Inset black and white photo of a brick building on blue ocean and sky background. White title centered above, white author name centered at bottom.Journal of Church and State Inset black and white photo of a brick building on blue ocean and sky background. White title centered above, white author name centered at bottom.Journal of Church and State

Size: 6 x 9
Pages: 430
Illustrations: 14 b&w halftones, 7 tables, 5 maps

Southern History
 Religious Studies
 Cultural Studies & Sociology
 Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World
 paperback
 ebook
 Books
 South Carolina History & Culture
 New in Paperback

From New Babylon to Eden, updated edition

The Huguenots and Their Migration to Colonial South Carolina

updated edition

Bertrand Van Ruymbeke
foreword by Owen Stanwood

Paperback
978-1-64336-330-1
Published: Oct 2 2025

$34.99

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Ebook
978-1-64336-331-8
 Published: Oct 2 2025

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OA Ebook
978-1-64336-331-8
 Published: Oct 2 2025

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The inclusion of this book in the Open Carolina collection is made possible by the generous funding of

A revealing account of the choices French immigrants faced as they settled in South Carolina

Winner of the National Huguenot Society's 2007 Book of the Year award, From New Babylon to Eden traces the persecution of Huguenots in France and the eventual immigration of a small bloc of the French Calvinist population to proprietary South Carolina. Placing the Carolina migration in the context of the larger Huguenot diaspora, Van Ruymbeke proffers an account that challenges accepted history. Describing their settlement as a process of acculturation and creolization rather than simply assimilation, he contends that most of these French Calvinists sought to create their own churches but were thwarted by an Anglicized elite eager to dominate Anglo-Carolinian society. He also reveals that most members of the initial generation were only moderately prosperous and that it was their descendants who acquired the wealth often associated with lowcountry Huguenots. A new foreword by Owen Stanwood and preface from the author consider the continuing significance of the book nearly twenty years after its original publication.



Bertrand Van Ruymbeke is a professor of American civilization at the Universitè de Vincennes-Saint-Denis (Paris VIII). He is the coeditor of Memory and Identity: The Huguenots in France and the Atlantic Diaspora, has published in the fields of Huguenot history, early American history, and Atlantic history, and is a member of the American Philosophical Society.

"Bertrand Van Ruymbeke has produced a comprehensive and engaging account of the initial immigrants and their role in the history of early Carolina. The result is a well-written, well-argued study that makes a significant contribution to Atlantic history, immigration history, and religious history."—