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"Family Worship in a Plantation in South Carolina," is the title given to this sketch, printed in the "Illustrated London News," December 5, 1863. The article described the scene as having taken place...
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This house was originally designed by Robert Mills as a residence for Ainsley Hall. At Hall's death, his widow was forced to sell it, and from 1827 until 1929 it served as the Columbia Theological...
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The steeple on the building in the right of this photograph, on Hampton Street in Sumter, is that of the Jewish synagogue, next door to the Rabbi's house. There were Spanish and Portuguese Jews in...
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Indian Fields Campground in Dorchester County was more than 100 years old when it was photographed here by Carl Metz in the late 1940s. The central "arbor" (see Camp Welfare) was surrounded by...
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Camp Welfare, near Winnsboro, photographed by Ernest Ferguson around 1950, was "the last surviving camp ground of Arbor and Tents" for African-Americans in South Carolina. Founded shortly after 1865...
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Funerals were an important social occasion in South Carolina, particularly for the African-American community, where solemn rituals were carried on within the African-American church traditions of...
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Not all baptisms were held out of doors. Laura Glenn Douglas (see Laura Glenn Douglas) painted this interior of an African-American Baptist church around 1938. Courtesy of the South Carolina State...
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Endemic disease in 19th century South Carolina, and the general primitiveness of medical knowledge, led to high death rates. Here is Richard Furman's recipe for pills to cure dysentery: "A Recipe for...
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Many of the endemic diseases that had killed children and young adults were gradually eliminated through better sanitation and medical immunization by the mid-20th century, but others remained. Here...
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Hookworm was a serious medical problem for the rural poor in South Carolina. The parasite infected individuals who picked it up through barefoot contact in infested soil; open-backed privies helped...