Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina held at Charleston, S.C. beginning January 14th and ending March 17th, 1868 reported by J. Woodruff, phonographic reporter.
“South Carolina has had a number of constitutions. The Provincial Congress of South Carolina adopted the state’s first constitution in 1776 but did not submit it to the people for ratification. While the 1776 constitution had allowed all men who owned land to vote, the 1778 constitution that replaced it required that they own at least fifty acres of land. Another constitution was adopted in 1790, and that one stayed in place until South Carolina left the United States in 1860 and adopted a new constitution to fit in with its new place within the so-called Confederate States of America on April 8, 1861. A new state constitution was written in 1865 to acknowledge the end of slavery, but it did little to change the aristocratic nature of South Carolina’s government, and its provisions tried to ensure that as little as possible changed in the lives of black South Carolinians.”*
*Baker, Bruce. [Remarks on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the State Historic Marker on the Site of the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention]. Charleston, SC, 16 May, 2018.
Courtesy of the College of Charleston Special Collections