Date of Award

8-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Pamela Mack (Co-chair)

Committee Member

Dr. Douglas Seefeldt (Co-chair)

Committee Member

Dr. Rebecca Stoil

Abstract

During the colonization of South Carolina, the natural landscape was altered significantly by European colonists. Bounty laws targeting the native predatory species were one-way humans facilitated this change. These bounty laws were created and enforced throughout much of the colonial period in South Carolina and permanently removed most of the region’s natural large predators. This thesis contends that South Carolina’s laws tell a story unique among colonial bounty laws provide a unique perspective on Euro-American attitudes toward predators, creating precedents later used in the United States’ westward expansion and war on predators. European bias and stereotypes permeate South Carolina’s culture and society and helped create the unique circumstances for the implementation of bounty laws. I argue that South Carolina’s distinctive environmental landscape shaped the colony’s economic landscape in a previously unseen in other colonies, mainly through the influence of free-range domesticated livestock such as cattle and hogs. This, compounded with the imported bias and stereotypes against predatory species, created a scenario where South Carolina became much more proactive rather than reactive in the implementation of bounty laws, in a way that had not been seen in other English colonies but would play a significant role in the attempts to remove predators throughout the rest of the continental United States.

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