1737

Samuel Dyssli, an immigrant from Switzerland wrote to his family and declared:

 I am over here, thank God, hale and hearty, and doing at present quite nicely. I am working with an English master. He gives me every week …. 50 shillings and … plentiful … food and drink.  Carolina looks more like a Negro Country than like a country settled by white people.

1744

The Gazette published a letter to Eliza Pinckney from a London merchant which read:

I have shown your Indigo to one of our most noted Brokers … who tried it against some of the Best French, and in his opinion is it as Good … when you can in some measure supply the British Demand, we are persuaded, that on proper Application to Parliament, a Duty will be laid on Foreign Growth, for I am informed we pay for Indigo to the French £200,000 per annum.

1772

American Revolution – Foundations. During a public meeting most of the people demanded the tea be sent back to England. They also resolved not to purchase any tea being taxed for raising revenue in America. They resolved:

That the tea ought not to be landed, received or vended in this colony, nor should any be imported while the law imposing this unconstitutional tax remained …

Christopher Gadsden was appointed chairman to the committee to secure signatures in support of this resolution. They also resolved to boycott the business of any non-signers. Anonymous letters arrived at the Exchange Building threatening the burning of the ship London and the wharf where it was docked.

1779

A grand jury complained about the “excessive number of Negro Wenches, suffered to buy and sell about the streets, corners, and markets.”

1886

Benjamin Franklin Perry

Benjamin Perry died in Greenville on December 3, 1886 and was interred at Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery.

Benjamin F. Perry was appointed provisional Governor of South Carolina on June 30, 1865 by President Andrew Johnson – due to his strong unionist views. Perry was directed by the president to enroll voters and to lead the state in the writing of a new state constitution. The delegates at the constitutional convention largely followed Perry’s guidelines for the constitution, but they strayed by adopting the black codes to prevent black suffrage.

Despite his pro-Union views, Perry did not believe in racial equality.  In 1865 he said,

The African, has been in all ages, a savage or a slave. God created him inferior to the white man in form, color, and intellect, and no legislation or culture can make him his equal… His hair, his form and features will not compete with the Caucasian race, and it is in vain to think of elevating him to the dignity of the white man. God created differences between the two races, and nothing can make him equal.