W. Brent Burgin Archives: Home

In this comprehensive history of South Carolina, Walter Edgar presents a sweeping chronicle of a state with an illustrious, sometimes infamous, past. He describes in very human terms 475 years of recorded history in the Palmetto State, including the experiences of all South Carolinians―those with roots in Africa and in Europe as well as Native Americans; male and female; rich and poor. Edgar uses letters, diaries, and other writings to let voices from the past take part in telling the state's fascinating story.
Recounting the period from the first Spanish exploration to the end of the Civil War, Edgar charts South Carolina's rising national and international prominence and its parallel economic ascendancy. He dispels myths about the state's early history―including the notion that the colony was inhabited by a homogeneous white population―and tells how South Carolina developed an agricultural economy that relied heavily on African American slave labor. He examines, among other topics, the impact of the American revolution, Charleston's significance, and the state's leadership in the Secession movement. Edgar details the everyday life of blacks and whites during Reconstruction, the state's mixed efforts to join the "New South," and Benjamin Ryan Tillman's rise to power. He also chronicles South Carolina's changing politics in the once-solid South, the state's reawakening after World War II, the casualties and victories of an extended civil rights struggle, and the Palmetto State's present economic, educational, and political challenges.

Taste the history of South Carolina's Barbeque in this delectable history from the 1500s to the present day.
South Carolina has been home to good, old-fashioned barbeque for quite a long time. Hundreds of restaurants, stands and food trucks sell tons of the southern staple every day. But the history of Palmetto State barbeque goes deeper than many might believe--it predates the rest of America. Native Americans barbequed pork on makeshift grills as far back as the 1500s after the Spanish introduced the pig into the Americas. Since the early 1920s, South Carolinians have been perfecting the craft and producing some of the best-tastin' 'que in the country. Join author and president of the South Carolina Barbeque Association Lake E. High Jr. as he traces the delectable history from its pre-colonial roots to a thriving modern-day tradition that fuels an endless debate over where to find the best plate.

Part of the ever-popular Legends of America series, South Carolina Myths and Legends explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in South Carolina's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in South Carolina history. Stories include tales told to Ferdinand de Soto in the 1540s about a secret source of gold that the Spaniards never found; the 1927 disappearance of a daring young aviator, Paul Redfern, who pioneered the first air route to South America; and the mysterious appearance of horses from a noble Spanish equestrian bloodline on the beaches of South Carolina.

In Down by the Riverside, Dr. Charles Joyner takes readers on a journey back in time, up the Waccamaw River through the Lowcountry of South Carolina, past abandoned rice fields once made productive by the labor of enslaved Africans, past rice mills and forest clearings into the antebellum world of All Saints Parish. In this slave community, and many others like it, the slaves created a new language, a new religion--indeed, a new culture--from African traditions and American circumstances.
From the letters, diaries, and memoirs of the plantation whites and their guests, from quantitative analysis of census and probate records, and above all from slave folklore and oral history, Joyner has recovered an entire society and its way of life. His careful reconstruction of daily life in All Saints Parish is an inspiring testimony to the ingenuity and solidarity of a people who endured in the face of adversity.

--Part I: The Age of the Goose Creek Men, 1670-1712.
--Part II: Breakdown and Recovery, 1712-1743.
--Part III: The Rise of the Commons House of Assembly, 1743-1763.