The Antebellum South (1816-1860)

Adams represented Richland District in the S.C. House of Representatives from 1836 to 1849 and in the S.C. Senate from 1850 to 1853. On December 11, 1854, the General Assembly elected Adams governor.

Adger became one of the wealthiest and most influential merchants of antebellum Charleston, and he used his position to good effect in the affairs of the city.

Advocating “the Gospel of Freedom,” African Methodist ministers have played important roles as secular leaders.

Aiken owes its existence to the South Carolina Railroad, its personality to its erstwhile “winter colony” of wealthy northern sports enthusiasts, and its economic vitality and relatively cosmopolitan spirit to the U.S. government’s massive Savannah River Site nuclear weapons facility.

The house and its outbuildings are one of the most complete and best preserved urban domestic complexes of the antebellum era.

As a Unionist, Governor Aiken opposed the radical views of Robert Barnwell Rhett and members of the so-called “Bluffton Movement,” which called for secession if Texas was not annexed to the United States as a slave state.

In 1967, by Act 398, the General Assembly created the ABC Commission to regulate spirits and other alcoholic formulations through licensing and enforcement.

In 1828 he launched his formal political career and won election to the S.C. House of Representatives, where he represented Prince George Winyah Parish from 1828 to 1831. He was subsequently involved in several disputed elections involving the Prince George Winyah S.C. Senate seat, in large part because of his staunch support of nullification.

Allston's philosophy of art elevated the image of American artists from mere artisans to romantic idealists.

Much like another prominent nineteenth-century political figure, James Chesnut, Alston is primarily remembered as the husband of his legendary wife.

Ansel was the first person of German ancestry to occupy the governor’s chair in South Carolina.

The original edition of The Birds of America established Audubon’s reputation as America’s leading nature artist.

In 1891 Babcock became superintendent of the South Carolina State Lunatic Asylum in Columbia, its first to have been trained in psychiatry. Babcock arrived eager to modernize and improve the institution.

Bachman consistently presented a sound scientific case for all races of humans as members of the same species. Drawing on his keen knowledge of the nature of species, he presented his argument in numerous articles and in The Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Races, Examined on the Principles of Science, published in 1850. Yet Bachman condoned slavery, and he was an unyielding defender of states’ rights.

Bacot kept a diary but recorded little about her hospital work. Published many years after her death, the diary provides insight into the social life of a single, young, upper-class southern woman during the Civil War.

The school opened in 1828 as the South Carolina Female Institute, but in 1835 it added “Collegiate” to its name, reflecting the institution’s provision of a rigorous four-year classical curriculum.

In 1826 he was elected to the state General Assembly, where he represented Prince William’s Parish for a single term in the House of Representatives.

When captured, she refused to reveal the position of her husband’s company, and some accounts reported that the British beat her in retaliation.

William Bartram’s interests were broader than his father’s (John Bartram). In addition to botany, his book contains a great deal of information about animal life and both English and Indian societies.

Bee’s brigade was the first to reinforce General Pierre G. T. Beauregard at Manassas Junction, Virginia, and he was instrumental in ensuring the Confederate victory on July 21, 1861, by delaying the Union advance. While holding off the Federals, Bee saw the brigade of Thomas J. Jackson standing to the rear and not assisting his command. Bee called out, “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall.”