"P" is for Prince George Winyah Parish

"P" is for Prince George Winyah Parish. Comprising portions of modern Georgetown, Horry, Marion, and Dillon Counties, Prince George Winyah Parish was established in 1721—to accommodate European settlers who had taken up residence north of the Santee River after the Yamassee War. By the 1730s rice cultivation began to dominate the economy and the port of Georgetown had been founded. The perfection of tidal rice culture in the late eighteenth century transformed the Georgetown area and its environs into the principal rice-producing area in the United States. By 1810, the population of the parish was ninety percent black. Rice made the free residents of the parish among the wealthiest individuals in the country. With the abolition of the parish system in 1865, Prince George Winyah Parish became part of Georgetown, Horry, and Marion Counties.