Historic Canals and Waterways of
South Carolina
Robert J. Kapsch
South Carolina’s first transportation revolution was the development of a network of
canals and waterways. From the 1790s to the 1830s, the Palmetto State was a preeminent leader in infrastructure improvements and developed an extensive system
of more than two thousand miles of canals and waterways connecting virtually every
part of the state with the coast and the port of Charleston. Robert J. Kapsch expertly
recounts the complex history of innovation, determination, and improvement that fueled the canal boom in early-nineteenth-century South Carolina.
At the center of the state’s waterway system was the Santee Canal, constructed
between 1793 and 1800 to tie the Santee River and its upcountry watershed with the
Cooper River and Charleston Harbor in the south. The Santee Canal was America’s first
summit-level canal—the most complex type of canal to plan, design, and build. Following the War of 1812, South Carolina set about building additional canals and improving
navigation on the state’s rivers to enable downstream commerce with Charleston via
the Santee Canal. During this era South Carolina spent more money per citizen on internal improvements than did any other state. Kapsch chronicles the development and
execution of these projects as well as the involvement of major figures in this effort,
including John Christian Senf, Robert Mills, Abram Blanding, and Joel R. Poinsett.
As Kapsch notes, the geography of South Carolina dictated the development of its
canals and river navigation schemes, but it was cotton, the state’s all-important cash
crop, that necessitated this mode of transportation. The goal was to transport cotton
from plantations across the state to the port of Charleston for shipment. From the first
settlement in South Carolina, economic success was in fact dependent on waterways.
But in the 1830s the canal boom ended when another transportation innovation, the
railroad, superseded waterway travel as primary link to the ports.
In this first comprehensive account of South Carolina’s canal history, Kapsch relies on
his experience as an engineer and historical researcher, as well as on numerous maps
and illustrations, to tell a fascinating and forgotten tale from South Carolina’s past.
Robert J. Kapsch is a researcher
and writer for the Center for Historic
Engineering and Architecture. Previously he served as senior scholar in
historic architecture and engineering
for the National Park Service, as project
engineer for the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal National Historical Park, and as
chief of the Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record. Kapsch was awarded
the Distinguished Service Medal, the
highest award of the U.S. Department
of Interior, for his work at the National
Park Service.
March 2010, 296 pages, 15 color and 109 b&w illus.
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