Living Among South Carolina Outlaws

The interior of South Carolina was a Lawless place. In fact, Northern Georgia to western Pennsylvania has always been lacking in law and order, but in South Carolina, after the Cherokee Indian War in 1761, what little law had existed, deteriorated to almost none. Indians were no longer a threat, but bold outlaw gangs roamed and ravaged the country, robbing, killing and kidnapping, ever bold enough to challenge the few Militia. Here, there was no law, therefore, no court or jail for any legal transaction, a weeklong trip had to be made to Charlestown. Seeing no help coming from the government in Charlestown, citizens of the back country began organizing into vigilante groups called Regulators. In 1766, John Poston II migrated from Pennsylvania with his two sons, John III and Anthony to settle by Lynches Creek in Queensboro Township. Here in the lawless frontier, they struggled to make a home among the outlaws and Regulators.