South Carolina--Not Just Civil War History Quiz

Answer: rice and indigo

Cotton grew on the sea islands, while rice flourished on the wet ground after swamps were cleared. Indigo was a valuable dye to grow commercially. It would still be valuable to cultivate if a chemical substitute hadn't been developed. All those blue jeans today are still dyed with chemical indigo.

Answer: true

The low country, nearer the coast, was level and suitable for large plantations. Settlers began arriving in the 1600s. The back country was hilly and was settled in the 1700s primary by people originally from the northern British Isles, to whom the hilly country seemed like home. They had smaller subsistence farms, fewer slaves, and a different culture from the low country settlers.

Answer: malaria and yellow fever

Mosquitoes laid their eggs in the water and produced more mosquitoes. They spread the malaria parasite and yellow fever virus when a mosquito bit an infected person, then went on to bite others. Doctors didn't understand what caused the diseases until much later, so they didn't know how to prevent malaria and yellow fever epidemics until long after the Civil War.

Answer: dumped tea in Charleston Harbor

Most South Carolinians shared Bostonians' anger at the British taxes. Their tea also wound up in their harbor, under slightly different circumstances. When the ship Britannia arrived at Charleston in November 1774, it had English tea aboard, subject to the tax. Three local merchants had ordered it, despite agreeing not to just the year before.

The three merchants were made to go down to the ship and drop their expensive tea into Charleston Harbor. Another enforced tea party or two made all Charleston merchants glad to obey the majority's agreement not to buy or sell British tea.

Answer: Swamp Fox

Francis Marion (1732-1795) was given his nickname by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton, sent to capture him late in 1780. Tarleton called him "old swamp fox," as Marion escaped him, and the name stuck. Marion was lauded in a 19th century biography by fellow South Carolinian Parson Weems, who wrote hagiographies of many of Marion's contemporaries.

Modern middle-aged Americans may remember Marion from a Disney short series, where Leslie Nielson played him in a positive role. Historians point out his cruelty to slaves and native Americans and controversial wartime practices, but he was similar to many leaders in his day.

Answer: he planned a slave revolt, though it failed

Vesey planned an elaborate slave revolt based on the successful one in Haiti thirty years before. A free black man, he could blend in talking to both free men and slaves, and he planned to capture Charleston, free as many slaves as he could there and in the surrounding area, and escape to Haiti. Hundreds, perhaps a thousand were involved, but news leaked and many were captured. Vesey and 34 others were hanged, and dozens of others received various punishments.

A curfew and patrols were set up to better protect the city from future slave violence.

Answer: beat him with a cane

Sumner survived the caning, with lingering injuries. Those familiar with southern etiquette have said that a duel would indicate Brooks considered Sumner his equal. Caning was reserved for those of lower status. To many northerners, the caning symbolized how the question of slavery was turning to violence. Though Sumner had done his best to goad pro-slavery politicians with words, he had not crossed that line, but one could see that a civil war was coming.

Answer: Africa, from slaves brought to SC

The Gullah culture developed as slaves worked isolated from whites in the ricefields. It has remained into modern times and there are attempts now to preserve the language, crafts such as weaving sweetgrass baskets, music, storytelling, and other folk skills.

Answer: they refused to leave a segregated lunch counter in the store

Eight of the nine black men attended the local Friendship Junior College, hence the name. Arrested and offered 30 days in jail or a $100 fine, they chose jail, continuing their non-violent protest by forcing the government to feed, house and guard them for free, rather than make money off them. Sit-in protests were popular, but expensive if bail or fines were paid.

In 2015, the court erased the men's convictions as a gesture to illustrate how times have changed. Eight of the nine were still living.

Answer: to represent a palmetto-log fort

Colonial William Moultrie defended a fort made of palmetto logs on Sullivan's Island, fending off the British fleet June 28, 1776. The palmetto tree represents the fort and therefore the bravery of Moultrie and his men. It wasn't named the state tree until 1939. Col. Moultrie himself designed the flag with the crescent or gorget alone on a dark blue background.

The modern flag looks like a crescent moon behind a palmetto tree, but it's actually a silver crescent from the front of the 1st and 2d regiments' caps, according to Moultrie himself.