Benjamin, Stephen Keith

Since 1670 there has been a visible African American presence in South Carolina. Regardless of individuals’ status, that black presence has had an incalculable impact of the cultural, economic, and political development of the state.

While now the setting for state, county, and municipal governments, it took shape in the wilderness near the geographic center of South Carolina, thus answering the demands of the populous upcountry for an administrative authority more “Centrical” than far-off Charleston.