Why I Talk About Local History On This Blog

In the now eight years since I began this humble little blog site, I've had a number of people ask me about my historical posts here, and why I do them.

Well, history is my number one hobby, other than astronomy that is. American military history is a major passion of mine. Rather strange considering my often stated staunch anti-war views, yes I know.

But there's more to why I choose to dedicate much of my blog site to discussion about the history of my part of South Carolina. That reason is to give folks a better understanding that there's more to this humble little section of my home state than y'all might realize.

When most people in the rest of the good ole U.S. of A. think of the State of South Carolina, more often than not they think of golden sandy beaches along our little section of the East Coast. Spring and summer destinations like Myrtle Beach along the Grand Strand and the tropical islands further south like Hilton Head are usually the first that come to mind. 

This reason is usually why some older folks refer to native South Carolinians as "Sandlappers" despite the fact that most of us don't actually live near the coast itself.

Then again if its history that most fellow Americans think of, again it brings us back to the coast to the old City of Charleston where Edward "Blackbeard" Teach once walked the cobblestone streets near the battery, or Fort Sumter where the open shots of the War Between The States (that's American Civil War to everyone else) were fired.

Ah yes, Charleston (formerly Charles Town before South Carolina and 12 other former British Colonies decided that King George III was no longer our sovereign) where the Cooper and Ashley Rivers join to form the Atlantic Ocean....at least it does according to the folks native to the area.

Sometimes there are those travelers and visitors to our little corner of Dixie who prefer hikes through the beautiful cypress gardens and swamps in the lowlands, or to the beautiful waterfalls and the top of Table Rock Mountain in the upstate boarding the old Appalachian Mountain Range. There are even those who love to go canoeing , or kayaking among the many rivers in the South Carolina, particularly the mighty Savannah River that borders the Great State of Georgia to the west. 

Oh and yes, there's also the historic sites in and around the State's historic capital city of Columbia located on the Piedmont foothills, which also includes one of the best zoos in the American Southland located right along the Saluda River. There are also historic battlefields near Camden where British and Continental Armies fought in the final years of the American Revolutionary War.

And the rest is a bunch of cotton fields, peach orchards, some forests, and cow-patty-covered farmland pretty much. Well, at least that's more-or-less the impression most people get when visiting my home state. Hell, sometimes its the impression some of the people who've lived here their whole lives seem to have too.

As for yours truly, I live here in Chester County located right on the border between what is considered the South Carolina Upstate and the Midlands Regions -- though officially its located in the latter. Chester County is located between two major rivers, the Broad River to the west and the Catawba River to the east.

As far as being the center of excitement, or a popular tourist spot, Chester County is, well, pretty much neither I'll freely admit. Pretty much a sleepy little county situated between Columbia fifty miles to the south and Charlotte, North Carolina about thirty miles to the north.

Aside from being located on US Highway 321 and Interstate 77, Chester County is usually best noted as being a convenient place to stop for food, or to fill up on gas, or fast food for tourists traveling through to go to one of the destinations that I've previously mentioned.

The City of Chester, the county seat and largest town in the county, is a relatively sleepy-little small Southern town surrounded by livestock-wandering fields, farmlands, and some wooded areas. Chester County itself does boast of having two lovely State Parks: Chester State Park and Landsford Canal State Park by the Catawba River, both of which are pretty awesome to visit.

Otherwise, as I said, a rather sleepy little town in what some might consider one of the lesser important regions of a State full of coastal vacation spots and tourist attractions for families and sports-persons.

However, Chester County and the surrounding part of upper South Carolina is not without its fair share of important and fascinating history; some of which had a major impact in shaping the United States into the nation it would become after its founding. Some major historical figures took part in some of that same history and their presence in terms of their actions can still be felt today if you know where to look.

Much of that history, which I've learned over the course of a lifetime, helped shape my understanding and love of history and for the lives of those who came before me. One of the missions of this blog site will be to share some of the stories of that history and better help educate y'all on what it means to me in terms of how I personally identify and promote my heritage.

That heritage can be found on the names of old headstones in historic cemeteries, on war memorials, in the histories of certain landmarks, and even in the very names of certain places and rivers. History and identity that go back a very long time. Long before my humble little corner of Dixie was even a U.S. State, even before it was even known as South Carolina -- even before human beings first walked on its soil!

Now, before I go on, I need to make a few thing very clear.

I'm not a trained historian, nor claim to be. I've studied history in school, but not in college (I did attend technical college for a time) and any knowledge I share on this blog comes strictly from my own personal research and from a (presently) 35 year hobby of learning and independent study. Because of this I don't encourage any of y'all to simply take my word alone on any of the information I provide. I wouldn't recommend taking any one source as fact, even from people who call themselves credited historians.

That being said I will promise to provide some background information for anything I post on this site and I will not rely completely on anecdotal knowledge passed off as fact. Anything that cannot be confirmed will be noted as such, or I'll simply leave out of what I can confirm as fact. Everything I share will be the truth as I know and have come to understand it to be.

Anyone who reads my historical posts is free to challenge my arguments, or add to them with their own facts. Oh and I'll sweeten the pot by offering a $50 bounty on any factual errors a reader might find -- and no accidental misspellings don't count. I take pride in my research and feel no need to deliberately mislead anyone, or write propaganda.

I'm also aware that some of what I write from a historical narrative might come off as seemingly biased to some readers.

While I admit that I hold a certain fondness for, oh say, the Patriot militia soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, or the Confederate soldier in the War Between the States, for obvious reasons; I will endeavor to promise that my work is not intended to promote anyone's propaganda, nor to shill for anyone's modern-day causes. This is my work and mine alone and is not formally endorsed by any organization, or group.

Finally, as I've mentioned before I hold Constitutional Conservative and Libertarian values, but I will endeavor to keep modern politics out of my views of history and heritage, and how I present both. Anyone who comes here looking for "rage-bait" or a means to attack another individual for their own politics is going to come away severely disappointed.

Though I certainly admire both late, great men, I'm neither Shelby Foote or Lewis Grizzard. But I'll certainly continue do all that I can to inform and educate, while adding my own little bit of humor from time to time.