The Flag of South Carolina

In 1776 General Charles Moultrie was given the charge of building a fort in the Charleston Harbor to protect Charleston from the British Navy.  Lacking the building materials to build a stone or brick fort, he built one out of palmetto trees.  When his superiors arrived they had doubts about the redoubtability of the fort but they allowed it to be defended due to the impending British attacks on the harbor.  On June 28, 1776 a British ship commanded by Commodore Peter Parker entered the harbor and began to fire on Fort Moultrie.  Whereas brick or stone would have repelled cannon fire the spongy palmetto trees absorbed the shots, standing up to the barrage in a way that astonished the commanders of the Charleston faction of the ragtag American army.  The palmetto became the symbol of protection against tyranny and was placed on a blue background, the color of the uniforms the soldiers wore.  The crescent is not a moon contrary to its position on the flag and traditional waning gibbous shape.  In the Revolutionary War the soldiers in the South wore this symbol on their lapels and hats, the significance of which no one can seem to agree upon.  When the War Between the States exploded, the flag was altered to include this symbol as an indication of southern pride and resistance to a foreign power intent upon maintaining control over a nation wanting to be free.  A prevailing feeling in the South was that the Union was trying to accomplish with the Confederacy what the British were trying to accomplish with Colonial America.  To this day the flag remains just as much a symbol of southern legacy as the Confederate Flag but because of its subliminal nature cannot be called racist by those who have no clue what a racist is.