Date of Award

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. J. Brent Morris

Committee Member

Dr. Joshua Catalano

Committee Member

Dr. Otis W. Pickett

Abstract

Greenville County, South Carolina was created in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. The boundaries that define Greenville follow the natural topography of its mountains and rivers, but also permanently mark its relationship with the historic location of the Cherokee Nation as well as distinguishing it from North Carolina. Through the Regulation Movement and the Revolutionary War, the politics of the backcountry of South Carolina were molded by the men who occupied and laid claim to the land. The primary driver of political decisions was the protection and expansion of personal and community economics.

In this paper I argue that the economic motivations for the founding of Greenville continue to define the political persuasions of the county through the antebellum period. While this economic drive is true of the entirety of South Carolina from its inception as a proprietary colony, I argue that the same motivations in Greenville often caused it to veer off course from the majority politics of the remainder of the state. I trace this divergence from the Regulator Movement, through the tendency to remain loyal to the British during the Revolutionary War period and into the Nullification Crisis when Greenville stood as a last hope of Unionism until the eve of Secession.

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