William III, by grace of God king of South Carolina?
Hey, y’all, I’m super-busy today, but just to give you something to chew on, Jeffrey Collins over at the AP posted this yesterday, sort of riffing on the new census figures:
If South Carolina and North Carolina decided to restore what the Lords Proprietors tore apart in 1691, the combined Carolina would have 15,557,813 people, according to the census data released today. That would be 5th largest state in the U.S.
— Jeffrey Collins (@JSCollinsAP) April 26, 2021
That started a little bit of conversation on Twitter (our own Lynn Teague joined in). For my part, I responded, “What on Earth would be the motivation for combining two such strikingly unlike states?”
Coming back at me, Jeffrey quickly explained, “Just an observation — certainly not an endorsement. I will say the separation 300+ years ago probably accelerated the differences between the Carolinas.”
Quite likely, I agreed. And of course, I understood it was merely an observation, which others took up and enjoyed discussing. But I couldn’t resist adding: “A technical point: If we went to the status quo ante of 1691, would Elizabeth II be our sovereign? Or would we say it was William III?”
Anyway, I saw Bud mentioned something about the new census figures on a previous post, and I thought y’all might enjoy kicking this around.
So, should SC and NC merge and become one? Talk amongst yourselves…
