Below is a list of printed sources related to colonial and early national South Carolina. This list represents some of the more popular published collections utilized by historians, but is in no way exhaustive. Most of these volumes are available at major research libraries, and many can be found for free online. Not listed are the various Reports of Cases Argued and Determined for the several South Carolina courts. Additional published sources related to South Carolina can be found in the South Carolina Historical Magazine, especially the earlier volumes. For help locating any of the volumes listed below, consult our Finding Published Sources page.

Colonial  

A Description of the English Province of Carolana…, ed. William S. Coker (Gainesville, 1976) 

A New Voyage to Carolina, ed. Hugh T. Lefler (Chapel Hill, 1967) 

The Appalachian Indian Frontier: The Edmond Atkin Report and Plan of 1755, ed. Wilbur R. Jacobs (Lincoln, 1967) 

A Sketch of the History of South Carolina to the Close of the Proprietary Government by the Revolution of 1719; With an Appendix Containing Many Valuable Records Hitherto Unpublished, ed. William James River (Charleston, 1856) 

Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, American and West Indies, 45 vols. (London, 1860-) 

The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution: The Journal and Other Writings of Charles Woodmason, Anglican Itinerant, ed. Richard J. Hooker (Chapel Hill, 1953) 

The Carolina Chronicle of Dr. Francis Le Jau, 1706 – 1717, ed. Frank J. Klingberg (Berkeley, 1956) 

Carolina Chronicle: The Papers of Commissary Gideon Johnston, 1707 – 1716, Frank J. Klingberg (Berkeley, 1946) 

The Colonial Records of North Carolina, ed. William L. Saunders, 10 vols. (Raleigh, 1886-1890) 

The Colonial Records of South Carolina: The Journal of the Commons House of Assembly, ed. J. H. Easterby, et al., 14 vols. (Columbia, 1951-) 

The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, ed. Allen D. Candler, 26 vols. (Atlanta, 1904-1916) 

The Colonial South Carolina Scene: Contemporary Views, 1697 – 1774, ed. H. Roy Merrens (Columbia, 1977) 

Commissions and Instructions from the Lords Proprietors of Carolina to Public Officials of South Carolina, 1685 – 1715, ed. A. S. Salley (Columbia, 1916) 

The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539 – 1543, eds. Lawrence A. Clayton, Vernon James Knight, Jr., and Edward C. Moore (Athens, 1997) 

Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America, ed. Elizabeth Donnan, 4 vols. (Washington, 1930-1935) 

Documents Relating to Indian Affairs: Colonial Records of South Carolina, ed. William L. McDowell, 2 vols. (Columbia, 1958, 1970) 

The Dunlop Papers, ed. J. G. Dunlop, 2 vols. (Frome, 1939) 

Family Letters of the Three Wade Hamptons, 1782 – 1901, ed. Charles E. Cauthen (Columbia, 1953) 

Historical Collections of South Carolina…, ed. Bartholomew R. Carroll, 2 vols. (New York, 1836) 

“Journall. Capt. Dunlop’s Voyage to the Southward. 1687,” South Carolina Historical Magazine, 30 (July 1929) 

Journal of the Commons House of Assembly, ed. Alexander S. Salley, Jr., 21 vols. (Columbia, 1902-1946) 

Journal of the Grand Council of South Carolina, August 25, 1671 – June 24, 1680, ed. A. S. Salley (Columbia, 1907) 

Journal of the Grand Council of South Carolina, April 11, 1692 – September 26, 1692 (Columbia, 1907) 

Journals of the Commissioners of the Indian Trade, September 20, 1710 – August 29, 1718, ed. William L. McDowell, Jr. (Columbia, 1955) 

Journals of the House of Representatives, eds. Theodora J. Thompson, et al., (Columbia, 1977-) 

The Laws of the Province of South Carolina, ed. Nicholas Trott, 2 vols. (Charles Town, 1736) 

“The Letterbook of Peter Manigault, 1763-1773,” ed. Maurice A. Crouse, South Carolina Historical Magazine, LXX (1969) 

“Letters from John Stewart to William Dunlop,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 32 (January 1931 and April 1931) 

Nairne’s Muskhogean Journals: The 1708 Expedition to the Mississippi River, ed. Alexander Moore (Jackson, 1988) 

Narratives of Early Carolina, 1650 – 1708, ed. Alexander S. Salley, Jr. (New York, 1911) 

Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto, ed. and trans. Edward G. Bourne, 4 vols. (New York, 1904) 

The Papers of Henry Laurens, ed. Philip M. Hamer, et al., 16 vols. (Columbia, 1968-2003) 

Records in the British Public Record Office Relating to South Carolina, 1663 – 1717, 5 vols. (1928-1947) 

Records of the Court of Chancery of South Carolina, 1671- 1779, ed. Anne King Gregorie (Washington, 1950) 

Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, eds. Adelaide Fries, et al., 13 vols. (Raleigh, 1922-2006) 

Selling a New World: Two Colonial South Carolina Promotional Pamphlets, ed. Jack P. Greene (Columbia, 1989) 

South Carolina Begins: The Records of a Proprietary Colony, 1663 – 1721, ed. Charles H. Lesser (Columbia, 1995) 

Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528 – 1543, ed. Frederick W. Hodge, trans. Buckingham Smith (New York, 1907) 

Statutes at Large of South Carolina, eds. Thomas Cooper, et al., 22 vols. (Columbia, 1836-1898) 

Traditions and Reminiscences Chiefly of the American Revolution in the South, ed. Joseph Johnson (Charleston, 1851) 

“The Tuscarora Expedition: Letters of Colonel John Barnwell,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 9 (January 1908) 

Voices of the Old South: Eyewitness Accounts, 1528 – 1861, ed. Alan Gallay (Athens, 1994) 

“William Dunlop’s Mission to St. Augustine in 1688,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 34 (January 1933) 

 Early National

A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, with Remarks on their Economy, Frederick Law Olmsted, reprint ed. (New York, 1968) 

The American Salve: A Composite Autobiography, ed. George P. Rawick, vol. 3, South Carolina Narratives (Westport, 1972) 

Carolina Housewife, or House and Home, by a Lady of Charleston, Sara Rutledge (Charleston, 1851)

Designs against Charleston: The Trial Record of the Denmark Vesey Conspiracy of 1822, ed. Edward A. Pearson (Chapel Hill, 1999) 

Family Letters of the Three Wade Hamptons, 1782 – 1901, ed. Charles E. Cauthen (Columbia, 1953)

The Ideology of Slavery: Proslavery thought in the American South, 1830 - 1860, ed. Drew Faust (Baton Rouge, 1981)

Journal of the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina: May 10, 1790 – June 3, 1790, ed. Francis M. Hutson (Columbia, 1946) 

Journals of the House of Representatives, ed. Theodora J. Thompson, et al., The State Records of South Carolina (Columbia, 1977-) 

Letters from the Slave States, ed. James Stirling, reprint ed. (New York, 1969) 

The Papers of Henry Laurens, ed. Philip M. Hamer, et al., 16 vols. (Columbia, 1968-2003) 

The Papers of John C. Calhoun, eds. Clyde N. Wilson and W. Edwin Hemphill, et al., 28 vols. (Columbia, 1959-2003) 

The Public Years of Sarah and Angelina Grimké: Selected Writings, 1835 – 1839, ed. Larry Ceplair (New York, 1989) 

Selections from the Letters and Speeches of the Hon. James H. Hammond, of South Carolina (New York, 1866) 

Statutes at Large of South Carolina, eds. Thomas Cooper, et al., 22 vols. (Columbia, 1836-1898) 

Traditions and Reminiscences Chiefly of the American Revolution in the South, ed. Joseph Johnson (Charleston, 1851) 

Travels in the Slave States of America, James Silk Buckingham, reprint ed., 2 vols. (New York, 1968)