08/06/2026
August 5, 1776 â South Carolina Hears the Declaration of Independence
Two hundred and fifty years ago today, the people of Charleston, South Carolina, gathered to hear the Declaration of Independence read aloud for the first time in the state.
After Congress approved the Declaration on July 4, printed copies known as the Dunlap Broadsides were dispatched across the newly declared United States. South Carolinaâs official copy left Philadelphia on July 9 and reached Charleston on August 2 after traveling the recently completed post road connecting the colonies. A voyage by sea would have been faster, but British warships blockading Charleston Harbor made the overland route the safer choice.
On August 5, South Carolina President John Rutledge and Major General Charles Lee organized a series of public readings modeled on the traditional proclamation of royal laws. Where Charlestonians had once gathered to hear declarations issued in the name of King George III, they would now hear the announcement that South Carolina was part of a free and independent nation.
The first reading took place outside the South Carolina State House at Broad and Meeting Streets before government officials, Continental officers, and the Charleston militia. The procession then moved to the Exchange, where the Declaration was read again before a large crowd as cannon thundered from the townâs defenses. Later that afternoon, Continental soldiers assembled beneath Charlestonâs famous Liberty Tree, where the Declaration was read a third time before a patriotic sermon and celebratory musket volleys.
Charleston was then one of the largest and wealthiest cities in British North America. More than 12,000 people lived there, and at least half were enslaved men, women, and children. Thousands of Continental soldiers and militia were also in the city following the recent victory at Sullivanâs Island, ensuring that one of the largest audiences yet would hear the Declaration proclaimed.
As the Declarationâs wordsââall men are created equalââechoed through Charleston, many of those who heard them were themselves denied the liberty the new nation proclaimed. Nearly two centuries later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would describe the Declaration and the Constitution as a âpromissory noteâ whose promise of liberty and equality had yet to be fully redeemed. On that August day in 1776, the promise was proclaimed; fulfilling it would become the work of generations.
Handwritten copies were soon distributed throughout South Carolina, carrying the message of independence beyond Charleston to plantations, villages, and frontier settlements.
Like the public readings in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, Charleston transformed the Declaration from words on paper into a public commitment. It invited South Carolinians not only to celebrate independence, but to embrace the responsibilities and sacrifices required to defend it.
And thatâs the way it was, August 5, 1776
