Alot of people come down here and live for a few years and think they are South Carolinians. They then begin to adopt the South Carolina Flag.


They fly it on their porches, wear it on their belts, it's on their flip flops. It is a beautiful and symbolic flag. I bet that if you ask them about it, most could tell you that the crescent comes from the crescent worn on the hats of the revolutionaries; and the palmetto tree represents the first major battle of the revolutionary war that was won thanks to the soft trunks of the palmetto trees that absorbed the cannon balls of the british gun boats. They may also say this was designed by Moultrie after the revolutionary war. There they are wrong. The flag they designed by Moultrie looked like this:And the crescent on the blue background was the South Carolina flag, until 1861. In 1860 a red flag with crescent and a star and two ends was flown in Charleston when secession was announced and spread throughout the state.


The state leaders saw the need to adopt a flag that was different from the state flag flown while in the union. They looked back to the last revolution and the heroes of South Carolina. They identified themselves with those revolutionaries of a previous age. That was when they adopted the Palmetto tree.

South Carolina's flag of the revolution still flies high above the capital. People get angry about the confederate flag and forget the meaning of the flag on the straps of their beach sandles. It doesn't mean hate. It doesn't mean slavery. It means Pride, Freedom, and a certain independent spirit we still have.