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African American Church,
Moncks Corner, SC
Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs
Division,
www.loc.gov
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Berkeley County, in the lower pine belt of the Coastal Plain, the largest county
of the state, has an area of 1,238 square miles, and 22,558 inhabitants,
virtually all native. The county is level, the maximum elevation being 150 feet.
It was re-established in 1882, but embraces part of the original county named in
honor of two of the original eight Lords Proprietors, John Berkeley, and William
Berkeley, established May 10, 1682, along with Craven and Colleton counties. Its
present territory was long part of Charleston County. Moncks Corner, the county
seat, has 309 inhabitants, Lincolnville 247, and St. Stephens 312.
The soil is of varying kinds and degrees of fertility; the richest being along
the rivers and swamps, shading off into light sandy soil, extremely responsive
to proper fertilization and cultivation. Technically the soils are divided into
six series: Norfolk, Rustan, Coxville, and Portsmouth in the uplands, and
Johnston and Congaree in the bottom lands. Norfolk and Rustan are the most
important and best drained, and about 60 per cent of their area is under
cultivation. The growing season is from 250 to 280 days.
Agriculture developed early under the plantation system, and nowhere was the
social and economic life which it fostered more typical, with indigo, rice and
cotton as the staple crops. This condition continued to 1860, many of the
plantations date from colonial times, and some are still in the possession of
original families. Some of these are of more than local interest, as the
original homes of distinguished South Carolinians.
The present crops consist of cotton, corn, peas, oats, sweet potatoes sugar cane
and tobacco. Any crop that will grow in the Coastal Plain will flourish here.
One of the first crops of long cotton in South Carolina was grown by Major
General William Moultrie on his Northampton Plantation in 1793. |
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