Ulster-Scots settle the South Carolina backcountry

'In addition to those who came into South Carolina through Charleston, there were some who came down the Great Wagon Road that ran from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia into the piedmont of the two Carolinas. Their numbers were insignificant in comparison with the thousands of Scots-Irish who began moving into South Carolina in the 1750s. The Scots-Irish who moved to the South Carolina frontier were descendants of Scots Protestants who originally settled in northern Ireland in the seventeenth century. When the Church of England began to press for conformity, the independent-minded folks now called Scots-Irish immigrated to Pennsylvania so that they could worship as they saw fit. They settled on the Pennsylvania frontier, where they came into conflict with both the Indians and the Quaker government in Philadelphia. As far as the government of Pennsylvania was concerned, the Indians were not a problem, but the Scots-Irish were. Unhappy with conditions in Pennsylvania, Scots-Irish families began to trek southward to the Carolinas.

For those who came from southeastern Pennsylvania, the journey was about 475 miles. All along the route settlers from Maryland and Virginia joined the group moving to the piedmont of the two Carolinas. They settled above the fall zone in an arc that stretched from present-day Lancaster County on the North Carolina border to Abbeville County on the Savannah River. They established settlements in the Waxhaws, and area claimed by both South and North Carolina, and along Long Cane Creek, a tributary of the Savannah. Very few, if any, sought land in townships, and none was created for them.

By not fitting into the plan for the orderly settlement of the frontier, the Scots-Irish disrupted a process that had been in effect for a generation. The places they chose to settle also brought them into conflict with Cherokee land claims. It is no wonder, then, that their relationship with the government in Charleston was a stormy one. Part of the difficulty was due to differences in ethnicity and religion.

The Reverend Charles Woodmason, and Anglican missionary, described the Waxhaws in 1767: "This is a very fruitful Spot, thro' which the dividing Line between North and South Carolina runs - The Heads of P.D. [Peedee River], Lynch's Creek, and many other Creeks take their Rise in this Quarter - so that a finer Body of Land is no where to be seen - But it is occupied by a Sett of the most lowest vilest Crew breathing - Scotch Irish Presbyterians from the North of Ireland." While Woodmason's hostility might be traced to his personal difficulties with some backcountry settlers, his disdain for the Scots-Irish reflects his own ethnic and religious biases - biases that were shared, in large measure by most white lowcountry residents.

The ill will that was generated by the mass migration of Scots-Irish into the backcountry was not felt by Scots-Irish who had come to South Carolina within a few years after the township plan was announced. In 1732 a group settled in Williamsburg Township, and from their angry letters it appears that they wanted the township for themselves. However, grants of choice lands had been made to Charleston merchants and lawyers. With the introduction of indigo in the 1740s. Williamsburg would become the most prosperous of the townships. The Scots-Irish were a tightly knit group united by "their National Adherence to each other," family ties and membership in the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. Kingston was another township with a sizable Scots-Irish population. As in Williamsburg, the Presbyterian church helped strengthen the bonds of the community.'

South Carolina: A History by Walter Edgar, University of South Carolina Press, pages 56-58