Q 01/05

What is the capital of South Carolina?

A) Columbia

B) Charleston

C) Greenville

D) Spartanburg

Answer · why

A) Columbia

Columbia has been the capital since the legislature first met there in 1790; it was laid out as a planned city near the state's geographic centre to b...

Q 02/05

South Carolina is named in honour of which English king?

A) James I

B) Charles II

C) George II

D) Charles I

Answer · why

D) Charles I

Carolina comes from Carolus, Latin for Charles: the 1663 royal charter named the province in honour of Charles I, the king executed in 1649, father of...

Q 03/05

South Carolina was which number state to ratify the US Constitution, on May 23, 1788?

A) Thirteenth

B) First

C) Eighth

D) Fourth

Answer · why

C) Eighth

South Carolina was the eighth state to ratify, on May 23, 1788, a month before New Hampshire's ninth ratification put the Constitution into effect.

Q 04/05

What distinction does South Carolina hold in the run-up to the Civil War?

A) Last state to join the Confederacy

B) First state to vote to secede

C) Only Southern state to stay in the Union

D) First state to abolish slavery

Answer · why

B) First state to vote to secede

South Carolina was the first state to vote to secede, on December 20, 1860, by a convention vote of 169 to 0; it was readmitted on July 9, 1868.

Q 05/05

Which Charleston Harbor stronghold was shelled by Confederate batteries on April 12, 1861, opening the Civil War?

A) Fort Sumter

B) Fort Moultrie

C) Fort Johnson

D) Castle Pinckney

Answer · why

A) Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter, on an artificial island at the harbour mouth, endured a 34-hour bombardment with no combat deaths; Private Daniel Hough became the war's ...