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“S” is for St. John’s Colleton Parish

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“S” is for St. John’s Colleton Parish. Previously a part of St. Paul’s Parish, St. John’s Colleton Parish was established in 1734. The new parish consisted of Johns, Wadmalaw, Edisto, Seabrook, and Kiawah Islands. The parish church, completed in 1742, was on Johns Island overlooking Bohicket Creek and the Wadmalaw River. Indigo and rice were cash crops that brought great wealth to the planters of the parish. After the Revolutionary War, indigo was replaced by Sea Island cotton. Thousands of enslaved Africans produced the crops and formed the overwhelming majority of the population. In 1790, the census found 600 Whites, 4,660 enslaved persons, and 40 free Blacks living in the parish. The 1850 census recorded 10,332 enslaved persons. The parish system was abolished in 1865 and St. John’s Colleton Parish was incorporated into Charleston County.

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