are Sold : Consolidating Commercial Trade in the Backcountry
Chapter 8. Camden s Turrets Pierce the Skies : The Rise of an Urban Center in the Backcountry
Chapter 9. In Consequence of the Above Order : The Revolution Comes to South Carolina
Chapter 10. An Evil Genius about It : Occupation and War in the Backcountry
Chapter 11. To Promote and Enjoy the Blessings of Peace : Rebirth and Change in the Early National Period
Chapter 12. A New Generation and a New Town
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
2.1
Henry Laurens
2.2
South Carolina and its neighbors at the beginning of the eighteenth century
2.3
Settlement in the South Carolina lowcountry during the early eighteenth century
2.4
Principal nucleated settlements in the vicinity of Charleston
3.1
The Wateree River and other major watercourses in eastern South Carolina
3.2
Cofitacheque in the sixteenth century in relation to other Mississippian mounds
3.3
William Blanding s map of Ancient Works on the Wateree River
3.4
The townships established in 1731
3.5
Plans of the Town of Fredericksburg on Wateree River, by James de St. Julian
3.6
The major landform regions of South Carolina
3.7
Floodplains along the Wateree and Lynches Rivers in the vicinity of Fredericksburg Township
4.1
Principal Indian trade routes in eighteenth-century South Carolina
4.2
The Catawba Path at Sanders Creek in northern Fredericksburg Township
4.3
The expansion of livestock raising in colonial South Carolina during the eighteenth century
5.1
A water-powered grain mill in the South Carolina backcountry
5.2
Early mills in the vicinity of Fredericksburg Township
5.3
Samuel Wyly s landholdings in the vicinity of Pine Tree Creek
5.4
Sketch of a Catawba warrior, perhaps Capt. Redhead
5.5
The Catawba settlements and reservation on the Catawba/Wateree River
5.6
The five militia companies in the vicinity of Fredericksburg Township in 1757
5.7
Topography and soil types in the vicinity of Fredericksburg Township
5.8
Initial settlement patterning in the vicinity of Fredericksburg Township
5.9
The early colonial landscape in the vicinity of Fredericksburg Township
5.10
Principal overland transportation routes in South Carolina at mid-eighteenth century
6.1
Joseph Kershaw
6.2
William Ancrum, Lambert Lance, and Aaron Loocock s initial land acquisitions at Pine Tree Hill in 1758
6.3
Plan of the two earthfast structures at Pine Tree Hill
6.4
Architecture and archaeological plan of an earthfast structure
6.5
Additional tracts acquired by Lambert Lance at Pine Tree Hill in 1761-1762
6.6
Tracts acquired by Joseph Kershaw at Pine Tree Hill and vicinity in 1761-1762
6.7
Catawba ceramics excavated in York County, South Carolina
7.1
Lands acquired by the partnership at Rocky Mount and vicinity
7.2
Lands acquired by the partnership at Cheraw Hill and vicinity
7.3
Lands acquired by the partnership in the Congarees
7.4
Landholdings on the Wateree River in the vicinity of Pine Tree Hill acquired after 1760
7.5
Rural agricultural settlements in the vicinity of Gum Swamp Creek
7.6
The judicial districts and seats in South Carolina in 1769
8.1
Known structures at Camden in the 1760s
8.2
The 1771 plan of Camden based on a survey by John Heard
8.3
Buildings in Camden in the 1770s
8.4
Concentrations of structural materials revealed by archaeological investigations
8.5
Joseph Kershaw s mansion at Camden
8.6
The Kershaw mansion and its associated outbuildings in the 1770s
8.7
Camden and vicinity in 1780
9.1
The American Revolution in South Carolina, 1775-1776
9.2
The Camden magazine erected in 1777 and the fortifications added in 1780
9.3
The seat of war in South Carolina prior to the British invasion of 1780
9.4
The British conquest of South Carolina s interior
10.1
The Earl of Moira, formerly Lord Rawdon
10.2
Garrisons occupied by British and Loyalist forces in South Carolina, 1780-1781
10.3
Plan of the fortified town of Camden in 1781
10.4
Major battles in the vicinity of Camden
10.5
The Kershaw mansion surrounded by fortifications erected during the British occupation
10.6
William Ancrum
10.7
John Chesnut
11.1
Camden District in 1785
11.2
Kershaw County in Camden District in 1791
11.3
Canals constructed in South Carolina between 1792 and 1825
11.4
The Kershaw mansion and vicinity in antebellum times
11.5
Structures on the site of the original settlement of Camden ca. 1800
11.6
The 1798 plan of Camden
12.1
Improvements in overland transportation in South Carolina
12.2
The network of postal routes in South Carolina in 1792
12.3
The network of postal routes in South Carolina in 1810
12.4
The vacant Kershaw mansion at mid-nineteenth century
Preface
It is hard to know where to start to describe a work that has occupied my life for the past forty years. I have not been immersed in it continuously during this time, but it has never been far away. I became acquainted with Camden in the fall of 1974, shortly after I joined the staff of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. The site of the eighteenth-century town had been the subject of several archaeological projects sponsored by the Camden District Heritage Foundation in the 1960s, research aimed primarily at locating the fortifications constructed there during the American Revolutionary War. By the time I arrived, the town site was administered by the Camden Historical Commission, a local administrative unit created by the legislature to operate and develop it as a historical park. Seeking to expand its knowledge of the early settlement, the Commission turned to the Institute to initiate archaeological work designed to explore the town that had been one of the earliest European communities in South Carolina s backcountry.
I had recently completed graduate studies at the University of Oklahoma in which my work focused on the expansion of agricultural societies and their adaptation to conditions encountered on the frontier. As one of the earliest European settlements in South Carolina s interior, Camden seemed to offer an excellent opportunity to investigate the development of a colonial community and the response of its residents to the conditions they encountered. Camden was also an ideal situation in which to examine the role of archaeology in historical research. The late 1960s and early 1970s were a time of debate among archaeologists, and questions had been raised regarding the field s disciplinary orientation as well as the importance of material culture in the study of societies that produced a written record. Many still believed that archaeology could be employed only to support the more complete information revealed by documents. But the then- new archaeology promised an alternate way of examining behavior through an examination of its material remains and emphasized the processes, or regularities, that underlay the actions of people. By investigating the residue of past activities, archaeologists believed they could discern patterns that reflected the processes that shaped the world of the past. Already, archaeologists such as Jim Deetz had demonstrated that the popularity of objects followed regular curves over time, and Stanley South had employed statistical methods to discern historic occupation dates from the relative frequencies of ceramic fragments. Processual archaeologist