Conceiving Carolina

Written from a transatlantic perspective and based largely on primary sources, Conceiving Carolina provides the first systematic treatment of the colonization of South Carolina in over a century. It argues that the political culture that developed in the colony amounted to an extension of the political life in early modern England. Provincial politics, in turn, shaped social developments, notably the emergence of a slave society. Thus, the book calls into question the notion of the inherent distinction and modernity of colonial British America.

"Roper's subject is compelling, given the cast of characters and events that made proprietary South Carolina what it was. Roper's original take on the formative period of South Carolina's distinctive history will catch the scholar's notice and raise an eyebrow or two, but all who pore over Conceiving Carolina will be treated to a fascinating story that is as instructive as it is well told." - Warren M. Billings, PhD, Distinguished Professor and Chairman, Department of History, University of New Orleans

"Conceiving Carolina is a welcome contribution to the scholarly literature on colonial South Carolina. Focusing on the era of proprietary government, it delineates the complex relationships that arose between London courtiers, West Indian planters, Yamassee warriors, Anglican missionaries, Huguenot refugees, British and Irish settlers, and African slaves. As Roper shows, the colony's early social and political development replicated patterns evident throughout the British Atlantic; at the same time, a major theme is the weakness of the centralizing Anglo-British state along its transoceanic periphery. Historians will find much of value in this book." - Eliga H. Gould, University of New Hampshire

"Roper's study is a rich source of information on the first sixty-seven years of Carolina's history." - Catherine Cardno, Johns Hopkins University

L.H. ROPER is an Associate Professor and Chair at the State University of New York at New Paltz, USA.