Carolinas

A reference to two separate states, North Carolina and South Carolina. The Carolinas are located on the east coast of the United States just below Virginia. During the U.S.'s colonial period, both were part of the large Province of Carolina, which encompassed much of the southeastern U.S. However, in 1729, the Province divided into two entities, each informed by a distinct form of agriculture, one belonging to the original British settlers of the Colony of Virginia, of which the Province of Carolina was part, and one influenced by the British slavery plantations in the Caribbean.

The Carolinas were both involved in the American Revolutionary war as Anglo settlers struggled to assert their economic and political autonomy from Britain. South Carolina became a state in in 1788 and North Carolina a year later in 1789. Later, during the American Civil War, both Carolinas seceded from the Union to fight on the side of the Confederacy. The legacy of slavery-based economies and nostalgia for old-world traditions associated with the Confederacy find expression today especially in South Carolina with its ongoing debate regarding flying the Confederate flag on its state buildings.