"C" is for Constitutions

"C" is for Constitutions. The Fundamental Constitutions of the Lords Proprietors were abandoned in 1698. During the colonial period, the dominance of legislative control developed and has continued into the twenty-first century. South Carolina adopted its first state constitution in 1776. Since then it has adopted six more: in 1778, 1790, 1861, 1865, 1868, and 1895. The constitutions of 1790, 1868, and 1895 are noteworthy since they were adopted at critical turning points in the state’s history: in 1790 after the state entered the federal union; in 1868 during Reconstruction; and in 1895 after economic distress. The revision and modernization of the 1895 constitution—especially since 1966 in response to federal civil rights policies and state and local reform pressures, has caused some to say that there is actually an “eighth” South Carolina constitution.