South Carolina is a state in the Southeastern United States and the easternmost of the Deep South.
It is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the southwest by Georgia across the Savannah River.
As of November 2018, the population of South Carolina was estimated to be about 5 million people. It is the 23rd most populous state in the United States.
South Carolina is the 9th largest state in the United States in terms of total area with 82,931 square kilometers (32,030 square miles).
Columbia is the capital and second largest city of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The name Columbia is a poetic term used for the United States, originating from the name of Christopher Columbus.
Three geographic land areas define South Carolina; the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge region. South Carolinians simplify this somewhat by referring to the eastern Atlantic Coastal Plain as the South Carolina Low Country and the Piedmont and the Blue Ridge region as Up Country.
The forested Blue Ridge Mountains, famed for a bluish color when seen from a distance, stretch across the northwestern edges of the state. The state’s highest point is located here; Sassafras Mountain, at 1,085 meters (3,560 feet) above sea level.
South Carolina has 301 kilometers (187 miles) of coastline. The coastline contains many salt marshes and estuaries, as well as natural ports such as Georgetown and Charleston.
One of the most popular things to do in South Carolina in the summer is to retreat to the kilometers / miles of pristine sands that line the coast at Myrtle Beach. As appealing as the beaches themselves are the many traditional seaside pleasures to choose from here.
South Carolina has 7 national park and 40 state parks.
Congaree National Park is a 10,633-hectare (26,276-acre) American national park in central South Carolina. The park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States. The lush trees growing in its floodplain forest are some of the tallest in the eastern United States, forming one of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies remaining in the world.
Walking in some of South Carolina’s 2,000-plus plantations is like entering a dream. The grand historic homes and spectacular grounds are scattered throughout the state, but Charleston is home to some of the state’s most beautiful, and many are set amid equally outstanding gardens. Middleton Place sits above America’s oldest landscaped gardens, and is fully furnished in original style. Magnolia Plantation is in America’s oldest publicly accessed gardens, begun in the early 1700s and first opened to visitors in 1870.
Fort Sumter is a sea fort in Charleston, notable for two battles of the American Civil War. It was one of a number of special forts planned after the War of 1812, combining high walls and heavy masonry, and classified as Third System, as a grade of structural integrity. Work started in 1829, but was incomplete by 1860, when South Carolina seceded from the Union.
The City Market is a historic market complex in downtown Charleston. Established in the 1790s, the market stretches for four city blocks from the architecturally-significant Market Hall, which faces Meeting Street, through a continuous series of one-story market sheds, the last of which terminates at East Bay Street. The Market Hall has been described as a building of the “highest architectural design quality.”
At the time Europeans arrived, marking the end of the Pre-Columbian era around 1600, there were many separate Native American tribes, the largest being the Cherokee, and the Catawba, and the total population being up to 20,000.
European exploration of the area began in April 1540, with the Hernando de Soto expedition, who unwittingly introduced new Eurasian diseases that decimated the local Native American population, because they lacked any immunity.
South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788.
South Carolina became the first state to vote in favor of secession from the Union on December 20, 1860.
After the American Civil War, it was readmitted into the United States on June 25, 1868.
South Carolina is named in honor of King Charles I of England, who first formed the English colony, with Carolus being Latin for “Charles”.
The state motto, which appears on its seal, is the Latin phrase “Dum spiro, spero,” which translates to “While I breathe, I hope.” The seal also bears the phrase “Animis opibusque parati,” which means “Prepared in mind and resources.”
The only commercial tea plantation in the contiguous 48 states is on Wadmalaw Island, near Charleston, South Carolina.