“H” is for Hampton, Wade I (1754-1835)

“H” is for Hampton, Wade I (1754-1835). Planter, soldier, politician. Hampton was born in Virginia and in the 1770s moved to the Tyger River Valley in present-day Spartanburg County. From the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he supported the patriot cause and was an officer in the Sixth Continental Regiment. In 1781 Hampton commanded a regiment of state troops and fought in the battles of Eutaw Springs and Dorchester. He served several terms in the General Assembly and two terms in Congress. In 1783 he acquired property on the Congaree River that became a very profitable cotton plantation. Over the next thirty years he added to his Richland District holdings and purchased land in Louisiana that became a sugar plantation. In 1823, Wade Hampton, I, was considered the wealthiest man in the American South.