Beaufort County, South Carolina

Beaufort County, South Carolina. Colonial And Revolutionary Period. During the Colonial period the Beaufort district grew and prospered. Rice was produced for export on the mainland, indigo in the sea islands, shipbuilding flourished. The Parish System developed as the political basis and Beaufort competed with Charleston for prestige and influence., Until 1779 Beaufort played little part in the Revolution. Early in that year the first British attempt to take the town was repulsed by General William Moultrie's Militia at the Battle of Port Royal Island. The same year Beaufort was occupied by British forces. Patriots and Tories fought bitterly throughout the area to the end of 1782. Beaufort's most prominent patriot was Thomas Heyward Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence., After slow recovery from the war's depletion, the introduction of sea island cotton in 1799 brought a rapid increase in plantations and slaves. New wealth provided Beaufort's elegant homes, fine libraries and some of the best preparatory schools in the south between 1800 and 1860, including Beaufort College. So many men of the state and national prominence were produces that ante-bellum Beaufort was described as the "wealthiest, most aristocratic and cultivating town of its size in America." It was an economy based upon cotton undergirded by slavery.