South Carolina, in the southern United States, has a population of 4.48 million; 69 percent of the population is white and 30 percent are African Americans. Before the arrival of the first Europeans, the region of modern-day South Carolina was inhabited by the Cherokees and other Native American tribes. It was during the 1670s that settlers came from Barbados, later followed by French Huguenots, and then by farmers from Pennsylvania and Virginia. South Carolina was proclaimed a British royal colony in 1729, becoming the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788.