Industry and the Gilded Age (1878-1889)

The Eight Box Law of 1882 was an election law designed to ensure white supremacy in South Carolina without violating the Fifteenth Amendment, which barred states from depriving their citizens of the vote on the basis of race.

During the late nineteenth century, the use of electricity by municipalities and in private residences was a growing phenomenon in South Carolina.

Ellerbe entered politics in 1889 when he joined the Farmers Alliance. However, his membership was suspended when it was discovered that he engaged in merchandising.

In South Carolina, Elliott’s education and ability quickly placed him among the most influential African Americans in the state.

After the war, Ensor became active in the Republican Party and moved to South Carolina. In 1870 Governor Robert K. Scott appointed him superintendent of the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum.

Evans was active in activities at Spartanburg’s Episcopal Church of the Advent and in the local chapter of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Though he was a lawyer rather than a farmer, Evans had strong ties to the “Reform” or “Farmers’” movement of Benjamin R. Tillman.

During the Depression, Evans concentrated on providing maternity and infant health care after federal funds for those services ceased.

In South Carolina, the Alliance movement “swept over our state like a wave” in the late 1880s, first appearing in the Pee Dee region.

Although the association’s early rhetoric claimed that it was separate from the Democratic Party, it quickly became a means for Tillman to preempt the party’s movements.

Fields was active in many organizations that focused on improving conditions and opportunities for African Americans.

With the arrival of Europeans, natives created the first commercial fisheries, trading seafood for firearms and clothing.

Despite the racial barriers that hampered African Americans in the early twentieth century, Frederick became a successful lawyer. Before his death in 1938, he appeared before the South Carolina Supreme Court thirty-three times, more than any African American lawyer up to that time.

Interest in social concerns and women’s issues quickened in this period, and Frost, who never married, became actively involved in women’s club work and the women’s suffrage movement.

Fuller believed that he had been sanctified in 1895 after he retreated to a cornfield for a time of intense prayer.

A phenomenon of the Reconstruction period, “fusionism” describes the awkward and short-lived political alliance between moderate wings of the South’s Democratic and Republican Parties.

General George Washington Goethals was made chief engineer of the Panama Canal in 1907, and he selected Gaillard to oversee dredging and excavation.

Dr. Gantt was a pioneer in public health, prevention of tuberculosis, medical inspection of schools, and social hygiene.

Gary served as a bill clerk in the state legislature for nine years before being elected by Abbeville County to the S.C. House of Representatives in 1890. He remained there until 1900 and served as Speaker of the House from 1896 to 1900.

Gary capitalized on the reputation he earned in war. Active in Democratic Party politics, in 1876 he was the most uncompromising and outspoken leader of the “Straight-out” faction of the South Carolina Democratic Party, stressing white supremacy and solidarity while vigorously opposing any cooperation with Republicans or black Carolinians.