(2) A. S. Salley's Introduction from the 1948 edition.

(3) For the purists: A list of changes and corrections to the text.

(1) About this etext.

This etext was prepared from the original 1821 edition and the 1948 edition. In the case of any differences in the text, the 1821 edition was used, except where there was an obvious mistake (see the section for the purists). Although the 1948 edition maintained the original text as far as possible, a few errors crept in—only one which changed the meaning of the text, and only in a minor way. This etext was transcribed twice, and electronically compared using "diff". This weeds out most errors, so that, with the correction of a number of errors in the original, this is very likely the cleanest copy to date.

As far as I can tell, the original text has only been published twice in unaltered form: in 1821 (Gould and Riley, Charleston, S. C.) and in 1948. That made it very difficult to find this text. I am indebted to the following for their help in procuring these:

The librarians in the Southern Literature section at the Public Library in Birmingham, Alabama, for helping me in the search for the 1821 edition.

Carolyn Lancaster, (lancaster carolyn/furman@furman.edu) a Library Assistant at the Special Collections Department, Furman University Library, Greenville, South Carolina, for kindly aiding me to acquire a photocopy of the 1821 edition. (The Collection contains the South Carolina Baptist materials and Furman University Archives and older, non-circulating, "rare books", such as this one.) Phone: (864) 294-2194. Fax: (864) 294-3004. Mail: Special Collections, Furman University Library, 3300 Poinsett Hwy., Greenville, SC 29613. Web: http://carolus.furman.edu/library/welcome

Gary M. Johnson, at the Library of Congress (gjohnson@mail.loc.gov), for a great deal of help, including a copy of the 1948 edition. The online Library of Congress catalog is at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/

(The information on Web pages, etc. is correct as of 21 May 1997.)

(2) A. S. Salley's Introduction from the 1948 edition.

A. S. Salley wrote several works of genealogy and S. C. local history. He also wrote this short introduction to the 1948 edition, which we have checked, and IS in the public domain.