Transportation and Travel in the Southern Backcountry: St. David’s Parish, South Carolina in Eighteenth Century British America

Abstract

This paper explores the experiences and impressions European travelers had of the early Southern Backcountry with a focus on St. David’s Parish in eighteenth century South Carolina. Beginning with the settlement of the South Carolina backcountry in the 1730s and continuing to 1800, this study represents the impressions Europeans had of the landscape, and environment, as well the people who inhabited the upper Pee Dee region of the South Carolina backcountry. This paper utilizes information gleaned from public records, diaries, travel accounts, and early colonial newspapers to uncover how travel and transportation directly contributed to the development of commerce and trade, as well as early towns in this region of the Southern backcountry of British America.