Campbell University history professor Dr. Lloyd Johnson's article on Welsh settlers in the Carolinas during the 18th century was published by the North American Journal of Welsh Studies, an online print journal published on behalf of the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History. Johnson's article appears in Volume 4, 1 (Winter-Summer 2004).

"The Welsh settlements in the Carolinas had some similarities and some differences," Johnson said. "Each was settled by Welsh settlers from Pennsylvania in the early 18th century. They were Calvinist Presbyterians who settled on the northeastern Cape Fear River in present Duplin and Pender counties as early as 1725. The settlers who migrated to South Carolina between the years 1736 and 1746 were primarily Calvinist Baptists who settled in the upper Pee Dee River Region of present day Marlboro County."

The first account of the Welsh who migrated from Pennsylvania to Delaware was written by Hugh Meredith in the 1700s. Meredith partnered with Benjamin Franklin in a printing business. He predicted that many Welsh people would settle in North Carolina where land was cheap, and he traveled from Philadelphia to Wilmington, NC, describing the lush soil and good grazing land of New Hanover and Brunswick counties. His account of the Cape Fear region encouraged the Welsh from Pennsylvania and Delaware to migrate to North Carolina.

The Welsh settlers were not confined to the Northeast Cape Fear River in Duplin and Pender counties, Johnson concludes. Rather, their settlement extended 80-90 miles inland along the creeks flowing into the Cape Fear and the northeast Cape Fear rivers. Many Welsh who came to North Carolina in the 18th century settled along the creeks that drained into those rivers. These creeks and swamps have names like Rockfish, James', Swifts', Black Mingo, and Goshen, and they also include the Black River, which runs through southeastern North Carolina.

More is known about the early Welsh who settled in the upper Pee Dee in South Carolina, however. They were Calvinists who believed in predestination and who became disillusioned with the belief in universal salvation. More than 30 families migrated from Pencader Hundred Baptist Church in Delaware to South Carolina between 1736 and 1746. Some families were slaveholders and imported their slaves. A more distinct Welch cultural identity prevailed in South Carolina.

Johnson is also the author of The Frontier in the Colonial South: South Carolina Backcountry: 1736-1800 (Greenwood, 1997). The book was listed in The Best Books for Academic Libraries, Vol. 4 (2002 edition), which can be found in Campbell's Carrie Rich Memorial Library. The North American Journal of Welsh Studies is headquartered at the University of Michigan and distributed to major research libraries throughout the world.

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