Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys

A look at the rise and decline of the Pinckney family whose members were present at every major point in Charleston's history.

Charleston's greatest years paralleled the rise to influence, the heyday, and the decline of the Pinckney family ... Charleston dominated the intellectual and commercial life of what is now known as the Deep South. It gave Carolina its leaders and decided questions for the rest of the colony and state ... The city was also a great proslavery center, and it was this fact, plus the gradual inward-turning, past-oriented attitude that led to the decline of its influence on contemporary civilization.

George C. Rogers, Jr., the preeminent historian of South Carolina, taught history at the University of South Carolina for twenty-eight years. Editor of the multi-volume Papers of Henry Laurens project, he is also the author of Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston, 1758–1812; The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina; A South Carolina Chronology, 1497–1992; and most recently Generations of Lawyers, A History of the South Carolina Bar.