Origins of the South Carolina State Flag

If you’re a diehard South Carolinian, you probably have the state flag somewhere at your house: on a beach towel, a koozy, a Christmas ornament, a visor or a pair of flip-flops. (I have it on my mailbox and a fleece throw blanket, and I’m not even that diehard.) There is just something so aesthetically pleasing about the palm-and-moon that it’s hard to resist making it a fashion statement. On internet lists of the best state flags, it always comes in the top ten, often even the top three with Arizona, California or Maryland. It’s just plain iconic. But historians don’t totally have a grip on its origins and symbolism because mystery surrounds the moon, if that’s even what it is.

The earliest strand of the flag’s history dates back to 1765 — before the United States existed — when British Parliament passed the Stamp Act to levy a tax directly on American colonists. Angry mobs formed, and protestors in South Carolina marched behind a blue banner with three white crescents, design elements that would later resurface during the Revolutionary War when South Carolina militiamen donned blue uniforms and caps with silver crescents. This inspired Colonel William Moultrie when he was asked to create a Patriot flag. His design, intended to match their uniforms, had a white crescent with the word “Liberty” in the upper left-hand corner of an indigo field.

But despite modern assumption that it’s a moon, many believe the crescent is actually a gorget, a piece of antiquated armor used to protect the chest and throat. Early versions of the emblem had the horns of the crescent pointing up in a horizontal orientation that definitely resembles a gorget more than a moon. But as the flag evolved over time, the crescent was rotated to its present position and, quite frankly, it looks better that way. Modern Carolinians can identify much more with a balmy moonlit night than they can with antique armor…

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