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Join us as we celebrate South Carolina Cultural History Month at the South Carolina State Library!
Experience a month-long celebration of the rich cultural heritage that has shaped our state with books honoring South Carolina’s diverse history. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, explore, and connect with the past while celebrating the traditions that continue to define our future. We look forward to celebrating with you!
Carolina Currents is an annual peer-reviewed publication that connects academic research to the lived experiences and practical concerns of South Carolinians.
This collection of eighty strange and unusual South Carolina legends is rooted in the state’s deep history. Some originated centuries ago, such as the Agnes of Glasgow story in Camden and that of the ghostly dwarf jester Gauche, said to haunt a Beaufort mansion. Certain places hold secrets from different eras, including White Wolf Road in Blacksburg and the state’s numerous historic cemeteries like the one at Salem Black River Church in Mayesville. These pages also contain simple explanations for local lore, like the Gullah tradition behind blue bottle trees that still decorate Carolina gardens today. These and many more crowd-pleasing yarns can be found in this volume from the desk of master storyteller, author and researcher Sherman Carmichael.
From the desk of Sherman Carmichael comes a collection of about a hundred quirky and unpublished tales from the Palmetto State. Tales include everything from folk tales, urban legends, monsters, mermaids, ghost sightings, mysterious lights, UFO sightings, dinosaurs, and haunted locations.
From mountaintops to sand dunes, the Carolinas’ backroads and byroads hold legends and lore behind every hill and around every curve. From cryptids to cursed earth, to people whose passions will surprise you, North and South Carolina are chock full of surprises. From the creators of the award-winning podcast Arcane Carolinas comes this collection of tales spanning the mountains to the sea. Examined from a historical context, some of what the author uncovers in the historical record my prove surprisingly validating with regards to things that go bump in the night.
From the phantom duelist of Pickens to the vengeful witch of York County, the unnatural entities scattered across the Upstate are as varied as the contours of its geography. In this compilation, Ray Belcher has gathered some of the lesser-known tales of Carolina curiosities, some of which have been all but lost among the annals of ancient newspapers and others which have heretofore only existed as oral tradition. Spanning a period of over 400 years and stretching across the counties of Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg, and beyond, these stories do as much to illuminate forgotten corners of Upstate history as they do to pique the imaginations of those looking for a spine-tingling tale.
Battling Hurricanes along the South Carolina coast near Myrtle Beach . . . two tales of joy, tragedy, and survival. The Stories: Three generations of Flagg family members struggle desperately against a historic hurricane’s fury at Huntington Beach in the suspenseful tale, “The Flagg Flood.” A family faces two major Murrells Inlet storms with strength and courage in the charming reminiscence “Every Sixty Years.”
As a child of the 1960s, Elijah Heyward, Jr. saw life unfold with dramatic change where he was raised on Lady's Island in Beaufort, South Carolina. The decade began with the Civil Rights era fast gaining momentum. It ended with hopes of equality and justice for all as Jim Crow laws were being defeated throughout the South. It was an era that birthed a greater sense of self-identity and awareness for black youths. Serving as a bridge from the past to the present, Elijah Heyward, Jr. penned "Stories & Poems of a Gullah Native" as a tribute to trailblazers of the best the human spirit can achieve by putting these noble personalities, historical events, and personal recollections into prose and verse.
This is a book about identity and remembrance. This anthology presents personal narratives and historical photographs that illuminate the diversity of immigrant experiences in North and South Carolina since 1700. The broad focus of the book encompasses all walks of life and documents three centuries of social, political, artistic, and cultural history. The chapters follow historical timelines starting with colonial experiences leading up to the American Revolution, followed by immigrant accounts before and during the Civil War, experiences in the the New South, and memories of twentieth century immigrants and the most recent arrivals. The common denominators of the autobiographies, diaries, and letter hinge on the confluence of American patriotism and immigrant pride, coupled with old world loyalties and new world ambitions that reflect the demographic shift from European to Asian and Hispanic immigrants in the American Southeast.
Few people are familiar with the full history that shaped and preserved the fish and wildlife of coastal South Carolina. From Native Americans to the early colonists to plantation owners and their slaves to market hunters and commercial fishermen, all viewed fish and wildlife as limitless. Through time, however, overharvesting led to population declines, and the public demanded conservation. The process that produced fish and game laws, wardens and wildlife refuges was complex and often involved conflict, but synergy and cooperation ultimately produced one of the most extensive conservation systems on the East Coast. Author James O. Luken presents this fascinating story.
Within the pages of this book, you will discover through photographs and words the weaving together of a narrative that creates an understanding that the connectivity of rural life and agriculture is essential to an understanding of our state’s history, economy and culture…. Together, they tell at least part of the story of agriculture in South Carolina, a story that stretches from the sea islands that front the Atlantic Ocean to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
In State of the Heart, Aïda Rogers has crafted an artful love letter to our state, with contributions from a host of nationally and regionally recognized writers who've written short essays on the South Carolina places that they cherish. Though presented as a book about place, the collection is ultimately about our shared connections to one another, to a complex common past, and to ongoing efforts to frame and build a future of promise and possibility.
This webinar provides an overview of South Carolina's cultural transformation through key historical moments. While not every significant event will be covered, we'll explore pivotal periods including the Revolutionary War, Civil War, federal tariffs, both World Wars, and the post-war era through today.
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