Civil War in SOUTH CAROLINA
In antebellum America a small class of slave owners, especially cotton planters, dominated the politics and society of the South. Dependent on “King Cotton,” the plantation system, and slave labor, South Carolina planters were vocal pro-slavery and states' rights proponents. Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina’s secession from the Union.
From pre-Civil War Southern culture to the Reconstruction era, South Carolina played a significant role in American Civil War history. Tour the plantation homes of the senator who coined the phrase, “Cotton is King” and South Carolina’s “secession governor,” take a Civil War walking tour of Charleston, visit Fort Sumter National Monument where the first shots of the Civil War were fired and the battleground where Confederate and Union troops clashed near the war's end during Sherman’s march through the state.
Use the search fields below to locate significant Civil War sites throughout South Carolina.
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