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The southern black racer (Coluber constrictor priapus) is one of the more common subspecies of the non-venomous Coluber constrictor snake species of the Southeastern United States. The subspecific name priapus refers to the proximal spines of the hemipenes being much enlarged into basal hooks, which is characteristic of this subspecies. These snakes are quite active during the day, which increases the chance of sightings. They eat almost any animal they can overpower, including rodents, frogs, toads, and lizards. Members of this species generally do not tolerate handling – even after months in captivity – and typically strike and flail wildly every time they are handled, often defecating a foul-smelling musk, a common defense against predators in snakes.

“U” is for United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church (UMC) was formed in 1968 by the union of the former Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) and the Methodist Church. There were no EUB churches in the state, but after the unification of the Methodist Church in 1939, black Methodists from the South Carolina Conference of the former Methodist Episcopal Church were members of the all-black Central Jurisdiction and white Methodists from the former South Carolina Conference of the former Methodist Episcopal Church, South, were members of the all-white Southeastern Jurisdiction. In 1964 the General Conference of the Methodist Church set the goal of a racially inclusive United Methodist Church. However, it was not until 1972 that the first meeting of a merged conference of the United Methodist Church in South Carolina was convened.

A listener in Columbia finds a shell that reminds her of a sea shell.

Mike Switzer interviews John Warner, a serial entrepreneur whose insights are published online at Medium under the title “Control Your Destiny”. He is based in Greenville, S.C.

In his book, The Grim Years: Settling South Carolina, 1670-1720 (2020, University of SC Press), Dr. John Navin explains how eight English aristocrats, the Lords Proprietors, came to possess the vast Carolina land grant and then enacted elaborate plans to recruit and control colonists as part of a grand moneymaking scheme. In his conversation with Walter Edgar, Navin tells of a cadre of men who rose to political and economic prominence, while ordinary colonists, enslaved Africans, and indigenous groups became trapped in a web of violence and oppression.Threatened by the Native Americans they exploited, by the Africans they enslaved, and by their French and Spanish rivals, white South Carolinians lived in continual fear. For some it was the price they paid for financial success. But for most there were no riches, and the possibility of a sudden, violent death was overshadowed by the misery of their day-to-day existence.

“B” is for Bamberg County (393 square miles; 2020 population: 13,654). Bamberg County, located in the inner coastal plain in south-central South Carolina, was formed from the southeastern section of Barnwell County in 1897. It was named for Francis Marion Bamberg, the grandson of John Bamberg who arrived in the area in 1798. The town of Bamberg is the county seat. The South Carolina Railroad traversed the area in 1833 connecting it with Charleston. During the Civil War, Confederate forces lost a skirmish to General Sherman’s forces at Rivers Bridge. By the 1890s cotton fed the region’s economy, aided by such enterprises as the Bamberg Cotton Oil Mill. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, despite a declining agricultural economy, Bamberg County remained a heavy producer of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and sorghum.

Some Lake Murray listeners find a duck feeding (successfully!) on a copperhead!

“C” is for Callen, Maude Daniel (1898-1990). Nurse. A native of Florida, Callen graduated from Florida A&M College and completed nurse midwife training at Tuskegee Institute. In 1923, as a missionary with the Episcopal Church, she was a registered nurse in Berkeley County. She was often the sole health-care provider, teacher, and nutritionist for the remote and dispersed population of a four-hundred-square mile area. Callen taught children to read and write and held vaccination clinics at local schools for smallpox and diphtheria. She is best remembered for her work as a nurse midwife, delivering more than one thousand babies and providing prenatal and postnatal care to mothers. She continually sought opportunities for educating women in basic medical practices and midwifery. In 1990 Maude Daniel Callen was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame.

Rudy tells us about a butterfly that he has only recently seen in South Carolina.

On our visit to the Beidler Forest manager Matt Johnson spotted five snakes – three water moccasins and two banded water snakes. To distinguish between them, see if the eyeball is round and therefore a non-venomous water snake rather than the moccasins’ slit-eyed pupil. But that means using binoculars or getting too close for safety!