The South Carolina Diary of Reverend Archibald Simpson

The South Carolina Diary of Reverend Archibald Simpson, edited by Peter N. Moore, is a two-volume annotated edition of selections from the journals of a noted eighteenth-century lowcountry Presbyterian pastor and planter. Simpson’s manuscript journals, consisting of approximately two thousand eight-hundred pages of text, span from youthful entries in 1748 until 1784, and chronicle the religious, social, and cultural milieu of Scotland and colonial America during the revolutionary era. Preserved since 1854 by the Charleston Library Society, Simpson’s firsthand accounts, augmented here with Moore’s introduction and annotations, offer an insider’s vantage point on this transformative period in colonial southern history.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, around 1734, Simpson appeared in South Carolina in 1754 and was a Presbyterian pastor in the lowcountry for almost two decades before returning to Great Britain in 1772. A meticulous and detailed writer, Simpson filled his journals with geographical information, local history, and commentaries on his South Carolina community and its inhabitants.

Part 2 comprises Simpson’s journals from 1770 through 1784. In these diaries Simpson divulged his failed attempts to remarry in South Carolina after the death of his wife, his family concerns and strife, and his continued ministerial work in the South Carolina lowcountry and his immediate community. Also included are Simpson’s firsthand accounts after he returned to South Carolina in 1783 and wrote in-depth descriptions of the ravages of the war and of the chaotic conditions in a postwar society.