First Steve Spurrier's visor is sooooo out of style. Second it's south carolina (now relegated to lower case) home of Anniston Wilson, racist. Some sc history is needed (because everything comes down to history in my world). South carolina (a sentence has to begin with a capital letter) was very different from the other North American British colonies. Sugar planters from Barbados fled north for fear that slaves would revolt on the island and settled what would become Charles Towne. They brought with them the extremely harsh Barbados slave code, began cultivating rice and importing more African slaves than any other colony. Slavery in the other colonies developed very slowly but in sc it came lock stock and barrel from Barbados. It was a different mindset. For much of colonial and ante bellum history there were more African slaves in sc than Whites. Fear of Black revolt was ever present. The Stono Rebellion in 1739 was the worst slave rebellion in early America. The south carolina planters captured the rebellious slaves, had them decapitated, placed the heads on pikes, and put the pikes along a road to deter any future rebellion. Slave codes were strengthened and punishments became more harsh.
These rice planters became the wealthiest and most influential group in Colonial North America. It was this group that exerted its power and convinced Jefferson not to include a condemnation of slavery in the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution will be written to include the heinous three-fifths compromise, protection of the slave trade until 1808, and provision for fugitive slave laws without using the word slave because the Southern slave owner had so much power.
As time went on the economy of the United States changed. John C Calhoun (Senator, Governor, Vice President of the US from sc) realized that the South's representation in the House of Representatives was diminishing because their population was not increasing like that of the North. He knew the South was doomed if they did not begin to embrace industry and develop a manufacturing economy. Southern Planters resisted this because it would challenge their social, political, and economic status as well as bring in paid labor. Failing to bring about the industrialization of sc Calhoun devises the Doctrine of Nullification in the South Carolina Exposition. As sc and the rest of the South diminished in size and influence relative to the North and developing West, Calhoun felt the only way to protect their increasing minority status was nullification and interposition. The State over the nation. States should be able to declare null and void any act of Congress that went against the interests of a state. Calhoun saw this as the only way to save his beloved sc and its slave based society. It should be noted that the idea of nullification, that had been put forth in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions by Jefferson and Madison in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts in the late 1790's, was quite different. Jefferson and Madison were concerned about the Congress passing laws that violated the Bill of Rights and putting the very nature of freedom in jeopardy. (The Supreme Court had not yet exerted its power of judicial review) Sc freaked out when the 1828 tariff was passed by Congress and surmised that if Congress could pass something so egregious to sc then it could outlaw slavery. When the tariff was lowered a bit it was not enough for sc so they NULLIFIED it. They threw around the idea of secession and Jackson had to send troops to put down the "nullifiers". Calhoun digs in, resigns the vice presidency and returns to sc.
The south and especially sc felt very secure in their position prior to the Civil War. The Presidents that served until Lincoln were either from the South or were pro south northerners (Pierce for example). the Supreme Court was dominated by pro slave justices (Dred Scott Decision) and the South was able to protect themselves as long as they were not outnumbered in the Senate. The Missouri compromise guaranteed that territory included in the Louisiana Purchase below the 36-30 latitude would enter the union as slave states. When Congress passed the Kansas Nebraska Act in 1854 negating the sacrosanct Missouri Compromise Line, not only was the Republican Party created, but it ignited a firestorm. Preston Brooks a Congressman from south carolina stormed onto the floor of the Senate during debate on the act and savagely beat Senator Charles Sumner (staunch abolitionist from Mass) over the head with a cane, That's how they do it in sc, beat the hell out you. Calhoun was dead by this time and sc was in the hands of a group called the "fire eaters" who were hell bent on seceding from the union. ( It needs to be noted that Calhoun was a very complex individual. He never advocated secession which is surprising to most. He was wedded to his state and his way of life.)
sc was the first to secede and they even threatened to secede from the confederacy during the Civil war. The state has always been a bit different. More like the colonial west indies than British North America.
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