Skip to main content

South Carolina | Perspective

Women

Interviewees:
  • Elizabeth Chew
    • CEO, South Carolina Historical Society

Elite South Carolina women left an unusually rich record of the Revolution. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, exceptionally educated and the first to package indigo for export, sent two sons into the Continental Army and wrote forcefully about the cause of “divine liberty.” Ann Ashby Manigault tracked British movements in a wartime diary. Rebecca Brewton Motte famously instructed Patriot soldiers to burn down her own house to drive out occupying British officers. And Susanna Smith Elliott sewed banners for the Second Regiment, presented at Sullivan’s Island the day after the battle.

South Carolina was among the wealthiest of the thirteen colonies and the only one where enslaved Black people formed a majority, producing an extraordinarily stratified society divided between Low Country planters and a poorer, marginalized backcountry. It moved toward independence early, building a shadow government and adopting its own constitution in March 1776, months before the Declaration arrived. During the week before the Continental Congress approved the Declaration, Patriots had repelled the British navy at the Battle of Sullivan's Island—still commemorated as Carolina Day. As in many colonies, the Revolution in South Carolina looked as much like a civil war as a war for independence. Roughly a quarter of white residents actively opposed it, and Loyalists fought neighbors at Kings Mountain and Cowpens. Few states saw more battles or greater upheaval. Elite women left a rich documentary record illuminating the complexities of their wartime lives. Throughout the war, Catawba, Cherokee, and Creek struggled with complicated diplomatic choices. In 1782, roughly 5,000 formerly enslaved South Carolinians departed with the British.

More Women perspectives

View details
  • Connecticut

    Women

    6:18 Just watched
  • Delaware

    Women

    6:16 Just watched
  • Georgia

    Women

    3:46 Just watched
  • Maryland

    Women

    2:09 Just watched
  • Massachusetts

    Women

    4:18 Just watched
  • New Hampshire

    Women

    4:50 Just watched
  • New York

    Women

    5:38 Just watched
  • North Carolina

    Women

    5:33 Just watched
  • Rhode Island

    Women

    9:31 Just watched
  • Virginia

    Women

    8:24 Just watched

More from South Carolina

View details
  • South Carolina

    Context

    24:24 Just watched
  • South Carolina

    Declaration

    7:26 Just watched
  • South Carolina

    Memory

    6:20 Just watched
  • South Carolina

    African Americans

    4:19 Just watched
  • South Carolina

    Elected officials

    3:52 Just watched
  • South Carolina

    Indigenous people

    2:58 Just watched
  • South Carolina

    Loyalists

    5:49 Just watched
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Georgia
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • Virginia

Perspectives

  • Women
  • African Americans
  • Loyalists
  • Indigenous people
  • Elected officials

About

How was national independence anticipated, debated, and enacted in each of the original 13 states during the American Revolution?

How has national independence, particularly the ideas articulated in the Declaration of Independence, been remembered and invoked over the last 250 years?

Learn more

Bookmarks

    No bookmarks yet. Bookmark a video to save it here.

    0