author
Alexander Hewatt
A Scottish-born clergyman who became one of the earliest chroniclers of the American South, he is best remembered for a major history of colonial South Carolina and Georgia. His work offers a close-up view of the region just before and during the upheavals of the Revolutionary era.
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About the author
Born in Roxburgh, Scotland, in 1739, Alexander Hewatt—also spelled Hewat—later settled in Charleston, where he served as a Presbyterian minister. He became known not only for preaching, but also for writing history at a time when the story of the southern colonies had only rarely been gathered into a full narrative.
His best-known work is An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, published in 1779. The book is often described as the first substantial history of those two colonies, and it remains the work for which he is chiefly remembered.
Hewatt's life was deeply shaped by the American Revolution. He remained loyal to the British crown, and sources note that his property was seized and that he was forced to leave South Carolina in 1777. He died in 1824.