Before Lake Marion or Lake Moultrie existed, South Carolina imagined connecting the Santee and Cooper Rivers to the port of Charleston. From the 18th-century Santee Canal to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal vision, this episode follows the long road from dream to dam — a story of ambition, technology, and belief in progress.

Historians Dr. Thomas Robert Hart explains how the New Deal reshaped the Lowcountry, while Dr. Kelsey Moore explores how that progress touched African American communities whose lands lay in its path.

Featured Voices: Dr. Thomas Robert Hart, Dr. Kelsey Moore

Credits Created, produced, and hosted by Lolita Rowe Original music by Sister Sai www.madeincarolinapodcast.com

Call to Action Follow the series and share your reflections using #MadeInCarolinaPodcast.

Resources & Further Reading

• The Southern Blues of the Great Flood — Scalawag Magazine https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/02/southern-blues-music-great-flood/
• Lakes — South Carolina Encyclopedia https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/lakes/
• Santee Canal Site Investigations — South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/sc_institute_archeology_and_anthropology/divisions/maritime_research/project_publications/siteinvestigations/santeecanal/
• Sunken Plantations: The Santee Cooper Project — Douglas Bostick (2008)
• Jacksonborough Assembly — South Carolina Encyclopedia https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/jacksonborough-assembly/
• Santee Canal: America’s First Superhighway — SCETV Classics https://www.scetv.org/stories/2025/santee-canal-americas-first-superhighway-etv-classics
• American Revolutionary War — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War

Sound Credits (Freesound.org)

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