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The English were not the first Europeans to send explorers among the Carolina coastal tribes. First the Spanish, then the French, had preceded them. This 16th century engraving is of the French...
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The Spanish treasure fleet sailed past the coast of Carolina en route to Spain from Mexico and the West Indies. Courtesy of the United States Marine Corps, Parris Island Museum.
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The Spanish made two attempts to settle a permanent community in South Carolina. The first in 1526, led by a wealthy lawyer from Santo Domingo, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, failed in less than a year. The...
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These Native American men are hunting, wearing deer hides as disguises. Native American societies in the southeastern United States region were matrilineal: kinship was traced through the mother's...
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Eight hundred years before French, Spanish, or English arrived to challenge them, a Native American culture, called "Mississippian" by cultural anthropologists, flourished in the southeastern part of...
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The Governor's Mansion, seen in this 1907 postcard view, was originally constructed in 1855 as the officers' barracks of the Arsenal Academy, which later merged with the Citadel and moved to...
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Aerial photo of the South Carolina State House in 1976. In 1900, the legislature decided to add the porticoes and tower of 1854 architect John R. Niersee's original plan. A commission appointed Frank...
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The State House in 1862. The bulk of the work on the building was done from 1857 through March of 1861. At that time, bonds to finance more work could not be sold, but slaves continued to quarry the...
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The State House, from an 1855 stereoscopic print. The original State House of 1794 had deteriorated so badly by 1850 that Governor Seabrook was afraid the state's records were no longer safe there...
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The State House, 1790s. The act which established Columbia as the capital of South Carolina in 1786 included instructions that the funds gained from selling lots in the town were to be used to...