Rice

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Rice

"…Finally, because South Carolina, from her climate, situation, and peculiar institutions, is, and must ever continue to be, wholly dependent on agriculture and commerce, not only for prosperity , but for her existence as a state…" (Boller, pg.110)

-John C Calhoun: South Carolina explosion and Protest (1828)



While the north was undergoing an "industrial revolution," the south remained agriculturally based. Rice, which was the first grown in South Carolina in the early 1960's, was a very promising harvest. Between 1820and 1850, the production of rice nearly tripled, making it a leading colonial crop along the seacoast of South Carolina and Georgia. Rice had definitely proved to be a "magic crop" of the South. (Boyer, pg.96)

The Carolinas was originally granted in the 1663 by King Charles II of England to a few of his British supporters. The proprietors named the land Carolina in the honor of King Charles. Charles in Latin is Carolus. (Olmsted, pg.312) The colony grow hastily at first. In 1669, however, Anthony Ashley Cooper, one of the proprietors, speeded up settlements by offering immigration land grants. For each new family member, indentured servant, or slave brought in, fifty acres of land were given to the family head. The wealth immigrants, or those with large families, received a large piece of land, whi...

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... of which was sold in Europe, the West Indies, the North were produced in South Carolina and Georgia. A decade later the production of rice increased to 215,313,497 pounds produced. A decline in rice production occurred in 1850. The decline was most probably caused by the rise of cotton prices that drew labor or capital out of rice production, or possibly planters hesitated to risk the lives of expensive slaves in the unhealthy rice swamps. But, whatever the reason rice growers never occurred in the Southeast and after the Civil war it moved Westward into Louisiana Arkansas, and Texas. States from 1690, and the production of rice, as well of the American nation. The South was a threat to the Union. The incompatibility of the North and South caused the two to completely separate; whether issues concerning industrialization, slavery, or just the Unity of the nation.

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