My, how times have changed. The days of the plantation are
long gone in South Carolina, and the state’s residents no longer shudder at the
mere mention of factories and industry. In colonial times, South Carolina was
an agricultural powerhouse, and it quickly became one of the wealthiest
colonies in America. Strangely, the two crops that led to South Carolina’s
success (rice and indigo) have
virtually become obsolete in the state. Let’s get a “historical perspective.”
Today, tobacco and soybeans are South Carolina’s leading
cash crops, combining in over $100,000,000 in exports. These crops started to
take over in the 1920s when a boll weevil infestation destroyed over half of
the state’s cotton plants. South Carolina still grows its share of cotton,
but Antebellum Era belief that “Cotton is King” has long since
disappeared.
Tobacco, soybeans, and cotton are joined with peaches,
wheat, collard greens, tomatoes, and a number of other crops to keep agriculture
strong and alive in South Carolina. But things have changed.
The rise of the textile industry in the late 1800s marked a
new age in South Carolina—the age of industry. During the 20th
century, a number of manufacturing companies moved to the state to take
advantage of a willing working class, weak unions, and a general lack of over
regulation. In other words, South Carolina no longer depended on the farm for
its entire economic well-being.
Of course, the early days of settlement in the 17th
century had different challenges than the 20th century. Factories,
mills, and industry were still strange concepts when the first English settlers
moved to Albemarle Point (near Charleston) in 1670. Agriculture was the only way for the settlers to
establish themselves and their economy. And they did a great job.
Around 1680, a few South Carolinians got their hands on some
seeds of rice that were perfect for area’s soil and climate. Settlers from Barbados moved to South Carolina and introduced the plantation system to the colony. By using the
labor of African slaves, the plantations were able to make unbelievable profits
by growing rice.
But that was just the start. In the 1730s and 1740s, a
woman named Eliza Lucas Pinckney learned the secrets for cultivating indigo (a
type of blue dye). Her discovery completely reshaped the structure of South Carolina’s agriculture, and indigo joined rice as a leading cash crop. Eliza
Pinckney’s son, Charles Cotesworth, went on to represent South Carolina at the
Constitutional Convention.
Why did rice and indigo basically disappear? A few
reasons. For starters, the cotton gin was invented. This invention separated
cotton fiber from the seeds, and made cotton extremely profitable. In the
early 1800s, plantations stopped focusing on indigo and switched to cotton.
The end of the plantation system after the Civil War (the plantations could not operate when slavery ended) also
made it unprofitable to grow crops like rice and indigo. Cotton managed to
survive as a cash crop, although most cotton farmers struggled to get by.
As if luck wasn’t bad enough, a series of storms in the
early 1900s destroyed most of what was left of the rice fields in South Carolina’s lowcountry. Extreme poverty in the state, highlighted by the Great
Depression of the 1930s, kept many farms from ever recovering.
How come tobacco and soybeans have survived? Timing is
everything. Improvements in production and the rise of mass media (for advertising) created a booming
cigarette industry during the 1900s.
That century also revealed the “power of the soybean.” Not
only can soybeans be sold as food, but they can also be used to make everything
from ink, soap, crayons, fuel, and make-up. Needless to say, the soybean is a
profitable crop.
