South Carolina is one of the fifty states of the United States, located in the Carolinas region of the American South. South Carolina became an independent colony from North Carolina in 1729, and the state became a slave society after rice and indigo were discovered. After 1708, a majority of the population consisted of African-Americans, and the state was constantly at the head of opposition to northern economic policies. The state threatened to secede after the Tariff of Abominations, and in 1861 it was the first state to secede from the Union during the American Civil War. South Carolina was occupied by federal troops until 1877, when the state was rebuilt following the destruction of the war, and the Ku Klux Klan was crushed. In 2015, the state had a population of 4,896,146 people, with 68.3% being whites, 27.9% being African-Americans, 1.5% Asians, .5% Native Americans, .1% Pacific Islanders, and 1.7% mixed race.
