History of Georgetown, SC

After settling Charles Town in 1670, the English established trade with the Indians. Trading posts in the outlying areas quickly became settlements.

By 1721 the colonial government granted the English residents' petition to found a new parish, Prince George, Winyah, on the Black River. In 1734, Prince George, Winyah was divided; and the newly created Prince Frederick Parish congregation occupied the church at Black River. Prince George Parish, Winyah then encompassed the new town of Georgetown on the Sampit River.

In 1729, Elisha Screven laid the plan for Georgetown and developed the city in a four-by-eight block grid. Referred to as the “Historic District”, the original grid city is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It bears the original street names, lot numbers, and many of the original homes.

The Indian trade declined soon after Georgetown was established; and planters cultivated indigo as the cash commodity crop with rice as a secondary crop, both dependent on slave labor, primarily imported workers from Africa. Agricultural profits were so great between 1735-1775 that in 1757 the Winyah Indigo Society, whose members paid dues in indigo, opened and maintained the first public school for white children between Charles Town and Wilmington.

In the American Revolution, the father and son Georgetown planters, Thomas Lynch, Sr. and Thomas Lynch, Jr., signed the Declaration of Independence. During the final years of the conflict, Georgetown was the important port for supplying General Nathanael Greene's army. Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox) led many guerrilla actions in this vicinity.

Antebellum period

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