Diary of Orrin Brown, Robertville, SC
Tuesday–Feb. 7th
It rained all night and all the fournoon today. I wrote another letter home today, the mail came in this afternoon but none for me yet. We have no marching orders yet. It is still cloudy and cool this evening. We drew one days rations of Hardtack and one of Salt Poark this PM, read 5 Chapt. in the Testament today. We received orders this evening to be ready to march at 7 Oclock tomorrow morning.
The area of South Carolina, one of the 13 original colonies that became the United States, was first patented by King Charles I as the Province of Carolina in 1629. At the time, there were Algonquian-speaking Native American tribes living in the low country along the coast, Siouan and Iroquoian tribes in the Piedmont and uplands. Settlements had been attempted on Port Royal Sound—French Charlesfort in 1562, and Spanish Santa Elena in 1566, but neither survived.
In 1663, King Charles II re-granted the territory to eight English noblemen as Lords Proprietor—Duke Albemarle, Earl Clarendon, Baron Berkeley of Stratton, Earl Craven, Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, Sir John Colleton, and Earl Shaftesbury—in return for their support in restoring Charles to the throne in 1660. The Stuart King also sought to settle the colony as a buffer to incursions from Spanish Florida. A party led by British planters from Barbados settled Charles Towne in 1670, and by 1700 there were about 6,600 settlers in the colony.
Between 1691 and 1712, formal administration of the northern portion of the area was split. North Carolina and South Carolina became separate royal colonies in 1729, and in 1732, the Province of Georgia was carved from South Carolina by King George II.
.
1 Comment