South Carolina
All of the colonies had curious borders, but no one stuffed them up as hard as the Carolinas. Since South Carolina ratified the constitution before North Carolina, they get the brunt of my harassment, and North Carolina gets somewhat off the hook.
First I need to address the timeframe. While New Jersey doesn’t have any changes either, South Carolina’s history is a little more tumultuous, with proclaiming its secession, joining the Confederacy, and eventually being let back in to Congress. Despite all that, in 250 years the borders of South Carolina have not seen any concrete change in definition.
Which is wild, because they don’t match their definition. And I feel like this is something I genuinely need to deal with at some point. Because while the 1776 constitution of South Carolina doesn’t mention borders, the 1776 constitution of North Carolina defines the border with South Carolina as,
“beginning on the sea side, at a cedar stake, at or near the mouth of Little River (being the southern extremity of Brunswick county) and running from thence a northwest course, through the boundary house, which stands in thirty-three degrees fifty-six minutes, to thirty-five degrees north latitude; and from thence a west course so far as is mentioned in the Charter of King Charles the Second, to the late Proprietors of Carolina.”
In short: Northwest from the Little River until they reach 35° north, and then west. The border between North and South Carolina, constitutionally according to North Carolina, was a simple angle. And they started running it, but stopped in 1737. I don’t know if they gave up, or thought they had reached 35° north, but either way, it wasn’t until 1764 that they resumed, this time with the westerly line, and to quote NCPedia.org, “the entire 1764 survey was made in error.”
When this new line reached the Catawba lands, they went around them to place them within South Carolina until they reached the mouth of the Catawba. This was somewhat north of 35° north but they turned west here, which everyone figured made up for the previous survey falling south of 35° north. This line ran west until it reached the Blue Ridge Mountains, then traveled along the height of the land until it reached the boundary of Cherokee claims. After stalling there for years, they finally ran a line from there to where the Tugaloo River, or more accurately its tributary, the Chatooga River, crossed 35° north, and then following that river to the Savannah, and that to the coast.
Even though they haven’t changed substantially, there have been changes to the border, with NC and SC last adjusting it in 2017 after years of surveying.
Many people have written many words on the insanity of the Carolina borders, I want to give a particular thanks to this article from Robert D. Temple.
Next time: New Hampshire! Another state that doesn’t change!
