1768 – American Revolution – Foundations.

The mechanics in Charles Town nominated candidates for election who opposed the Quartering Act, Stamp Act and Sugar Act. Led by Christopher Gadsden they met at the Liberty Tree “where many loyal, patriotic, and constitutional toasts were drank.” In honor of John Wilkes’ North Briton No. 45 the Liberty Tree was decorated with forty-five lights and forty-five rockets were fired. The company marched to Dillon’s Tavern where there were:

45 lights … upon the table, with 45 bowls of punch, 45 bottles of wine, and 92 glasses.  They spent a few hours in a new round of toasts.

Charles Town, circa 1762

1785   

 The South Carolina Legislature voted 51-47 against West Indian slave trade ban. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney argued that South Carolina was not suited for supporting small white farmers because the land “was not capable of being cultivated by white men” – a reference to the unhealthy swamp lands of the low country. 

Alexander Gillon, Edward Rutledge and David Ramsay voted for the trade ban. Ramsay stated “that every man [who] went to church last Sunday, and said his prayers, was bound by a spiritual obligation to refuse the importation of slaves.”