it is well known that south carolina once believed she
owned a long narrow stripe of western lands that
extended her territory by half again its present
breadth
& indeed all the way to the mississippi river
across more than 400 miles of what is now just the
northernmost few leagues of georgia & alabama &
mississippi
& the reason this is so well known is that she ceded
these lands to the federal government in 1787
by a comical mistake due to geographic ignorance
for tho she had as recently as 1763 really owned more
western lands than any other colony at the time
she actually had none at all left to give away by 1787
& should rather have considered herself one of the 7
original short stripe states from the start
rather than a 7th original long stripe state
& as luck would have it
the american flag has evolved in such a way that it
does correctly symbolize the 6 true original
long stripe states
or western land ceding
states
by the 6 long stripes
&
the 7 true original
short stripe states
or nonceding states
including sc
by the 7 short stripes
can you imagine if the stars & stripes had had to have
their red 7th or middle stripe as an additional long
stripe running beneath the starry field
instead of the short stripe this flag has almost
always officially kept in the middle position to the
right of the starry field
but fortunately south carolina only wanted to be
yet never really was
a long stripe state
& btw
in case you have ever wondered exactly which stripes
symbolize which states
then i think we can say with confidence
proceeding from top to bottom
& of course factoring in their rank of admission to
the union also
first the 7 short upper stripes
de pa nj md sc nh ri
followed by the 6 long lower ones
ga ct ma va ny nc
& of course the 50 stars can be similarly identified
but thats a lot easier & more straightforward
for example the lone star state star is the 28th
or the one keeping closest company with & in fact just
to the left of the 4th short or md stripe
but yikes i digress even from my digression
for what has been almost if not completely forgotten
is that sc once really did have not only western but
also southern lands of enormous extent
& all of them contiguous til 1732
when some were cut out from the middle
& most thus became a large exclave of the small
remaining metropole we recognize today as sc
til their own extinction in 1763
& here is how it all happened
the carolina charter of 1665 extended that province
westward as far as the pacific & southward as far as
the 29th parallel
today this includes the northern half of florida
plus most of the rest of the old south & southwest
& indeed about a fifth of mexico
at that time carolina outstripped even virginia as
largest province
& when the nc sc division was created in 1729
sc then inherited title to all this southern part of
carolina
which was in fact the lions share of it
& probably still the largest province
since va had by then lost much of her north too
when georgia was chartered in 1732
overriding the part of south carolina that lay between
the savannah & altamaha rivers
as well as everywhere westward to the pacific between
the latitudes of their respective northernmost &
southernmost sources
sc was thus left in possession of a legal exclave
& this transcontinental exclave remained legally in
effect everywhere west of the altamaha & of the
seacoast to its south
as far as the 29th parallel
in other words it extended to the pacific from a
northeast extremity around atlanta & a southeast
extremity around daytona beach
tho it is true that the spanish had an overlapping &
better claim to all of florida & mexico
& the french a similarly overlapping & better claim to
all of louisiana
but when the esfrgb tripartite treaty of paris
on 10 feb 1763
extinguished british claims west of the mississippi
as well as spanish claims south of the 31st parallel
eastward of the mississipi & new orleans
the sc ghost exclave accordingly contracted in the
west from the pacific back to the mississippi
but was no longer overlapped in the east by the
spanish claim to florida
thus sc regained undisputed title to most of formerly
spanish florida & retained most of what would become
ga & al & ms
at least for 3 months or so anyway
until the board of trade enjoined her on 30 may 1763
from selling land beyond the altamaha
moreover the british government by 2 different acts of
7 oct 1763 then created the provinces of east & west
florida
on the one hand
which extinguished all sc claim south of the 31st
parallel
& on the other hand
added to georgia the territory west & south of the
altamaha
as far south as florida & as far west as the
mississippi
thus closing out the last of the sc clave territory
all in a few swift strokes within 8 months
but for 3 decades sc had a clave that included all of
interstate 10 from coast to coast
& generally hundreds of miles north & south of it
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