Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/184

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SOUTH CAROLINA


158


SOUTH CAROLINA


public schools for all children between the ages of six and twenty-one, and divides the county into school districts. The main school fund derives from a thiee-niill tax on all taxable property, an annual dog tax of fifty cents, and the poll tax assessed and col- lected in the various school districts. In addition to these sources the school fund drew, up to 1907, the state dispensary tax, the most unique feature of the law. School districts are allowed to vote for special taxation. No public money from whatever source derived shall be used, either directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance "of any college, school, ho.spital, orphan house or other institution, society or organiza- tion of whatever kind which Ls wholly or in part under the direction or control of any church or of any reli- gious or sectarian denomination, society or organiza- tion". Separate schools are provided for children of the white and coloured races, and no child of either race is ever permitted to attend the school provided for children of the other race.

Section 1201a of the General Code reads: "That the nature of alcoholic drinks and narcotics and special instruction as to their effect upon the human system, in connection with the several divisions of the subject of Physiology and Hygiene, shall be included in the branches of study taught in the common or public schools in the State of South Carolina and shall be stud- ied and taught as thoroughly and in the same manner as other like required branches are in said schools, by the use of text books in the hands of pupils where other branches are thus studied in said schools, and orally in the case of pupils unable to read, and shall be taught by all teachers and studied by all pupils in all said schools supported wholly or in part by public money . . . and any officer, school dii-ector, com- mittee, superintendent or teacher who shall refuse or neglect to comply with the requirements of this Act, or shall neglect or fail to make proper provisions for the instruction required and in the manner speci- fied by the first section of this Act, for all pupils in each and every school under his jurisdiction shall be removed from office and the vacancy filled as in other ca.ses." Schools must be kept open and the exercises continued in each school district for a period of at least three months in each year. "Arbour Day", the third Friday in November, and Calhoun's Birthday, 18 March, "South Carolina Day", are observed in an appropriate manner. The age limit of pupils — be- tween the ages of six and twenty-one — has been ruled under an opinion of the attorney-general as prohibit- ing the establishing of free kindergartens.

For white children there are 2712 public schools in the state (1909), employing 933 men teachers and 3247 women, and reaching 153,807 pupils with an average attendance of 107,368. For negro children there are 2354 public schools, employing 894 men teachers and 1802 women, and teaching 181,095 I)upils, with an average attendance of 123,481. The total rev(^nu(! for both white and negroes was $2,- 345,(>47.72; out of which there was e\-pended Sl,- 590,732.51 for whites and $308,153.16 for negroes. The state's per capita ex-penditure, according to en- rolment, was in 1S99, $4.90 for white, $1.42 for negro, $2.69 average for both; in 1904, .Sd.SS for white, $1.47 for negro, $4.08 for both; in 1909, $10,34 for white, $1.70 for negro, 85.67 for both. There are 27 institu- tions of higher educat ion for whites and 1 1 for negroes. Of the 27 institutions for whites, 5, non-sectarian, receive a total stale su[)port of $355,994.88; 5 are Presbyterian, 3 .Methodist, 3 Hai)tist,and 2 Lutheran. The remainder are non-.-^ectarian seminaries or tech- nical colleges. The University of South Carolina, chartered in 1801, is located at Columbia, has 29 officers and members of facultv, 298 sludeiits and a total income of $97,385.18. Clem.son AgricuHural College, chartered in 1889, located at Clemson, has 47 oflicers and members of the faculty, 665 students,


and a total income of $201,477.28. The Winthrop Normal and Industrial College, chartered in 1891, located at Rock Hill, has 45 officers and members of faculty, and a total income of $94,(iS5.37.

History. — A. Cittil. — Owing in jiart to presumably unfavourable climatic conditions, in part to the fact that the land lay in the disputed zone between the English and Spanish settlements, colonization in the Carohnas was tardy and spasmodic. In 1629, a patent to the territory had been granted by Charles I and forfeited through inaction on the part of the patentees. Virginia assumed to make grants without any permanent results, though a small company of dissenters, in 1653, migrated from that colony and began the Albemarle settlement, with a considerable number of Quakers; while New Englanders. a few years later, purchased land from the Indians on Cape Fear River, but abandoned the settlement with dis- gust. At last, in 1663, Charles II granted to the Earl of Clarendon and seven other of his favourites all Carolina from the 36° to 31° north, and Cape Fear was settled under this grant by colonists from Barbadoes. The proprietors were nearly absolute in their power, though the "advice, consent, and approbation" of the freemen were necessary before laws co\ild become vaUd and there was to be freedom of religious worship. The colony, however, cfid not prosper, and the rela- tions between proprietors and colonists were further strained by an attempt to govern the colony under a constitution framed by the Earl of Shaftesbury, with more or less assistance from the philosopher Locke. This document was a remarkably impractical product, based, quaintly, upon medieval and aristocratic ideas with one of its principal and avov.'ed motives — " to avoid erecting a numerous democracy". Its model was the independent Palatinate of Durham; officials were called palatines, chancellors, high stewards, and ad- mirals. Two-fifths of the land was to belong to the nobility. There was to be a ParUament, which was to consider nothing but what was referred to it by the Proprietory Council. Freedom of worship was granted, but citizens must profess their belief in God and the obligation to worship, and, contrary to the wish of Locke, the Church of England was to be an Established Church. Dissatisfaction with this Con- stitution, which was never enforced, and with the Navigation Acts, kept the Carolinas in a perpetual ferment.

In 1670 the foundation of South Carolina was laid in the settlement of the Ashley River and an inde- pendent governor was appointed. Locke's Constitu- tion w;is abandoned, and a mode of government was adopted limiting the powers of the executive and out- lining a legislature of elected delegates. In 1672 Charleston was fixed as the permanent site for the settlement, a number of Dutch immigrants from New York ha\-ing arrived the year before, as well as a shipload of slaves, the latter only too soon to out- number the whites. The colony was further aug- mented by Presbyterian Scotch-Irish in 1683, but the mo,st important addition to the little colony was the coming of the French Huguenots, upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, who settled on the Cooper River, and were later admitted to the political rights of the colony. But worthless settlei-s, selfish and unen- lightened proprietors, tactless go\-ernors, religious dis- sent with the party of the Church and the king, and the unea.sy proximity of the Spanish settlements, led to open revolt, the banishment of a governor, and, in 1689, the declaration of martial law. Trouble was averted by the appointment of Archdale, one of the proprietors and a Quaker, as governor, who made many important concessions, as did his successor, Blake, In 1697 religious liberty was accorded to all "except Pai)ists", An attempt was made in 1704 to exclude Dissenters from the Assembly, but the law was annulled by Queen Aime. From now on until