The Imaginary Line Between Here and There

How South Carolina’s Boundary Caused Conflict and Required much Compromise.

Throughout history, many invisible lines have started wars, settled disputes, confined

people and liberated them with an unyielding power. South Carolina is no different now than it

was before. The boundary of the state has been one that has caused much conflict and required

many compromises. In the year of 1663, the English ruler by the name of King Charles II, King

of England, gave a charter that included the colony of Carolina to eight noblemen, this made

them Lord Proprietors of Carolina on a large colony that expanded from the Atlantic to Pacific.

Unrest between two areas within Carolina led to a simple compromise; split Carolina in two.

Queen Anne granted the request to separate the two colonies but with little guidance as to how or

where. This set in motion what would become centuries of confusion, conflict, and compromise.

By the mid to late 1700’s, many conflicts began to arise and there was no compromise other than

to split Carolina into two separate colonies. In order to split Carolina, there would have to be a

boundary marked by surveyors. This new boundary survey led to many errors in the line that

would serve to separate the two new colonies. Years of errors compounded the conflict over the

intended boundary leaving some of the issues from the 1700s still unresolved today.

The territory that became known as South Carolina, was first explored in 1520 when it is

believed that the first Europeans landed in what is modern-day South Carolina. The Spanish

were the first Europeans not only to reach the Americas but to explore and settle the land that

became North Carolina. Hernando de Soto’s expedition in 1539–1542 took him through the

Appalachians. Twenty-five years later, Juan Pardo established a fort in the Piedmont that he
hoped would be the first outpost of a Spanish empire in North America, (“Spanish Exploration”).

A Santo Domingo auditor laid claim to Carolina land and named it “Chicora”. When the people

from the city of Santo Domingo began to explore the area, they thought that they could take

advantage of the land and set up permanent settlements, However, their thoughts were wrong and

when they tried to settle the land and claim the land as theirs, they failed and the rest of the group

members had to go back to Santo Domingo were the came from. The King of Spain granted the

land to Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon based on his explorations. (Johnson and Sloan, 1) However,

this settlement failed which led to the group having to flee back to Spain leaving the land

unsettled.

Years later after the Spanish explorer, Ayllon failed to create a settlement and explorer

Hernando de Soto trekked across areas of Carolina, the French also claimed areas of South

Carolina. This claim was based on a voyage made along the coast by John Verrazzano in 1524.

Jean Ribaut leads a group of French settlers to the Port Royal area in 1562. The settlement also

was unsuccessful. When this settlement failed, the group had to go back to France without a

leader. It was not until October 30, 1629, that England made its attempt to claim the unsettled

area when the King of England, Charles I, granted the Carolina area to Sir Robert Heath.

(Johnson and Sloan, 1) “In 1629, King Charles I gave his political ally Sir Robert Heath a huge

tract of real estate in the new world. The gift included all lands between the thirty-first and thirty-

sixth north latitudes, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with the Bahamas as a bonus. By

rough estimates, this tract incorporated a staggering half-million square miles, approximately

eighteen times the size of present-day South Carolina.” (“Troublesome Boundaries” 2011).

Following the failure of Heath to establish a colony in Carolina, King Charles II gave the charter

of the Carolina Colony to eight English Noblemen. These men became known as the Lord
Proprietors of Carolina. (Johnson and Sloan, 2,3). “In 1691, disagreement over the governance

of the province led to the appointment of a deputy governor to administer the northern half of

Carolina, today’s North Carolina. Some believe that the colony was split in May 1712, when

Edward Hyde became the first governor of North Carolina”, (“When and Why were the

Carolinas Divided?”) This set into motion the beginnings of the colony and what would later

become North and South Carolina.

Lord Proprietors requested the boundary of Carolina to be changed from the original

boundary lines of the King’s grant. “Two years later, the proprietors requested and received a

new charter from the king, one that moved the northern boundary up to 36°30ʹ, approximately

the current line with Virginia, and staked the proprietors’ claim to the desirable north shore of

Albemarle Sound. The king also extended the southern boundary down to 29°, which would

include present-day Daytona Beach.”(“Troublesome Boundaries” 2011). This expansion of the

land of Carolina gave rise to potential conflict with the Spanish to the south in St. Augustine.

Carolina’s vague western boundary increased vulnerability from the French that was settling

along the Mississippi River. Carolina began to see differences among it settlers soon after

Charles Town was named the capital in 1670. The areas north of the Cape Fear River began to

establish their own government different than Charles town. After being petitioned by the settlers

in the northern area of the colony as an initial compromise Queen Anne, the niece of Charles II

granted a split of the colony. The split in 1712 set the boundary between the northern and

southern Carolina as the Cape Fear River. (“Troublesome Boundaries” 2011)

This division of Carolina into two colonies set into motion what would create more than a

century of conflict over the location of the boundary between the two Carolinas. A map of the

province of Carolina by the map maker Herman Moll depicted the two Carolinas with no
division boundary between them in 1730. In the year 1735 a commision was formed with

representatives from each state to begin the official survey of the boundary that would divide

North and South Carolina. A boundary line was started, but never finished. The commissioners

from South Carolina refused to carry on any further with the survey. (Skaggs 341) This brought

a lot of confusion and conflict between the two states because many were unsure as to why the

surveying group stopped. The North Carolina Governor pushed for the survey to be completed

even though the South Carolina crew was not willing to continue on. “We hereby send you a

Letter from His Excellency the Govr. of North Carolina, whereby you will see how desirous that

Gentleman is to Comply with His Majesty's Royal Instructions in having the Boundary Line

Between the Two Provinces Finished. We have the same very much at heart, but are at a Loss

how to proceed on that Service.” (Skaggs 341). With South Carolina refusing to continue the

survey, there was no option for the two colonies other than to put off finishing the survey.

In 1737 another attempt to draw the boundary was made. Both the commissioners from

North and South Carolina reached an agreement to continue what had been started in 1735. The

agreed upon border was cleared and marked with the intended end of the line stopping at the

35th parallel. This surveying group for unknown reasons ended up stopping the survey 12 miles

short of the 35th parallel when they marked the boundary. (“Troublesome Boundaries” 2011).

This error was the key in causing the boundary to be wrong. “The line was extended in the same

northwestward direction for a distance of twenty-two miles to a stake in a meadow, "erroneously

supposed to be the point of intersection with the 35th parallel of north latitude." (Skaggs 343).

Filled with doubt about the boundary another group was sent out by King George III in 1764 to

confirm what the other 1737 group had done and if they had successfully marked the 35th

parallel. This group started from the stake left by the 1737 group, not realizing it was wrong until
they were 64 miles away. This mistake cheated South Carolina out of 422,000 acres. The group

then decided to offset the mistake by adding land further along the boundary to South Carolina

by going beyond the 35th parallel. Their attempts to make up for the mistake were also done

incorrectly causing North Carolina to be cheated out of land in another area. ( How the Carolinas

fixed their blurred lines 2014) These areas along the northern border of South Carolina resulted

in the a state divide that was not nice and neat, but changes greatly between the two states.

“Finally, on July 1, 1808, commissioners from both colonies, now states, met in

Columbia, South Carolina, and agreed to terms describing the boundary between the two

colonies. The commissioners accepted the previous surveys with only a slight modification to the

1764 survey. The revised 1764 line was surveyed in 1813.” (“Historical Division of the States”

2017). In 1808, when the two States met in Columbia and talked about the boundary, this settled

a lot of dispute and conflict that was going on at the time in relation to the boundary. When the

State line was revised from the previous 1764 line, the new line added a lot of land to the State of

South Carolina. In 1815, a major survey took place in the state that marked the ridgeline between

the two states and also marked two points at rocks in both North and South Carolina. Also after

this survey took place, two monuments were made, (One in North Carolina and one in South

Carolina) to represent the survey that was made for the State line. This would become the state

line as we know it today.

The battle of the border still continues on. In the 1990s a large energy corporation was

selling land that was partially in the each state. In order for the land to be sold the state line

would have to be marked. (“How the Carolina's fixed their Blurred lines” 2014) The problem

was the original survey of the state line had occured some 200 years before with no survey since.

Trees, called witness trees, that were marked by the original surveyors had been cut or died,
leaving no trace of true line. Very few permanent markers were ever used or located from the the

previous survey attempts/ The conflict about the location of the boundary once again came to the

table. The states debated whether to try and correct centuries of compounded errors or to once

again compromise. In 2017 the two states formed a commission which created a plan bring a

solution to the centuries old problem. A group of surveyors from each state carefully examined

the line and reestablished the exact location of the line. This caused several properties, homes

and businesses to be split between the two states. The commission devised a plan to help the

property owners with address changes, new property maps, taxations and other issues that

affected them when the line was moved.

When the Kings and rulers of England laid claim to America many people began to gain

land through charters being passed. Carolina became a charter when eight noblemen receiving

the Carolina from King Charles II and King George III. 144,000 acres of land became Carolina.

As the colony of Carolina began to form conflict began to rise resulting in dividing Carolina in to

two independent royal colonies. When conflict rose among the colony it was quickly met with

compromise, keeping the two colonies in line with each other. One of the key things that rose

conflict in the States was the errors that were made when creating the boundary line. Multiple

errors caused the boundary between the North and South Carolina to become great source of

conflict but in the nature of the south, compromise between the two won out. Throughout

history, invisible lines have started wars, settled disputes, confined people and liberated them

with an unyielding power.