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Colonial Carolina as a modern day state


NcSc74

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Cheraw is in the Pee Dee region of SC right near the NC line on the edge of Chesterfield and Marlboro Counties. Just south of Rockingham for you NC folks. The Pee Dee River does provide a connection to the ocean, but I suspect that it would have a lot of canals, since it meanders a lot on its ay towards the coast.

Georgetown would become a much more significant city.

If Carolina was never split, Columbia would not exist at all. It was specifically created to be the state's capital. Harper's Ferry, Olympia, and whatever that mill village is in West Columbia would be there, but thats about it.

I am guessing that Raleigh wouldn't exist either, since I believe it was created for the same reasons Columbia was. So merge the populations of Raleigh and Columbia and you get an area that is about the size of Charlotte. I think that if this did happen that Charlotte would be less prominent than it is now, and this new capital would be the largest. Probably larger than Charlotte is today, maybe even as large as Atlanta.

Think about this though, these other cities in Carolina would probably not exist in their current form either, except maybe Charleston and Asheville. Interstates, rail connections, and airports would all be located in this new city (not the cities that they are presently connected to), and would have drastically affected the way that the city and the region grew. I-85 would connect to this place rather than through the piedmont areas of Carolina. You would probably see a stronger growth pattern towards Myrtle Beach (sort of like Houston-Galveston) as well as Georgetown.

Given all of these factors- I think that this city would be a very significant one.

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jaxpalmer - what? What city compared to Charleston in the 1700's or the 1800's? Which state was more economically wealthier?

This discussion isn't intended to be a 'which state is better arguement', but is based on the premise that most people are aware of the state's history. South Carolina, Charleston in particular, had been one of the south's biggest focal points historically. But due to an over reliance on agriculture & slavery in particular, Charleston & the rest of the state declined dramatically after the Civil War. North Carolina as well, but took greater advantage of the textile industry boom of the early 1900's, which upstate SC did as well - but whereas Spartanburg & Greenville were SC's only major manufacturing centers, NC had Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem & Durham - which were not that significant until the past century. Charleston on the other hand had been one of the 5 most influential cities of the 1700's, declining to one of the 10 to 25 most important.

Also, one has to dismiss the idea that NC had 'always been ahead' of SC when it was NC that seperated from SC - Carolina, not the other way around.

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jaxpalmer - what? What city compared to Charleston in the 1700's or the 1800's? Which state was more economically wealthier?

This discussion isn't intended to be a 'which state is better arguement', but is based on the premise that most people are aware of the state's history. South Carolina, Charleston in particular, had been one of the south's biggest focal points historically. But due to an over reliance on agriculture & slavery in particular, Charleston & the rest of the state declined dramatically after the Civil War. North Carolina as well, but took greater advantage of the textile industry boom of the early 1900's, which upstate SC did as well - but whereas Spartanburg & Greenville were SC's only major manufacturing centers, NC had Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem & Durham - which were not that significant until the past century. Charleston on the other hand had been one of the 5 most influential cities of the 1700's, declining to one of the 10 to 25 most important.

Also, one has to dismiss the idea that NC had 'always been ahead' of SC when it was NC that seperated from SC - Carolina, not the other way around.

ok, you make a few good points, no city in nc may have compared to charleston in the 1700's or 1800's but from the 1900's on, NC pretty much took off like a rocket. I certainly wasnt trying to turn this into a "which state is better argument", i was just pointing out that besides historically speaking NC has always been ahead of SC. Its just the facts, look at both states today and tell me what you see. :thumbsup:

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^ Not arguing what has gone on in the past 100 years - just refuting that NC has 'always been ahead' of SC. As for any other points that NC may have been more advanced than SC prior to 1900, I'm not sure - both had suffered equally after the Civil War & before were a varying mix of impoverished farmers, slaves, & a few wealthy plantation owners. But since 1900, yes NC has far surpassed SC in every thing imaginable - except my own favoritism of course :)

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In the rural areas historically, i believe NC and SC were more or less the same economically since they do share many characteristics in agriculture and manufacturing. I do agree that Charleston was by far the most influential and most powerful city in the carolinas until Charlotte boomed during the industrial revolution and is now the 2nd largest banking city in the U.S.

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^ yea, neither one is better than the other, its all a matter of opinion. Nc and Sc are practiaclly the same except when it comes to the bigger cities, thats the main difference, hehe, that and tabacco road basketball :P

Ok so then it is an opinion of yours instead of a fact which you claimed earlier. In the future it will be helpful if you don't try to pass off an opinion as a fact.

And Most of us who actually live in the Carolinas will differ with you on this issue in that NC is not ahead of SC and vice versa. It should be noted, the biggest metro in the Carolinas is in fact located in both North and South Carolina.

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Well I know that NC was the red-headed stepchild of VA and SC back in colonial days. So any credit NC gets now I certainly am proud of. However this was not the intent of the thread. I wanted to pick the minds of the urban junkies about a state that in my mind would have been a powerhouse. From what I see no one thinks the major city of Carolina would out shine ATL.

Speaking of that , what model do you think the state would have taken. The Georgia model-One huge metro and some smaller cities. OR the Texas/Florida model with several large metros. When I say large metros I mean at least 3mil plus.

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If Carolina was never split, Columbia would not exist at all. It was specifically created to be the state's capital... I am guessing that Raleigh wouldn't exist either, since I believe it was created for the same reasons Columbia was. So merge the populations of Raleigh and Columbia and you get an area that is about the size of Charlotte. I think that if this did happen that Charlotte would be less prominent than it is now, and this new capital would be the largest. Probably larger than Charlotte is today, maybe even as large as Atlanta.

Think about this though, these other cities in Carolina would probably not exist in their current form either, except maybe Charleston and Asheville. Interstates, rail connections, and airports would all be located in this new city (not the cities that they are presently connected to), and would have drastically affected the way that the city and the region grew... Given all of these factors- I think that this city would be a very significant one.

That would be an AMAZING City, Spartan. I created a graphic of what this city might look like by merging the skylines of Charlotte, Columbia, Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro since those cities would most likely not exist in their current form on a random riverbank from the Carolinas. I present...

Carolina City/Carolopolis

carolinacity1vd.jpg

Atlanta would be shaking it's peaches off! :rofl:

P.S. I retooled the photo. I added in Greensboro, all the buildings are proportionate and more out of their original alignments.

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Actually, it would look like a large version of Charlotte, as its tallest buldings dwarf the highrises in the other cities. Interesting how much closer you made the Columbia skyline in relation to the others. There would also be other buildings to add from several major Carolina cities. :rolleyes:

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Actually, it would look like a large version of Charlotte, as its tallest buldings dwarf the highrises in the other cities. Interesting how much closer you made the Columbia skyline in relation to the others. There would also be other buildings to add from several major Carolina cities. :rolleyes:

I was assuming certain places like Greenville, Winston-Salem and Asheville would've formed regardless of the split. Also, I didn't take time to resize and proportionalize I did resize Durham but it didn't come out the way I wanted so I left the the others as is. Columbia isn't closet, lol. I put Raleigh and Durham front and center.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's quite weird how the SouthTrust (or whatever we should call it now) barely catches my eye in that pic. LOL

So true. It's kinda sad something so bland has reigned over South Carolina's highrises for so long. If only Meridian was 10 floors taller.

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