A Brief History of Darlington, South Carolina
By Horace Fraser Rudisill
For nearly sixty, years after the first settlements at Charles Town, the area which is now Darlington County was a heavily timbered pine forestland, inhabited only by a few small Indian tribes, of whom the Cheraws were the most dominate.
Until the early 1730's, no white man had attempted to establish a home this far into the backcountry along the upper Pee Dee; one of the first of whom we have any record was one Murfee, who cleared a plantation on the Pee Dee River somewhere in the vicinity of what is known today as Pocket landing. He was soon joined by an influx of Welshmen from Pennsylvania and Delaware.
In all effort to induce settlers to come to this area of South Carolina, the Colonial Government in 1736 and again in 1737, set aside two immense grants of land extending for miles along both sides of the Pee Dee River, for the exclusive use of the Welsh Baptist in Delaware who were contemplating removal to this Province. The entire length of Darlington County bounding on Pee Dee River lies within the limits of these two old Royal Grants.
Darlington County, however, continued to be a stronghold of the Baptist denomination well into the nineteenth century. There were no churches of any other faith in the area until about 1789, when Methodist missionaries began to traverse the region seeking converts; their first foothold was in the present I Lydia neighborhood, where one of the oldest Methodist churches in South Carolina was founded - Wesley Chapel or the "Gully Church".
Although the war inflicted severe casualties in lives and property, recovery was not unduly protracted, probably due to the natural increase in population plus the influx of many new settlers from North Carolina.
In 1777, a group of prosperous planters of the area formed the St. David's Society to promote the cause of education; little was done during the war, but with the return of peace, a schoolhouse - St. David's Academy - was erected on the first hill beyond the river, about 1 mile from the village of Long Bluff; a few years later, the Welsh Neck Baptist Church removed from the east side of the river to a lot on the hill, adjacent to the Academy. A new community began to grow up around the Academy and Church, and was named Greeneville in honor of Gen. Greene of the Revolution. The old village of Long Bluff was eventually abandoned in favor of the new village on the hill, which soon changed its name to Society Hill obviously in honor of the Academy of St. David's Society which dominated the hill. Society Hill, with its old, respected and influential Baptist Church; its Academy boasting tutors of the highest caliber; and its Library Society soon became the unchallenged cultural center of the Pee Dee Region, a title it held for generations.
In 1785, Darlington County was one of three counties created out of old Cheraws District; after some controversy, the site of the Court House of the new county was located on the plantation of John King, Sr. on Swift Creek, about the geographical center of the area. The Court House was built a short distance south of the King residence at the intersection of two roads. Lots were laid off surrounding the Court House by Josiah Cantey, Deputy Surveyor, but his plat has never been found. The village thus created was first known as Darlington Court House.
By 1820, other villages had sprung up throughout the district: Mechanicsville, near the river, about 10 miles below Society Hill on the road to Georgetown; Springville, more a summer resort than a village, but boasting an academy and a post office; and Kelley Town, not far from Black Creek in the Northwestern portion of the district.
By 1820, other villages had sprung up throughout the district: Mechanicsville, near the river, about 10 miles below Society Hill on the road to Georgetown; Springville, more a summer resort than a village, but boasting an academy and a post office; and Kelley Town, not far from Black Creek in the Northwestern portion of the district.
Hartsville came into being as a village around Capt. Thomas E. Hart's Store and post office in the early 1840's; Lamar (then known as Mims' Cross Roads) grew around a crossroads store and post office on the Capt. George Mims' Plantation in the early 1850's. About the same time, Leavensworth came into being as a village, centering around John F. Wilson's store and grist mill, at an intersection near the center of his immense plantation, originally owned by Dr. Nathan Leavensworth. There was also a school; a U.S. Post Office; and a resident physician, Dr. John J. Wilson. In the late 1850's Dovesville (then Dove's Depot) grew around a C&D Railroad Depot built on the plantation of Daniel Dove soon after the tracks were laid across his land.
With an ever increasing acreage devoted to the planting of cotton, the overall wealth of the district grew considerably during the first half of the district grew considerably during the first half of the Nineteenth century. As it was throughout the entire South, this cotton economy was vitally dependent upon the labor of the black man-the system of slavery- and the concentration of that class was heavy in Darlington District in the last decade prior to the war. The ratio of population as revealed by the United States Census of 1850 shows that whites were outnumbered by blacks nearly two to one.
In the ante-bellum period, the wealth of the district was, for the most part, concentrated in the eastern half of the area, which was made up of numerous huge plantations, each an independent community within itself. With a few notable exceptions, the western portions of the district contained smaller and less prosperous plantations and farms, and fewer slaves.
With agriculture having dominated the way of life in the district from the first settlements in the 1730's, it is not surprising that the planters of the area as early as 1768 organized a Planters Club about which little is known; again, around the early 1840's another attempt was made to form Planters Society, but likewise no record exists concerning this group. On May 5, 1846, the Darlington District Agricultural Society was formed for the purpose of "promoting the planting interests" and is still active to this day, being the second oldest such group in the state and one of the oldest in the nation. The first officers of the Society were W.E. James, President; Rev. J.M. Timmons, Rev. Robert Campbell, I.D. Wilson and Robert Rogers, Vice Presidents.
There was a successful attempt at industrialization made as early as 1812 by one of Darlington's most colorful figures, Gov. David Rogerson Williams. He established and operated during his lifetime a water-powered cotton mill on Cedar Creek near Society Hill for the manufacture of cotton bagging, oznaburgs, etc. It was first known as Cheraw Union Factory and later as Union Manufacturing Company of South Carolina.
During the War Between the States, Darlington County escaped Sherman's torch, being out of the direct line of the Federal advance. There were no battles fought on her territory, and only several minor skirmishes. However, detachments of the main force did pass through the district by way of Kelley Town and New Market, confiscating supplies and livestock over a wide area. But Pioneer cabins and palatial ante-bellum mansions were left standing.
In 1868, the name Darlington District (in use since 1798) was changed to Darlington County and provisions made for Township system of county Government patterned after that of the New England states. The system was unsuitable for this region and never developed as originally intended.
In 1888, Darlington County, one of the larger counties of the state, lost almost one third of its territory toward the formation of the new County of Florence; again, in 1901, it lost an additional 50 square miles of territory at the formation of the new County of Lee.
From the time of Gov. Williams' cotton factory, there was no further serious attempt at manufacturing of any nature until 1883, when a cotton mill was built in Darlington under the leadership of Major James Lide Coker. Within the following twenty years, Major Coker had also organized at Hartsville the Carolina Fibre Company and the Southern Novelty Company, both factories based on the conversion of southern pine into paper and paper products.
Agriculture has, however, continued to be the mainstay of Darlington County until the present day; cotton was King until dethroned after World War One by Flue-Cured Tobacco, which was introduced to Darlington planters in the late 1880's. Since World War Two, the industrial growth of the county has been very favorable and promises to provide an alternative to the decline in agricultural pursuits which are expected in the next generation.
S. H. Wilds Plantation
Additional Information
This is Wilds-Edwards House / Samuel Hugh Wilds
Darlington County Historical Marker
Marker ID:
SCHM 16-48
Location:
120 Edwards Ave. (DT)
City:
Darlington
County & State:
Darlington County, South Carolina
Erected by:
City of Darlington Historical Landmarks Commission in 2001.
Inscription:
Front:
This Italianate house, designed by J.L. Clickner, was built 1856~57 for planter Samuel H. Wilds (1819~1867). According to tradition Clickner returned in early 1865 as a Union soldier and persuaded his superiors not to burn the house during a raid in the area. In 1870 attorney B.W. Edwards (1824~1890), later a state senator, acquired the house; it remained in the family until 1999.
Reverse:
Samuel H. Wilds was a member of the Darlington Agricultural Society, a colonel in the antebellum militia, and a state representative 1856~57 and again in 1864. He organized the "Wilds Rifles" (later Co. B. 21st S.C. Infantry) at the outbreak of the Civil War as its captain and rose to major by war´s end. This house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.a long form text area designed for your content that you can fill up with as many words as your heart desires. You can write articles, long mission statements, company policies, executive profiles, company awards/distinctions, office locations, shareholder reports, whitepapers, media mentions and other pieces of content that don’t fit into a shorter, more succinct space.
2015
One of Darlingtons Gems -Located in the Historical District in City of Darlington - a must see - some renovations have been done. Two (2) stories - many fireplaces - travel back in time and see this beautiful historical home located on 2.6 acre lot, with 2 out buildings, wrap around porch, 6 Bed Rooms, 5,213 square feet. Year built: 1855
Family visit to Darlington, SC
Walking the grounds of one of the properties of SH Wilds, Martha and Cornelius worked in the home in 1867. The building is one where food was stored and home kitchen tools; later used as a carriage house, etc. This home was bought by Edwards from the Wilds.
South Carolina and the African Slave Trade
Slavery was well established in the "New World" by the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, who all sent African slaves to work in both North and South America during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The English began aggressively trading in what was called "black ivory" during the middle of the seventeenth century, spurred on by the need for laborers in the hot, humid sugar fields on the West Indian islands of Barbados, St. Christopher, the Bermudas, and Jamaica.
By the time Charles Towne was settled in 1670, Englishmen from the West Indies were well acquainted with slavery and the huge profits they could reap from the toil of others. Slavery was therefore considered an essential ingredient in the successful establishment of cash crop plantations in South Carolina.
Like other European nations, England created the Royal African Company to underwrite the slave trade. A string of forts and "slave factories" were established from the Cape Verde Islands to the Bight of Biafra. But the slave trade would likely not have been as "successful" were it not for the "unholy alliance" between the English (and other European nations) and the African kingdoms on whose territories the forts stood. The English slave traders did their best to dupe the native kings, and each native king did his best to obtain the maximum amount of goods in exchange for the slaves he had for sale.
For their cargoes of human flesh, the traders brought iron and copper bars, brass pans and kettles, cowrey shells, old guns, gun powder, cloth, and alcohol. In return, ships might load on anywhere from 200 to over 600 African slaves, stacking them like cord wood and allowing almost no breathing room. The crowding was so severe, the ventilation so bad, and the food so poor during the "Middle Passage" of between five weeks and three months that a loss of around 14 to 20% of their "cargo" was considered the normal price of doing business. This slave trade is thought to have transported at least 10 million, and perhaps as many as 20 million, Africans to the American shore.
The slave traders discovered that Carolina planters had very specific ideas concerning the ethnicity of the slaves they sought. No less a merchant than Henry Laurens wrote:
The Slaves from the River Gambia are preferr'd to all others with us [here in Carolina] save the Gold Coast.... next to Them the Windward Coast are preferr'd to Angolas.
In other words, slaves from the region of Senegambia and present-day Ghana were preferred. At the other end of the scale were the "Calabar" or Ibo or "Bite" slaves from the Niger Delta, who Carolina planters would purchase only if no others were available. In the middle were those from the Windward Coast and Angola.
Carolina planters developed a vision of the "ideal" slave – tall, healthy, male, between the ages of 14 and 18, "free of blemishes," and as dark as possible. For these ideal slaves Carolina planters in the eighteenth century paid, on average, between 100 and 200 sterling – in today's money that is between $11,630 and $23,200!
Many of these slaves were almost immediately put to work in South Carolina's rice fields. Writers of the period remarked that there was no harder, or more unhealthy, work possible:
negroes, anckle and even mid-leg deep in water which floats an ouzy mud, and exposed all the while to a burning sun which makes the very air they breathe hotter than the human blood; these poor wretches are then in a furness of stinking putrid effluvia: a more horrible employment can hardly be imagined.
In fact, these Carolina rice fields have been described as charnel houses for African-American slaves. Malaria and enteric diseases killed off the low country slaves at rates which are today almost unbelievable. Based on the best plantation accounts it is clear that while about one out of every three slave children on the cotton plantations died before reaching the age of 16, nearly two out of every three African-American children on rice plantations failed to reach their sixteenth birthday and over a third of all slave children died before their first birthday. Rice's macabre record of slave deaths has been traced to two primary factors - one was malaria, the other was the infants' feebleness at birth, probably the result of the mothers' own chronic malaria and their general exhaustion from rice cultivation during pregnancy.
After their horrific "Middle Passage," over 40% of the African slaves reaching the British colonies before the American Revolution passed through South Carolina. Almost all of these slaves entered the Charleston port, being briefly quarantined on Sullivan's Island, before being sold in Charleston's slave markets.
