“D” is for Drovers

“D” is for Drovers. From the late1790s until the 1880s, livestock from Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina were driven through Greenville County to the seaport of Charleston, destined for northern markets in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York or south to Florida and the West Indies. These drives were made possible by the completion of a road from Greenville County across the mountains and into Knoxville, Tennessee.  Herds consisted primarily of cattle or hogs but also included sheep, mules, horses, and turkeys. Drovers became expert whip-crackers, and the term “crackers” may have derived from their long whips.The expansion of railroads into the upcountry and across the mountains, coupled with the gradual decline of open- range grazing, led to the demise of the droving trade. Drovers and their herds had largely disappeared from South Carolina by the mid- 1880s.