One of four volumes in Mrs. Motes’ series devoted to the ethnic and migration components of South Carolina’s population taken from the federal census of 1850, this work names 3,700 foreign-born South Carolinians (other than Irish, who are treated in another volume in this series), including 1,900 Germans, 861 English, and 579 Scots.

The book is arranged by country of origin and thereunder alphabetically by surname. Each individual is identified by name, age, sex, occupation, country of birth, county of residence in South Carolina, and household enumeration number assigned by the census taker. The front matter of the book includes an author’s Introduction and a list of South Carolina county codes. The book concludes with a name index, an occupation index, and a place index. Mrs. Motes transcribed her information from thirteen reels of microfilm covering the 29 South Carolina counties in 1850.