The South Carolina Backcountry
European settlement in South Carolina began in 1670 with the founding of Charleston. For the next 60 years, most colonists established homes along the rivers and creeks close to the Atlantic Ocean. This area became known as the Low Country. While wealthy planters and numerous slaves inhabited South Carolina’s coast, the interior of South Carolina, the Backcountry, remained largely unsettled.
South Carolina during the late colonial period
In 1730, in an effort to increase white settlement in the interior, the colonial government established a plan to create eleven townships. With the creation of these townships, settlement in SC’s backcountry saw a steady growth of population. By the mid-1760s, over 35,000 European colonists, three-fourths of South Carolina’s white population, lived in the backcountry.
Colonists first began settling in present-day Sumter County in the 1740s. Scots-Irish came from the Williamsburg area. Pennsylvanians and Virginians traveled overland through the Appalachians. French Huguenots came up from the Santee area.
When these first settlers journeyed to this area, there were no stores, or mills, or schools, or churches. It was a hard life but, for those willing to work hard, the promise of owning their own piece of land overrode any fear of failure. Most settlers lived on small farms or plantations. The majority of homesteads encompassed between 100 and 500 acres of land. There were few African-Americans in the area. Less than 10% of the slave population, or about 6,548 people, lived in the backcountry before the Revolution. In the years after the Revolution, the population of both white and blacks increased. By 1800, settlement of the backcountry totaled over 160,000 whites and over 48,000 blacks.
Although these settlers lived on small farms rather than in towns, they formed communities for both social and economic reasons. They banded together to build churches and start schools. Families bartered with other families for food, tools, household goods and other needed items.
