This article originally was published in a 1907 Handbook of South Carolina.

Results of Early Efforts. - Chronologically; Major Hammond summarizes the results of the early efforts at immigration to this State as follows:
"1497. - Europeans derived their first knowledge of South Carolina from Sebastian Cabot, an English subject, who visited these coasts shortly after the discovery of the new world.
"152O. - D'Ayllon, in quest of gold and slaves, landed on St. Helena Island, gave it its name, and claimed the country for Spain.
"1562. - Admiral Coligny sends a colony of French Huguenots, in two small vessels, to Port Royal; a settlement of twenty-six persons is made there, but the following year they build a vessel and return to France, leaving to the country only its name Caroline, after their king, Charles IX, and a small fort.
"1629. - The country is granted to Sir Robert Heath by Charles I of England, under the name of Carolina.
"1663. - Charles II of England grants the country to certain English noblemen, styled the Absolute Lords and Proprietors of Carolina.
"1670. - The Proprietors, at an expenditure of 12,000 pounds, sent out two small vessels, under Capt. Wm. Sayle, to Beaufort. This colony removes the next year to Ashley River, and a few years later occupy the present site of Charleston and form the first permanent white settlement in South Carolina. The Proprietors offer to all immigrants lands at 20 pounds per one thousand acres; where cash could not be paid, an annual rent of one penny per acre was required. For the first five years every freeman was offered one hundred acres and every servant fifty acres, at an annual rent not exceeding half-penny per acre.
"1671. - The Proprietors grant land to a colony from the Barbadoes, under Sir John Yeamans.
"1674. - The Proprietors furnish two small vessels to remove a Dutch colony from Nova Belgia (New York) to John's Island, whence they spread into the surrounding country.
"1679. - Charles II provides at his own expense two small vessels to transport foreign Protestants, chiefly French Huguenots, to Charleston.
"1696. - Members of a Congregational church, with Mr. Joseph Lord, their pastor, remove in a body from Dorchester, Massachusetts, to the neighborhood of Charleston. "17O1. - According to Dr. Hewitt, the population of South Carolina is seven thousand. It consists of a medley from many countries, and of different faiths. There are Cavaliers and Puritans from England; Dissenters from Scotland, Dutchmen from New York, French Huguenots and Africans.
"1712. - The Assembly of South Carolina offer 14 pounds to the 'owners and importers' of each healthy male British servant, between the ages of twelve and thirty years, 'not a criminal.'
"1715. - Five hundred Irish immigrate at their own expense to occupy the lands from which the Yemassee Indians have been driven, but finding them laid out in baronies for the Lords Proprietors, most of them remove to the North.
"1718. - The Lords Proprietors having advanced 18,000 pounds to the settlers, refuse to furnish additionial supplies, and when asked for cattle, reply that 'they wished not to encourage graziers , but planters.'
"1719. - The Proprietors sell their right and interest in the soil and Government of Carolina to the king for 17,500 pounds, and an additional 5,000 pounds for the quit rents, overdue by the colonists.
"1724. - According to Dr. Hewitt, the population is thirty-two thousand.
"1730. - The Colonial Government marks out eleven townships of twenty thousand acres each, and offer fifty acres, rent free, for ten years, to every man, woman and child who would come over to occupy them. After that period a rental of four shillings per one hundred acres was to be paid annually.
"1731. - The Government offers Peter Pury 400 pounds for every one hundred effective men brought over from Switzerland. Three hundred and seventy arrive and are granted forty thousand acres on the lower Savannah River, at Purysburg. (Full fare across the ocean at this time is five pounds for immigrants.)
"1733. - The Scotch-Irish descendants of the Scotch Covenanters, from Downe County, Ireland, settle in Williamsburg County, named after King William III.
"1735. - A colony of Germans settled in Orangeburg County, which is named after the Prince of Orange.
"1736. - The Assembly grants a large tract of land on the Pee Dee to Welsh settlers from Pennsylvania.
"1739. - The Council appropriate 6,000 pounds as a bounty to the first 200 immigrants (above twelve years of age, two under to count as one over that age) from Wales, settling upon the Welsh tract on the Pee Dee. They offered, in addition to each head above twelve years, twelve bushels of corn, one barrel of beef, fifty pounds pork one hundred pounds rice, one bushel salt, and to each male one axe, one broad hoe, one cow and calf and one young sow.
"1746. - After the battle of Culloden many of the Scotch rebels were removed to South Carolina.
"1750. - Saxe Gotha Township (Lexington County) was laid off and occupied by settlers from Saxe Gotha, Germany. In the same year a colony of Quakers from Ireland settle Camden (Kershaw County).
"1755. - Governor Glenn opens the upper county for settlement by a treaty he makes with the Cherokee Indians, obtaining from them the cession of a large tract of territory, and by erecting in the Northwest (Pickens County) Fort Prince George.
"1760. - After Braddock's defeat, numbers of Pennsylvanians and Virginians, feeling insecure on account of the Indians, move overland to the upper country of South Carolina.
"1764. - King George furnishes 300 pounds, tents, one hundred and fifty stand of arms and two small vessels, to a colony of Germans, who receive, on reaching Charleston, 500 pounds from the Assembly. and are assigned lands in Londonderry Township (Edgefield County).
"1764. - Two hundred and twelve French Protestants reach Charleston, and are furnished transportation to Long Cane, Abbeville County, where they settle New Bordeaux Township.
"1765. - Population, according to Hewitt: white, 38,000; colored, 85,000; total, 123,000.
"1783. - The War of Independence being achieved, 'multitudes from Europe and the Eastern and Middle States of America moved into South Carolina."

The Effort Of 1904. - It was in 1903 when the cry for labor was rising from every fence corner and spindles in the cotton manufacturing plants were standing idle for want of people to operate them that the General Assembly, upon the earnest recommendation of that distinguished and progressive Chief Executive, Gov. Duncan Clinch Heyward, in its wisdom in 1904 created a Department of the State Government, charged with the inducing of desirable settlers, the obtaining of the much-needed labor, in addition to many other functions. Very properly this department was also charged with all matters relating to agriculture and to the commerce of the State. The demand of the hour was in the immigration branch of the work and the department vigorously went at the almost impossible task of trying to get people to come to a section systematically maligned at the homes of the desired people, a section unknown and unadvertised, derogatory even unmentioned except in a way in immigration circles, both at home and abroad. South Carolina's annual share of the immigrants arriving in this country at that time was about 73. The whole foreign born population of the State did not exceed 5,528 persons. Notwithstanding such a handicap the department began a systematic campaign, and from March 15, 1904 to the end of the year brought into the State 109 Scotch people, and 47 other foreigners, some of whom are substantial and representative citizens today, inducing also quite a number of persons from other portions of the United States to come here. Slowly, necessarily by a painful process, the work was prosecuted, vigorous campaigns of education in the United States and abroad being inaugurated and pursued with never-ending energy, with the result that the advantages of the State were beginning to be known, and during 1906 1,316 foreign born persons were brought to South Carolina.

This State was from the vigor of its methods being characterized as a pioneer in a new movement in the South for the upbuilding of the section industrially, when the crying need of the cotton manufacturers for labor to turn idle spindles came in the summer of 1906.

The Selective Policy. - The State Department had already sounded the note of warning against the indiscriminate immigration pouring into New York and had urged as a national measure the policy of selecting the immigrant at his own home by agents of the State for the purpose for which he was needed in this country. Under the State law the need of the manufacturers offered the means to put this doctrine into practical effect. Subscriptions were accepted to meet the expenses of an extensive experiment, having as its purposes to supply in part the labor needed, to test the practicability of the "selective" policy, to advertise the State's resources and aggressiveness, to test the Federal laws as to the rights of States to induce such selected immigrants, and above all to use the necessity of the hour to open permanently trans-Atlantic service and reestablish the commerce to the South-Atlantic States. Of course, these manifold objects could not all be attained ideally.

Charleston Made a Federal Station. - The supplying of labor needs was partial; the advertisement of the State can not be estimated; the effort to test the Federal laws led to a remodeling of existing laws by Congress; the wisdom of the "selective" policy was demonstrated, though it had not been ideally executed; and it looks as this is written as if the ultimate result will be the making of Charleston the port of entry for the South-Atlantic States from the standpoint of commerce as well as immigration, another result of the effort being the provision by Congress for the erection of an immigration station at the port of Charleston.

Throughout this somewhat bold experiment, though all acts were in strict accord with the construction of the Federal laws by the Department of State at Washington, there have been accompanying investigations of almost every description, and even foreign authorities, all, however, having only a happy result. Much was risked in this experiment, but the permanent results - the results in future years from "foundations" of satisfied people - promised so much that it was made regardless of political or any other effect, but for the ultimate good of the Commonwealth.

Practical Results. - There have been, in all, during the period since March 15, 1903, and up to January 1,1908 - less than four years by several months - brought into South Carolina about 2,500 persons from the East, the Northwest, and abroad, some individuals, of whom each have invested as much in South Carolina as the operations of the department has cost the State, including salaries . Often transactions involving several thousands of dollars are made through the department with no cost to either party thereto.

It is not deemed necessary to give here the details of the far-reaching results of the tests of Federal laws made by the South Carolina authorities, though these records may be of value. However, in order that misrepresentation may not intervene a summary of the matter is given below.

Arrival of the "Wittekind."- "The Charleston Year Book of 1906," in an article by Thos. R. Waring says:
"On the morning of Sunday, November 4, 1906, the steamship Wittekind of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company, Capt. C. Von Bardeleben, out of Bremen Thursday afternoon, October 18, came into the port of Charleston with 26 cabin passengers and 450 in the steerage, immigrants from Europe under the personal guidance of E. J. Watson, Commissioner of Agriculture, Commerce and Immigration of the State of South Carolina, by whose effort in Europe they had been attracted to South Carolina and facilities for their direct passage to this State supplied.

"The vessel brought a freight cargo of 4,000 tons of kainit and other fertilizer material, valued at $56,000 consigned to the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company.

"The arrival of the Wittekind at Charleston marked the first successful undertaking to promote direct immigration from Europe to the South Atlantic section of the United States in half a century, and was the immediate result of the effort of South Carolina to supply, through State agency, the pressing necessities of a white industrial population to develop its resources and increase its productiveness. Commissioner Watson had been laboring for two years to attract settlers to South Carolina to supply the demand for labor in the fields and in the factories, meeting with only indifferent success in his solicitations in other sections of the United States, and through the channels of immigration at the Northern ports of entry, and, after a careful study of all the conditions, he had determined to seek the establishment of a line of ships plying directly between a European port and Charleston to bring immigrants to the State. To this end he was especially moved by the solicitations of the cotton manufacturing interests of the State, whose mills were hampered seriously in their operations by a scarcity of labor.

"The conditions in South Carolina prevailed generally throughout the South of land the necessity for supplementing the population with desirable aliens had appeared to the people of the whole section, but South Carolina was the first of the States to carry the idea into action. The availability of Charleston as a port of entry for immigrants was a large factor in the determination to make the experiment and in its successful undertaking.

"In earlier days there had been a considerable flow of immigration through Charleston. The last movement of consequence, previous to that directed by Commissioner Watson, had extended over a period of ten years preceding the to Civil War, and brought to Charleston many now prominent in the community."

The details as to how and why the effort was made to induce the North German Lloyd to send this experimental trip to Charleston are fully recorded by Mr. Waring. He tells how the United States Commissioners of Immigration and of Labor both attended the inspection of the passengers; how the new arrivals were given a cordial welcome; how the examination of the passengers was conducted and their distribution to interior points was begun; how only four passengers were finally rejected, and says:

"The 450 steerage passengers were classified as follows: Adults, 379; children, 60; infants, 11. By nationality they were: Belgians, 137; Hollanders, 11; Austrians, 302. The latter included about 160 from Galicia.
"Commissioner Watson reported that the immigrants on the Wittekind, including the cabin passengers, brought with them in money a total of $20,458.49.
"The first passenger from the Wittekind to land on South Carolina soil was Herr Nicolaus Niemann. He was followed by a steady stream of those who had passed the inspectors' examination, until all but the few detained for further observation had come ashore. * * *
"It was generally agreed by those informed upon such matters, that the Wittekind's' passengers constituted a most acceptable class of immigrants. Commissioner General Sargent gave his opinion of them in the following language: 'I regard the immigrants into South Carolina this time of a good class and feel that they will make good people for South Carolina.' Commissioner of Labor Neill said: 'They are an unusually fine lot of men and women. They are people of unusual intelligence and are altogether far above the average of those coming to this country.' Col. J. H. Estill of Savannah, who headed the delegation from Georgia, coming to observe the landing of the immigrants, said: 'They might well be called a select crowd, for a better looking lot of men, women and children it would be hard to pick out anywhere.'

"On the day following the arrival of the Wittekind the inspectors completed their examinations of the few immigrants who had been detained for further consideration. finally passing all but four of the entire lot brought over by Commissioner Watson. At this time, also, a question was raised of far-reaching consequence to the whole movement to bring immigrants to the South, resulting later in a decision by the Department, of Commerce and Labor establishing the legality of the methods employed by Commissioner Watson. By the afternoon of the second day all questions relative to the arrival of the immigrants and their disposition had been settled and the special inspectors who had come to Charleston had returned to their regular posts.

"The Wittekind sailed from Charleston on her return voyage to Bremen on Saturday, November 24, at 2:30 o'clock in the afternoon. She had a cargo of 10,349 bales of cotton." * * *

The State authorities naturally encountered many difficulties incident to the distribution and assimilation of the newcomers, due to varied causes, but notwithstanding the general tendency of newly arrived immigrants to move from place to place there were not more than the customary losses from this cause, and in a short time, after the elimination of several malcontents by the State, the best of the people settled down, and are today active agencies in the bringing of relatives and friends, often more desirable than themselves, to join them. The first instance of this resulted in four months' time, when one party of 59 such people arrived from abroad.

Some who left the State voluntarily returned, and others wrote asking if they could get their places back upon returning. There was one instance of a man who left and prospected from Cuba to Canada, finally returning and resuming farming operations on the coast. During the process of assimilation at the request of the State authorities the United States Bureau of Labor kept a special agent in close observation.

As showing the interest of Federal officials safe-guarding American labor, the references to the inauguration of this class of work in South Carolina contained in the annual reports Of 1907 of Oscar Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labor of the United States, and of United States Commissioner General of Immigration Frank P. Sargent are of value.

While these extensive efforts in behalf of securing a high-class immigration have been pushed vigorously, and there is every prospect of securing mere substantial results from the Continent, Scandinavia and Great Britain, from the latter of which sturdy English farm families are at this time arriving, an active, earnest campaign in the press and in the field has been continually conducted in the farming districts of the East and the Northwest, and the fall of 1907 witnessed the beginning of the results so zealously sought.

It suffices to say that the stage has been reached when almost every week satisfied foreigners are sending back to their native country tickets for their relatives, whom they wish to join them.

In South Carolina a substantial "foundation" has been laid, which should in the next decade draw to the State a large number of the most desirable foreigners and people of other portions of this country who are seeking to better their condition, and who are anxious to become good citizens of this Commonwealth as so many others of their kind have done during the past two centuries.