The Antebellum South (1816-1860)

One of Clemson’s most passionate postwar goals was to establish a college to provide practical education in agriculture and the sciences, as he believed that there would be “no hope for the South short of widespread scientific education.”

Along with his varied business concerns, Coker took a strong interest in promoting education. Largely through his efforts and financing, Coker College, originally a liberal arts college for women (later coeducational), was established in Hartsville in 1908. Coker’s long and successful career provided a human face to the state’s successful transition from the Old South to the New South.

Conner was among the original directors of the Bank of Charleston when it was organized in 1835. In 1841 Conner was elected president of the bank, a position he held until 1850.

Although revised several times until abandoned in 1698, the Fundamental Constitutions framed the colony as a social hierarchy, encouraging new settlement based on landownership and a provision for religious freedom.

In addition to establishing one of the most important industrial enterprises in Spartanburg County, Converse contributed to the educational institution in Spartanburg that bears his name.

In South Carolina, Cooper completed his philosophical journey and became an ardent proponent of states’ rights. He was appointed the second president of South Carolina College in May 1820 and taught courses in chemistry, mineralogy, and political economy.

Cooperationists invoked the experience of nullification, when the state was without a single ally in an impending armed confrontation with the federal government. They warned that separate secession would produce abortive violence, dooming future action by a combination of slaveholding states.

From 1850 to 1861 Corcoran served as editor of the United States Catholic Miscellany, the newspaper founded by Bishop England. In its pages he defended Catholicism against its critics. He vigorously defended states’ rights and castigated abolitionists, whom he thought were motivated by anti-Catholicism and the nativist Know-Nothing movement.

He won local prominence as a writer and orator, especially for his speeches on behalf of various reforming causes. In 1807 he joined Stephen Elliott, Thomas Smith Grimké, and others to found the Conversation or Literary Club.

Crum also enjoyed close relations with nationally prominent African Americans, such as the Washington, D.C., businessman Whitefield McKinlay and the newspaper editors Harry Smith and T. Thomas Fortune.

On returning to South Carolina after a summer visit with her daughter in Philadelphia, Louisa Byrd Cunningham observed the dilapidated state of George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. From her sickbed Ann Pamela Cunningham immediately penned an appeal to the “Ladies of the South!” to raise funds to purchase and renovate Mount Vernon.

To promote tobacco culture, Daniel enlisted experienced leaf growers from North Carolina as “instructors.”

An active member of the South Carolina Agricultural Society, Davie also assisted in negotiating the boundary dispute between North and South Carolina.

Davis’s most significant public undertaking was his involvement in the campaign to establish a public lunatic asylum in Columbia.

The energetic Dawson and the News and Courier became known for speed in news gathering, accuracy, and far-flung coverage, with correspondents in Washington, D.C., and Columbia.

Not satisfied with his new profession, De Bow began contributing political essays to the Charleston-based Southern Quarterly Review and soon became one of its editors.

After the war De Leon returned to America and worked to reestablish the Democratic Party in the South, campaigning for Horatio Seymour for president in 1868 and Horace Greeley in 1872.

Despite his ability and accomplishments, however, De Leon had the reputation of being difficult and imperious. He lost his eyesight in 1903 and was thereafter referred to as “The blind laureate of the Lost Cause.”

In Pittsburgh, Delany began his efforts to advance the condition of African Americans. Between 1843 and 1847 he developed a black-nationalist perspective in the columns of his weekly newspaper, the Mystery. He called for the creation of separate black institutions and advocated black migration beyond the borders of the United States.

A gifted orator noted for his passion, DeLarge used his political skills to help organize the Republican Party in South Carolina.