Carew Rice (1899-1971) was born at on a plantation near Bostic Pond about three and a half miles south of Allendale, South Carolina. He was educated at the University of Chattanooga where he took an art course as an elective. His professor commented that most people identify their friends by profiles, not the details of their hair color, height or complexion. Rice was so taken with the comment that he went into a dime store in downtown Chattanooga and bought a pair of scissors on a whim for a quarter. He went back to his boardinghouse that evening and began cutting his way into Southern history.

Rice was also a folk-singer and story-teller well known throughout South Carolina and his intricate compositions of...