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| Capital | Columbia (destroyed in 1983) | ||||
| Largest city | Columbia (1983) Greenville (2010) | ||||
| Other cities | Anderson, Easley, Greenville, Laurens, Spartanburg | ||||
| Language official |
English | ||||
| others | Spanish, French, German | ||||
| Governor (1983) | Richard Wilson Riley (D) | ||||
| Area | 32,020.1 sq mi | ||||
| Population | (est. 1983) 3,231,400 (est. 2010) 510,000 | ||||
South Carolina was an original state of the United States of America, being the eighth state to ratify the Constitution and thus become a state on May 23, 1788. It had been one of the thirteen colonies of Great Britain that had declared their independence on July 4, 1776. South Carolina was an agricultural behemoth and threw its political weight around many times over throughout American history. The first to secede during the American Civil War, South Carolina has a deeply tumultuous racial past which continued into the 20th century, both before and after Doomsday.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the state's population in 1980 was 3,121,820. South Carolina contained 46 counties and its capital was Columbia. It was bordered by North Carolina to the north and Georgia to the south. On September 25, 1983, South Carolina was the target of nuclear bombings which eliminated both its historical capital of Charleston and its administrative capital of Columbia. Other nuclear strikes along the coast, along with intense radioactive fallout, crippled most coastal cities. The center of South Carolina shared a similar fate, with most survivors being located in the northern regions of the state.
History[]
Pre-War[]
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area that would eventually be known as South Carolina was inhabited by a variety of Native American groups, with Algonquin-speakers along the Lowcountry and Siouan and Iroquois in the highlands. The region is part of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, which share similar tools, languages, customs, and social structure with the Mississippian culture, which had been a dominant force in the area for centuries. By the time of Hernando de Soto's discovery of the area in 1540, the Cofitachequi held hegemony a large section of the interior of the future state. Brought there by tales of a wealthy place led by a queen called Yupahapa, de Soto inadvertently introduced European plagues to the area, beginning a widespread die-off. His expedition was part of a series of Spanish expeditions, all of which carved their way through Mississippian tribal lands. The violent plunder of this area failed to turn a profit for the Spanish and the area was largely abandoned and settled by the British. Very little is written about the Mississippian tribes following this. In 1630, Charles I of England granted a patent to establish a colony between the 31st and 36th parallels. Named "Carolana" originally before being Latinized to "Carolina," the colony was granted a charter in 1663 under permission from Charles II. Centered around the market town of Charles Town, Carolina developed rapidly around the centrally-planned city (itself taking cues from the reconstruction of London after the Great Fire), which benefited greatly from closer proximity to the West Indies and trade with the Native Americans. Charles Town was a major slave market in colonial America and would continue for centuries.
The original province clung to the patent granted by Charles I and claimed land from as far south as Florida and as far north as Virginia. However, in 1712, the colony was split between North and South Carolina. As a result the Yamasee War in 1715-1717, the indigenous groups living in the southern regions of South Carolina had suffered immense depopulation and were ultimately split into the colony of Georgia in 1732. Charles Town had become a major center of exportation of cotton, rice, and indigo, allowing South Carolina to flourish into one of, if not the, wealthiest of the original Thirteen Colonies by the middle of the 18th-century. South Carolina was a hotbed of general discontent against the British Crown. A regulator movement not unlike the quasi-peasant's rebellion led in North Carolina demanding more equal rights shook the colony in the 1760s. Many in the province were likewise outraged by the Stamp and Townsend Acts of the 1770s. However, while many in South Carolina had felt wronged by the British Government, Charles Town was the most important city in the Thirteen Colonies south of Virginia. Many benefited from the British rule and remained loyalists when the colony adopted its own constitution on March 26, 1776, months before the signing and ratification of the United States Declaration of Independence. South Carolina experienced intense infighting during the American Revolutionary War. Charleston was captured by the British in 1780. Overestimating the support for the loyalists in South Carolina, Henry Clinton drew the ire of many unaligned or even Loyalists in the colony. Planning on marching north to trap George Washington's armies, Clinton led a campaign of heavy-handed administration and wartime violence against the Patriots which would radicalize many and lead to intense guerilla fighting in the colony following the capture of Charlestown. One such patriot was colonel Thomas Sumter, who would earn a fierce reputation during the war. The Patriot attacks made the British occupation of South Carolina increasingly untenable. Overseen by major Nathanael Greene following a Patriot victory at Camden, the Patriots' campaign in the south of guerilla battles weakened the British positions, exemplified by the battles of Cowpens and Kings Mountain, as well as the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina. Facing diminished troop levels, poor morale, and an invasion of British West Florida, the British army abandoned Charlestown and withdrew from South Carolina. Following General Charles Cornwallis's retreat through North Carolina, Britain surrendered at the 1781 Battle of Yorktown.
Wishing to oversee South Carolina from a more central location, the city of Columbia was founded by the state government and made the capital in 1786. South Carolina ratified the US Constitution in 1787, wealthy slave owners Charles Pickney, Pierce Butler, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney serving at the Constitutional Convention. They introduced the Fugitive Slave Act, citing the mass deaths and escape of enslaved Africans as an economic crisis. Throughout the Antebellum years, South Carolina's legislature was largely dominated by wealthy slaveowners. The introduction of the cotton gin, extended privileges for slaveowners, and attempts to curtail the population of freed blacks contributed to a significant population of enslaved blacks in South Carolina. In 1833, South Carolina became embroiled in the Nullification Crisis. Under the administrations of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, South Carolina declared recent tariffs which would harm the agrarian society to be unconstitutional. Arguing that a state declaring a law unconstitutional made said law null and void, opponents of the bill included Vice President John C. Calhoun, putting him at odds with Andrew Jackson. This crisis of states rights ended with both sides believing they had won and was one of many ideological preludes to the US Civil War. The expansion of slavery into the western US states led to this issue being linked with states rights through the entire country. South Carolinian congressman, themselves members of the slaveholding elite, would threaten secession or otherwise make a scene when South Carolina did not have a "favorable" outcome in any bill.
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the United States following the election of Abraham Lincoln over the issue of slavery. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed suit and formed the Confederate States of America. On April 12, 1861, the CSA attacked the US-held Fort Sumter, beginning the US Civil War. Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined the CSA shortly after. Located deep within the Confederacy, South Carolina did not see much significant fighting early on in the war aside from a few aborted naval invasions by the Union. In 1863, attempting to gain a strategic foothold against Charleston, the Union attacked Morris Island, first on July 10 and again on July 18th. The latter was led by Robert Gould Shaw who commanded the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, an African American regiment. Despite being a Confederate victory leading to Shaw's death along with half of his men, the battle inspired many African Americans to take up arms against the Confederacy. In 1865, William T. Sherman invaded South Carolina, having captured Savannah following the collapse of Confederate lines further west. As punishment for being a hotbed of racist oppression and secessionist views, as well as a large reason why the Civil War began in the first place, Sherman's army ransacked and burned Columbia before moving on to deliver the same retribution to North Carolina.
Naturally, following a war caused by a wealthy aristocracy's desire to own other people, the demographically-outnumbered white lawmakers kicked and screamed as they had before the war, their feeble pleas heard only by the most ignorant of the populace. Attempts at insurgency took place during and after Reconstruction as citizen militias formed in an attempt to disenfranchise black voters and intimidate the majority black populace. Wishing to end the US army occupation of South Carolina, Democratic leaders promised to treat blacks with dignity after an intense campaign of voter intimidation and violence during the 1877 election. Believing them for some reason, newly-elected Rutherford B. Hayes declared Reconstruction in South Carolina complete and allowed a return to home rule. Though tensions did settle for a time - largely because white Democrats were now once again in power - governor and, later, senator Benjamin Tillman further stoked the fires of racism, seeing the enactment of Jim Crow Laws. A largescale migration out of South Carolina, as well as the South at large, followed during the 20th century.
During the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, multiple peaceful demonstrations took place in South Carolina. Notably, a sit-in at a library in Greenville led by native Jesse Jackson led to its reintegration. Leading the charge against disenfranchised blacks was South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond, a well-known Dixiecrat. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, Thurmond along with many other southern Democrats broke from the party and joined the Republican Party instead. This period was also accompanied by violence, such as a student demonstration in Orangeburg being broken up by the police, who murdered three demonstrators. In 1969, the National Guard was called in to break up a strike at the Medical University of South Carolina. The primarily black, female healthcare workers cited pay inequality and unsafe working conditions. As their numbers swelled, the National Guard resorted confronting the protesters with tanks and bayonets.
Photograph of Columbia's Main St. before the war.
The period between the 1960s and the outbreak of World War III was one of economic transformation for South Carolina as agriculture fell by the wayside. The cotton industry collapsed during the 1960s and 70s and was supplanted by a manufacturing economy. Factories were being built across the state, especially in upstate South Carolina. A period of urbanization had begun as many were abandoning farmland in favor of work in the larger metropolitan areas of Charlotte, Greenville, and Columbia. Furthermore, money was invested in South Carolina's tourism industry, with Charleston and Myrtle Beach becoming popular destination venues. This period of economic growth was cut violently short in 1983 and while nothing in South Carolina would ever be the same after, many post-war events in the state were continuations of long-standing hatred and animosity.
Doomsday[]
| City | Population | Deaths | Injuries | Wind Direction | Wind Speed | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charleston | 382,000 | 87,382 | 110,881 | ESE | 3 mph | Clear |
| Columbia | 108,208 | 34,900 | 46,903 | NNE | 6 mph | Fair |
| Myrtle Beach | 18,446 | 6,400 | 7,900 | NE | 4 mph | Fair |
| Parris Island | 3,642 | 3,642 | 0 | E | 2 mph | Clear |
| Sumter | 24,921 | 12,500 | 24,921 | E | 2 mph | Clear |
The nuclear attack began at 8:45 PM. There were five targets in South Carolina during Doomsday. Parris Island and Sumter were hit, due to the military bases located there. The port cites of Charleston and Myrtle Beach were also hit, as was Columbia. The nuclear attack was strategic in such a way that the large port cities and the capital would be destroyed, paving the way for a quick invasion. However, the "tactical nuclear strategy" was never tested, nor an invasion even planned for. The state government was obliterated, as was the leadership of the South Carolina National Guard. Responses to the disaster largely fell to smaller divisions of the National Guard, as was the case in Anderson. In other communities such as Greenville, administration fell to the local police and citizens in the area.
Road congestion caused by survivors fleeing from bombed cities, compounded by the generally abysmal state of South Carolina interstates, trapped survivors in rural locations many miles away from their intended destinations. Those who had been injured by the bomb were left without medical care. Corpses of the dead lined the interstates while others, too injured to walk a great distance, remained in their vehicles and died. This created a potent vector for diseases and attempting to traverse the quagmire of cars and corpses became even more dangerous, attempted only by the desperate or the suicidal. The amount of human remains found along these areas in the weeks to follow indicates just how many desperate people there were. Even today, one walking along the interstate today or the wilderness surrounding them is sure to come across human bones carried off by animals during this period.
Greenville was able to prevent looting to a greater degree than many, theoretically better-armed locations like Anderson. As die-offs from disease and starvation continued, guns began to greatly outnumber people - even more so than before the war - and newly-armed and desperate people found themselves at odds with the already-armed police or National Guard remnants.
Aftermath (1983 - 1987)[]
The ruins of Columbia
The Lowcountry suffered the most during the strikes, as did the area around Columbia. If any hint of civilized life was to return, it would in the upstate. Fortunately for those there, the population density there was already higher than the coast of regions immediately surrounding Columbia. This meant a higher population of specialized people who could contribute to relief efforts, maintenance, and attempts at stabilizing the death toll. Unfortunately for them, this area became absolutely inundated with refugees.
Wind carried radioactive fallout largely to the southeast, contaminating the coast and heavily impacting most of the state. Upstate South Carolina was largely spared from nuclear contamination, further adding to its ability to support a population post-Doomsday. Despite this, small communities such as the Pee-Dee Nation eked out a meager existence for years after. The United States Atlantic Remnant was able to establish small ports along the coast in later years. By this point, these small enclaves of military installations existed in an area that had otherwise had its population density reduced to something resembling that of pre-war Siberia. Particularly impacted were the Gullah peoples. What few survived scattered to the north or upstate. As of 2025, the WCRB recognizes Gullah creole as a critically-endangered language.
Intense and acute shortages of food and gas soon followed. The EMP had rendered most gas pumps inoperable, so efforts to extract fuel left in gas stations using hand-operated pumps began across the state. In Greenville, the civic leadership along with survivors from nearby universities acted fast, setting into place contingency plans to ensure the immediate surrounding area were able to develop an effective emergency government. The hospital systems in upstate South Carolina were overwhelmed by the sudden influx of injured and dying people. Those deemed too far gone were sent to nursing homes and hospices so that they might die comfortably. A die-off of both the critically-wounded and the elderly in these locations soon began. The police in Greenville and its surrounding environs were able to travel between smaller communities using police cars and motorcycles, though travel on the interstate was impossible. Supplies were flown into Greenville Spartanburg Airport, though following the Gathering Order, this petered out.
In Anderson, the National Guard maintained order "at all costs." Gas and supplies were commandeered by the National Guard and the soldiers took to scouring the interstates for usable materials. Gasoline was siphoned out of car tanks, any abandoned supplies were taken, and the cars were then left to rust. It was made illegal for citizens to take supplies from abandoned vehicles without permission from the National Guard, something which was entirely unenforceable but did mean that those caught doing so - oftentimes unaware of their offenses - could be deemed looters and shot on sight. Morale in Anderson plummeted and disdain towards the National Guard turned to protests. On more than one occasion, the National Guardsmen opened fire on protesters.
In more rural areas around South Carolina, a wave of death due to starvation, disease, and lack of basic sanitation depopulated many rural communities. Though people could communicate using what radios had not been destroyed by the EMP, misinformation led to many in the affected areas believing the EMP was actually worse than it was. While the electrical infrastructure was, indeed, knocked out, the widespread belief that battery-powered devices, police car radios (protected by being in a Faraday cage, i.e. the car itself), and even some backup generators contributed to this wave of deaths. As people caught onto this, communication with the emergent Asheville to the North and the Georgian states had become a little easier. This, though, was too late for many people. Many single-family homes have been found with emaciated corpses inside, their battery-powered devices operable. Whether this could have saved them is an entirely different question. There were fewer gas reserves inland so supplies could not move very far. The farms of South Carolina, many of which had been turned into forests for lumber operations, could not support the state's survivors. What farms were able to produce yields in these areas fed one or two families at most.
One pocket of survivors in Florence had been able to establish something of a working community for a time. South Carolina state congressman David Beasley was able to keep a meager group alive through the trials and tribulations following Doomsday. Nicknamed the Pee Dee Republic, this grassroots city-state was an enclave of population in an otherwise desolate world. Intense waves of disease tore through the population here, reducing it to a fraction of its former numbers, with many hearing of better odds of survival in Greenville and making the journey upstate. Unfortunately for Beasley and his group, a Category 5 hurricane in 1989 practically destroyed Florence. Only a little over 1,000 people remained. The group relocated to Georgetown on the coast, which had suffered damage but not to such an extent, and settled down. Georgetown remains an extant town to this day and one of the very few permanently-inhabited cities along the South Carolina coast.
Outbreak of the Anderson-Toccoa Wars (1988 - 1994)[]
While the National Guard control of Anderson was an autocratic regime of unprecedented proportions, pre-war tensions continued to color political and social outlooks. A disproportionately-low amount of food was given to black communities, which had to organize on a significantly higher level than did whites. Where a white family might have been able to collect rations with little trouble, rations for black families were oftentimes given to churches or community center. Distribution largely fell to these units, meaning those who survived had to be part of them. Furthermore, the asymmetrical punishment of crimes and sanctioned violence against black communities pushed many towards radical politics. However, the death rate among members of the National Guard exceeded that of the local populace, oftentimes due to violent attempts at asserting power. As the situation in Anderson continued to deteriorate, the Nation of Islam led by Royall Jenkins staged a relatively-peaceful insurrection which ended with the expulsion of National Guard personnel and the confiscation of their weapons. With the National Guard gone, Jenkins proclaimed the Islamic Republic of Anderson.
Survivor states[]
Republic of Piedmont[]
The Piedmont Republic is the largest known survivor state inside the former State of South Carolina, centered around Greenville County. The capital and largest city is Greenville.
The Piedmont Republic is a group of five counties in northwest South Carolina that barely avoided annihilation because of a tactical decision by the Soviet Union to destroy power stations with conventional warheads. The Oconee Nuclear Power Plant was severely damaged in the attack, but by 2000 technicians were able to restore partial operations to the plant after nearly two decades of alternative fuel options in the area.
The college towns of Clemson, Greenville, and Spartanburg having successfully groomed the original student bodies of six colleges and universities (mostly on campus, and representing much of the rest of the pre-doomsday USA), have developed into an independent republic with around 500,000 citizens. The present governor is James "Jim" DeMint.
Islamic Republic of Anderson[]
While visiting followers outside of Iva, South Carolina, Royall Jenkins, founder of a Nation of Islam sect known as the United Nation of Islam, took the opportunity of the chaos to offer his help to the people of nearby Anderson. What developed was a small survivor state that adhered to NOI and Black supremacist tenets encompassing much of former Anderson County.
Not without resistance within the city, and after a war with white supremacist neighbor "Toccoa, CSA," Jenkins (a.k.a. "Allah Among Men" among his followers] had established a lasting peace in what he called the "Islamic Republic of Anderson." Relations with the much larger Piedmont Republic in the years since have been estranged, but otherwise non-violent.
Pee Dee Nation[]
With a pioneering spirit inspired by a "dying tribe" that had refused to be totally assimilated into "white man's" culture, a modern "Mesopotamia" (Gr. "between the rivers"), a new nation arose in eastern South Carolina between the banks of the Great Pee Dee River and the Black River. Its capital was Florence, Georgetown being its important port city. It was a simple society, with no electricity, radios or oil. Sadly, this would prove to be the nation’s downfall, as a large hurricane in 1989 resulted in the death of the nation.
Florence[]
The first survivor nation of the Peedee is the Republic of Society Hill… which is 13 miles outside of the former city of Florence. The community is made up of 54 families from Florence, including former Peedee Governor David Beasley. Discovered by WCRB scouts in 2009.
Georgetown[]
The larger of the two Peedee remnants, Georgetown is a boom city on the South Carolina coast. The city recovered well from the 1989 hurricane, and became a large trade hub. It was also discovered in the same 2009 expedition.
Hilton Head Island[]
The United States Atlantic Remnant operates its "Territory of South Carolina" from the environs of Hilton Head Island. Formerly ruled by a cadre of surviving Marine commissioned officers who later fell out of league with the USAR, the island was recaptured by the Remnant in 2020. No more than 20,000 permanent residents inhabit the environs of this territory, although many more in the American diaspora trace their background to evacuations from the Carolina coast decades prior.
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