I was playing pickleball one day with one of my British friends from Ocean Hills, and out of nowhere, she asks me, "Why is there a North Carolina and a South Carolina, instead of just one Carolina?" I had no answer, not a clue. Of course I told her I would find out and get back to her. Here's what I found.
During the 1600's while England was trying to colonize the New World, mother England experienced the greatest turmoil in her history. After the brutal dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, Charles 11 returned to the British throne in 1660. The colonies that were created during his rule were known as Restoration Colonies. It was in this environment that the Carolinas were created.
The southern part of Carolina served first as support for the British West Indies. Soon the slave economy of the sugar plantations reached the shores of Carolina. Plantations producing sugar, rice and other crops became profitable, as slaves in the tens of thousands soon inhabited Carolina. Charles Town, later known as Charleston. African slaves became the majority of the population
In the northern area of the Carolina colony, the earliest inhabitants were displaced former indentured small tobacco farms. Slavery existed here, but in smaller numbers than in the neighboring regions. Northern Carolina, like Rhode Island in the North, drew the region's discontented masses.
As the two locales evolved separately and as their differing geographies and inhabitants followed different courses, calls for a formal split emerged. In 1712 North Carolina and South Carolina became distinct colonies.. It was a peaceful divorce.
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