"H" is for Hamburg

"H" is for Hamburg. Founded in 1821 and located on the Savannah River in lower Edgefield District, the town of Hamburg was one of South Carolina’s primary interior markets during much of the antebellum era. The town grew rapidly after it became the western terminus of the South Carolina Railroad Company’s line to Charleston. Then, several ruinous floods, the opening of the Augusta Canal and the extension of the railroad line across the river into Georgia resulted in lost business and a decline in population. In 1876, the town was the site of the Hamburg Massacre, in which a number of blacks died at the hands of a Red Shirt mob. After the 1876 election and the restoration of the Democratic Party, the legislature repealed Hamburg’s charter and the town faded out of existence.