Province of South Carolina

The Province of South Carolina was the southern colony of British Carolina, the southern half from 1712 to American independence in 1776. Named for Carolus, Charles I, in the 1663 charter to eight lords proprietor, settled at Charles Town in 1670 as a planned Christian colony, it split from its northern twin by neglect of legal heirs and distance into Clarendon and then South Carolina. Dissent brought a deputy governor for the north from 1691, the Yamasee War of 1715 ravaged the backcountry, Queen Anne's War sharpened complaints of no protection against Indians or Spaniards, and George I named a royal governor on petition in the 1719 rebellion that ended proprietary rule. The Crown's governor ruled from Charleston, and the colony grew rich and rebellious together. On 4 July 1776 the Carolinians joined the independence they had been practicing in assembly for years, and the province became the American state.