The Antebellum Era: 1786 - 1865:

 

“Columbia began as a political theory,” explains historian Margaret B. Meriwether (1936:192). The product of political and economic conflict between the Low- and Up-Countries, the state legislature voted in 1786 to move the capital of South Carolina from Charleston to Columbia, narrowly beating Stateburg by a single vote (Selby 1905:134). Located in the center of South Carolina on the banks of the Congaree River in Richland County, in 1805 Columbia was incorporated as a town; in 1854, a city; and in 1859, a Confederate city. “Born of government, it [Columbia] has existed and grown by and for government” (Buchanan 1936:57).

During the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the American economy was based on agriculture, commerce, crafts, and a few large-scale industries (Spencer-Wood 1987). Whereas in the early nineteenth century only a few regional-scale factories existed—mainly textiles, glass, and iron—by the mid-nineteenth century, period social commentators began to note a transition from household production to market consumption (Strasser 1989). This shift, where local craftspeople were gradually replaced by regional manufacturers and local farms began producing more for regional and national markets, resulted in an increasing distance between producer and consumer.

From its inception, Columbia served a dual purpose—as a seat of government and as a commercial crossroads between the Up- and Low-Countries. While Columbia’s economy was based on trade, agriculture and slave labor, it was not until after 1800, when cotton production began to flourish in the Up-Country, that Columbia became a market of importance (Derrick 1936). Starting in the 1820s, however, cotton production in the Up-Country steadily declined (Coclanis 1985). In 1801, South Carolina produced 20 million pounds of cotton, half of the national crop. By 1820, with the development of cotton production in other regions, particularly in eastern Texas, South Carolina produced only 28% of the national crop, despite unchanged cotton output (Moore 1993). Regardless of market saturation, by 1850, nearly all of Columbia’s economy was based on cotton.

Although Columbia was the capital of South Carolina, it was never a large city. In 1802, roughly 200 houses and 12 stores existed within Columbia’s original two square mile boundary (Forbes 1936:242). Dr. F. A. Michaux (in Moore 1936:261), passing through Columbia during the early nineteenth century, observed that the houses of Columbia “are almost all constructed of planks, and painted grey or yellow; and although very few of them raised more than two stories, on the whole they have a very agreeable appearance.” By 1820 the city boasted roughly 250 houses (Fickling 1936) and a number of grocery stores, taverns, tailor shops, and drug stores, many of which, by mid-century, were large emporiums (Moore 1993). In 1793, Samuel Green, a merchant and hotel purveyor, reported that the number of stores in Columbia were increasing “so fast in this place that the proportion of business each can do must be very inconsiderable” (Moore 1993:55).

But with the adoption of a one-crop slave economy based on cotton came substantial social change. In 1790, African Americans in the state comprised 33% of the population, but by 1830 African Americans outnumbered Whites by 2 to 1 (Moore 1993). In Columbia, the differences between White and African American populations were never that great. The only time during the antebellum period when African Americans outnumbered Whites in Columbia was 1840, with 2,136 Whites and 2,204 African Americans (of whom 149 were free). Throughout the Antebellum period, Columbia supported a relatively large free African American community. In 1850, Columbia’s free African American population grew to 196 individuals living in 68 households. By 1860, 314 free African Americans resided in 92 free African American households (Moore 1993).

Perhaps as a reaction to economic troubles related to a declining cotton market and the beginning of the abolition movement in the North, a number of state statutes and city ordinances were created that sent a clear message to free African Americans of their second-class status. In 1825, the first police force in Columbia was created, with orders to disperse unlawful Black assemblies and apprehend slaves without “tickets.” African Americans were not allowed to assemble in groups of five or more (except at funerals) without a White individual present. In 1834 it became a crime in South Carolina to teach a slave to read or write, and in the 1850s, a person could be fined and imprisoned if caught circulating published or written material to a slave. The punishment for anyone, except White females, caught trafficking goods with slaves was 39 lashes. To protect White interests and reserve skilled crafts for White Columbians, in 1851 slaves were ordered to not be mechanics, trades-people, clerks, sales persons, to grow produce for resale, or keep a boarding house. Even smoking a cigar on the street was punishable by not more than 20 lashes (Moore 1993).

According to the 1850 census, free African Americans in Columbia worked as stable keepers, shoemakers, musicians, carpenters, tailors, and cabinetmakers, among other occupations. Free African American women in Columbia worked as dressmakers, seamstresses, washerwomen, and health care workers (Randle 2004). As with most of the South during this time, the majority of barbers in Columbia were Black. Barbers were often afforded greater social privileges than other free African Americans. For example, Alonzo Reese, a barber, advertised in the Daily Carolina Times and Sam Glover, another barber, was the only African American business person listed in the 1859 Columbia City Directory business section (Moore 1993). Of the 196 free African Americans in 1850 living in Columbia, a total of seven owned real estate valued at more than $1,000 (Moore 1993).

Throughout the Antebellum period, social attitudes of European Americans’ remained essentially unchanged. Mrs. Brevard, one of Columbia’s most wealthy citizens (with over 200 slaves), wrote, “Negroes are strange creatures. I cannot tell if they have any good feeling for their owners or not … what are we to expect from slaves – when mine hate me as they do – it is nothing more than I am white and own slaves” (in Moore 1993:126-7, emphasis in original). Matilda Lieber, a Columbia resident, wrote that African Americans “are so good natured – so grateful for any kindness shown them” (Moore 1993:127).

While attitudes may not have changed much by the end of the antebellum period, the dynamics of social relationships were beginning to change significantly. By the start of the Civil War, some Columbians were calling for the eviction of all free African Americans from the state (Moore 1993). On 11 April, 1864, the editor of the Guardian complained of African Americans’ lack of supervision and not producing for the war effort enough; he stated that, “in cities and towns he [the African American] is comparatively under no control” (Moore 1993:186). With the fall of Columbia to General Sherman in February of 1865, Columbia was about to undergo a radical restructuring of society

-Jakob D. Crockett