During the American Revolution, the Cherokees sided with the British, and much to their surprise the Patriots won their independence. Starting in 1777, the Cherokees began to cede more and more of their territory to the newly-established state of South Carolina, and they began to withdraw from the western portion of the state. With this cession of Cherokee lands came new white settlers into what had previously been considered Indian territory with only the occassional trader outpost in the area. The new settlers quickly grabbed as much land as they thought prudent and once again started pushing the Cherokees further west, not always without conflict.

By 1791, there were significant enough numbers of white settlers in the previously-held Cherokee lands that the new state of South Carolina finally decided to officially recognize that these settlements were going to need state and local governmental supervision. In that year, two new Districts were created in the northwestern section of South Carolina - the Pinckney District and the Washington District. Each had District Seats designated with courts established in those seats.

In 1798, Washington District was renamed to Pendleton District, and the name Washington District was never used again in South Carolina, being relegated only to a short history of two years. However, this "overarching" Pendleton District was short-lived. It too was abolished in 1800 and was redesignated as a single "district" (county), but it retained all of its original lands except for Greenville County (district), which would include the present-day counties of Oconee, Pickens, and Anderson. It would be Pendleton District (county) until it was again abolished in 1826, never to be resurrected again in the state of South Carolina.