Black History Month is celebrated every February to honor the achievements of African Americans who have shaped American history. Historian Carter G. Woodson hoped to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization by establishing Negro History Week. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that included both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays. The week was later expanded to a month in 1976 during the United States bicentennial.
PHOTO: On March 20, 1969, Black hospital workers at the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston went on strike to protest the firing of twelve employees and to call for higher wages and union recognition.
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The Civil War marked the beginning of the decline of rice in South Carolina. Although planters continued growing rice during the Civil War, Georgetown experienced an economic down-turn as a result of...
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The Middleton Plantation, just south of Charleston, is presently a museum. The Middleton Plantation is an example of rice wealth during the early 1800s, and many other planters sought to style their...
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This clip explains the process in which rice is grown, and harvested.
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An essay called "The Successful Planter," published in 1832, outlined a system of every day life for slaves living on plantations. State law in the 1830s forbade the education of slaves, but many...
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"Saltwater Slaves" brought over from Africa, became highly sought-after, since many of them already had experience growing rice before being brought over to the "New World."
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The Tuskegee Airmen were African-American pilots during WWII. Before the war, the Army thought African-Americans could only be used as laborers. African-Americans faced all sorts of prejudice and...
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Dr. Coclanis describes why rice declined as a “cash crop” in South Carolina, in favor of other exports.
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Walter Edgar begins by noting how Charleston played a crucial role in South Carolina’s economy. Dr. Coclanis then discusses the major exports from South Carolina. In the 18th century,rice was S.C.'s...
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With the success of cotton in South Carolina, entrepreneurs in other states looked to cash in on the success of cotton plantations. When the cotton economy and market-shares begin to decline in S.C...
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With the invention of the “Cotton Gin” by Eli Whitney, combined with methods we would today call “scientific plant breeding,” the cotton industry boomed in South Carolina, in the early 19th century...
