Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/323

 just before the Revolution the export from Charleston had risen to 1,107,660 pounds.

The cultivation of rice was one of the earliest planting experiments in the State, and though Ramsay, the historian, attributes its introduction to Governor Thomas Smith and a small bag of seed procured from Madagascar in 1694, it is certain that rice had been successfully grown in South Carolina as early as 1691. In 1770, the surplus over consumption exported from Charleston had risen to 120,000 barrels, valued at $1,530,000.

As early as 1770, "patches" of cotton were grown in South Carolina, and year by year thereafter for two decades indigo cultivation declined, and was finally entirely abandoned.

"In 1784," says the Hon. W. A. Courtenay, the city's most accomplished and enthusiastic historian, "John Teasdale, a merchant of Charleston, shipped from this city to J. and J. Teasdale, Liverpool, eight bags of cotton. When the vessel arrived out the laughable incident occurred of the cotton being seized on the ground that it could not be grown in America. Upon satisfactory proof, which had to be furnished, it was released. This cotton shipment was the first ever made from the United States to a European port!"

Though slavery is commonly supposed to have rendered those living under its debasing