The Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia

'An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia' in two volumes by Alexander Hewat is the first history of South Carolina and Georgia published in 1779. In the first volume, the author attempts to outline the earliest settlement of North America, and the reasons for the influx of British, French and other European migrants in the early 17th century due to religious conflict at home. Hewat describes in much detail the conditions and customs of American Indians, with whom he shows sympathy despite their threat to European immigrants. He describes the settlement of Carolina by aristocratic British Proprietors, the setting up of plantations, wars with the Indians, the Spanish and Pirates, and the hardships of the climate, as well as the introduction of African slaves. Hewat saw Africans as more suited to the South Carolina climate, and essential to the Southern Economy, but imagined an indentured servant system similar to that which existed for white immigrants, and supposed that the conditions of slavery would incite them to revolt, as indeed they did at Stono in 1739.

Alexander Hewat (1739-1824) was the first historian of South Carolina and Georgia, best known for his two volume work An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. He remained loyal to the King during the American Revolution, and as a result his property was seized and he was expelled in 1777. Hewat was a Presbyterian minister who officiated in Charleston, South Carolina from 1763 to 1777. After the publication of his History in 1779, he was awarded an honorary DD doctorate degree by Edinburgh University.