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| Charleston Apartment Locator Services : Charleston Apartments |  | Contents | |
| History |
| After Charles II of England was restored to the
English throne, he granted the chartered Carolina territory
to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietor,
in 1663. It took seven years before the Lords could arrange
for settlement, the first being that of Charles Town. The community
was established by English settlers in 1670 across the Ashley
River from the city's current location. It was soon chosen by
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, one of the Lords Proprietor, to become
a "great port towne," a destiny which the city fulfilled.
By 1680, the settlement had grown, joined by others from England,
Barbados, and Virginia, and relocated to its current peninsular
location. The capital of the Carolina colony, Charleston was
the center for further expansion and the southernmost point
of English settlement during the late 1600s. |
| The settlement was often subject to attack from
sea and from land. Periodic assaults from Spain and France,
who still contested England's claims to the region, were combined
with resistance from Native Americans as well as pirate raids.
Charleston's colonists erected a fortification wall around the
small settlement to aid in its defense. The only building to
remain from the Walled City is the Powder Magazine, where the
city's supply of gun powder was stored. |
| A 1680 plan for the new settlement, the Grand
Modell, laid out "the model of an exact regular town,"
and the future for the growing community. Land surrounding the
intersection of Meeting and Broad Streets was set aside for
a Civic Square. Over time it became known as the Four Corners
of the Law, referring to the various arms of governmental and
religious law presiding over the square and the growing city.
St. Michael's Episcopal, Charleston's oldest and most noted
church, was built on the southeast corner in 1752. The following
year the Capitol of the colony was erected across the square.
Because of its prominent position within the city and its elegant
architecture, the building signaled to Charleston's citizens
and visitors its importance within the British colonies. Provincial
court met on the ground floor, the Commons House of Assembly
and the Royal Governor's Council Chamber met on the second floor. |
| While the earliest settlers primarily came from
England, colonial Charleston was also home to a mixture of ethnic
and religious groups. In colonial times, Boston, Massachusetts
and Charleston were sister cities, and people of means spent
summers in Boston and winters in Charleston. There was a great
deal of trade with Bermuda and the Caribbean, and some people
came to live in Charleston from these areas. French, Scottish,
Irish and Germans migrated to the developing seacoast town,
representing numerous Protestant denominations, as well as Catholicism
and Judaism. Sephardic Jews migrated to the city in such numbers
that Charleston became one of the largest Jewish communities
in North America. The Jewish Coming Street Cemetery, first established
in 1762, attests to their long-standing presence in the community.
The first Anglican church, St. Philip's Episcopal, was built
in 1682, although later destroyed by fire and relocated to its
current location. Slaves also comprised a major portion of the
population, and were active in the city's religious community.
Free black Charlestonians and slaves helped establish the Old
Bethel United Methodist Church in 1797, and the congregation
of the Emanuel A.M.E. Church stems from a religious group organized
solely by African Americans, free and slave, in 1791. |
| By the mid-18th century Charleston had become
a bustling trade center, and the wealthiest and largest city
south of Philadelphia. Rice and indigo had been successfully
cultivated by gentleman planters in the surrounding coastal
lowcountry, while merchants profited from the successful shipping
industry. The first American museum opened to the public on
January 12, 1773 in Charleston. |
| After the United States Declaration of
Independence |
| As the relationship between the colonists and
England deteriorated, Charleston became a focal point in the
ensuing Revolution. In protest of the Tea Act of 1773, which
embodied the concept of taxation without representation, Charlestonians
confiscated tea and stored it in the Exchange and Custom House.
Representatives from all over the colony came to the Exchange
in 1774 to elect delegates to the Continental Congress, the
group responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence;
and South Carolina declared its independence from the crown
on the steps of the Exchange. Soon, the church steeples of Charleston,
especially St. Michael's, became targets for British war ships
causing rebel forces to paint the steeples black to blend with
the night sky. A siege on the city in 1776 was successfully
defended by William Moultrie from Sullivan's Island, but by
1780 Charleston came under British control for two and a half
years. After the British retreated in December 1782, the city's
name was officially changed to Charleston. By 1788, Carolinians
were meeting at the Capitol building for the Constitutional
Ratification Convention, and while there was support for the
Federal Government, division arose over the location of the
new State Capital. A suspicious fire broke out in the Capitol
building during the Convention, after which the delegates removed
to the Exchange and decreed Columbia the new State Capital.
By 1792, the Capitol had been rebuilt and became the Charleston
County Courthouse. Upon its completion, the city possessed all
the public buildings necessary to be transformed from a colonial
capital to the center of the antebellum South. But the grandeur
and number of buildings erected in the following century reflect
the optimism, pride, and civic destiny that many Charlestonians
felt for their community. |
| As Charleston grew, so did the community's cultural
and social opportunities, especially for the elite merchants
and planters. The first theater building in America was built
in Charleston in 1736, but was later replaced by the 19th-century
Planter's Hotel where wealthy planters stayed during Charleston's
horse-racing season (now the Dock Street Theatre). Benevolent
societies were formed by several different ethnic groups: the
South Carolina Society, founded by French Huguenots in 1737;
the German Friendly Society, founded in 1766; and the Hibernian
Society, founded by Irish immigrants in 1801. The Charleston
Library Society was established in 1748 by some wealthy Charlestonians
who wished to keep up with the scientific and philosophical
issues of the day. This group also helped establish the College
of Charleston in 1770, the oldest college in South Carolina
and the 13th oldest in the United States. |
| Charleston became more prosperous in the plantation-dominated
economy of the post-Revolutionary years. The invention of the
cotton gin in 1793 revolutionized this crop's production, and
it quickly became South Carolina's major export. Cotton plantations
relied heavily on slave labor. Slaves were also the primary
labor force within the city, working as domestics, artisans,
market workers or laborers. Many black Charlestonians spoke
Gullah, a dialect based on African American structures which
combined African, Portuguese, and English words. By 1820 Charleston's
population had grown to 23,000, with a black majority. When
a massive slave revolt planned by Denmark Vesey, a free black,
was discovered in 1822, such hysteria ensued amidst white Charlestonians
and Carolinians that the activities of free blacks and slaves
were severely restricted. Hundreds of blacks, free and slave,
and some white supporters involved in the planned uprising were
held in the Old Jail. It also was the impetus for the construction
of a new State Arsenal in Charleston. Recently, research published
by historian Michael P. Johnson of Johns Hopkins University
has cast doubt on the veracity of the accounts detailing Vesey's
aborted slave revolt. |
| As Charleston's government, society and industry
grew, commercial institutions were established to support the
community's aspirations. The Bank of South Carolina, the second
oldest building constructed as a bank in the nation, was established
here in 1798. Branches of the First and Second Bank of the United
States were also located in Charleston in 1800 and 1817. While
the First Bank was converted to City Hall by 1818, the Second
Bank proved to be a vital part of the community as it was the
only bank in the city equipped to handle the international transactions
so crucial to the export trade. By 1840, the Market Hall and
Sheds, where fresh meat and produce were brought daily, became
the commercial hub of the city. The slave trade also depended
on the port of Charleston, where ships could be unloaded and
the slaves sold at markets. |
| In the first half of the 19th century, South Carolinians
became more devoted to the idea that state's rights were superior
to the Federal government's authority. Buildings such as the
Marine Hospital ignited controversy over the degree in which
the Federal government should be involved in South Carolina's
government, society, and commerce. During this period over 90
percent of Federal funding was generated from import duties,
collected by custom houses such as the one in Charleston. In
1832 South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification, a
procedure in which a state could in effect repeal a Federal
law, directed against the most recent tariff acts. Soon Federal
soldiers were dispensed to Charleston's forts and began to collect
tariffs by force. A compromise was reached by which the tariffs
would be gradually reduced, but the underlying argument over
state's rights would continue to escalate in the coming decades.
Charleston remained one of the busiest port cities in the country,
and the construction of a new, larger United States Custom House
began in 1849, but its construction was interrupted by the events
of the Civil War |
| Prior to the 1860 election, the National Democratic
Convention convened in Charleston. Hibernian Hall served as
the headquarters for the delegates supporting Stephen A. Douglas,
who it was hoped would bridge the gap between the northern and
southern delegates on the issue of extending slavery to the
territories. The convention disintegrated when delegates were
unable to summon a two-thirds majority for any candidate. This
divisiveness resulted in a split in the Democratic party, and
the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate. |
| The War Between the States |
The ruins of Mills House
and nearby buildings, Charleston A shell-damaged carriage
and the remains of a brick chimney in the foreground.
1865. |
|
Ruins seen from the Circular
Church, Charleston, South Carolina, 1865. |
|
| On December 20, 1860, the South Carolina legislature
was the first state to vote for secession from the Union. They
asserted that one of the causes was the election to the presidency
of a man "whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery." |
| On January 9, 1861, Citadel cadets fired the first
shots of the American Civil War when they opened fire on a Union
ship entering Charleston's harbor. On April 12, 1861, shore
batteries under the command of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard
opened fire on the Union-held Fort Sumter in the harbor. After
a 34-hour bombardment, Major Robert Anderson surrendered the
fort. Cadets from the Citadel, South Carolina's liberal arts
military college, continued to aid the Confederate army by helping
drill recruits, manufacture ammunition, protect arms depots,
and guard Union prisoners. The city under siege took control
of Fort Sumter, became the center for blockade running, and
was the site of the first submarine warfare in 1863. In 1865,
Union troops moved into the city, and took control of many sites,
such as the United States Arsenal which the Confederate army
had seized at the outbreak of the war. |
| After the eventual and destructive defeat of the
Confederacy, Federal forces remained in Charleston during the
city's reconstruction. The war had shattered the prosperity
of the antebellum city. Freed slaves were faced with poverty
and discrimination. Industries slowly brought the city and its
inhabitants back to a renewed vitality and growth in population.
As the city's commerce improved, Charlestonians also worked
to restore their community institutions. In 1867 Charleston's
first free secondary school for blacks was established, the
Avery Institute. General William T. Sherman lent his support
to the conversion of the United States Arsenal into the Porter
Military Academy, an educational facility for former soldiers
and boys left orphaned or destitute by the war. Porter Military
Academy later joined with Gaud School and is now a well-known
K-12 prep school, [Porter-Gaud School]. The William Enston Home,
a planned community for the city's aged and infirm, was built
in 1889. An elaborate public building, the United States Post
Office and Courthouse, was completed in 1896 and signaled renewed
life in the heart of the city. |
| A 125 mile-an-hour hurricane hit Charleston August
25, 1885, destroying or damaging 90 percent of the homes and
causing an estimated $2 million in damages. |
| In 1886 Charleston was nearly destroyed by a major
earthquake that was felt as far away as Boston and Bermuda.
It damaged 2,000 buildings and caused $6 million worth of damage,
while in the whole city the buildings were only valued at approximately
$24 million. |
| However, though there have been many fires, hurricanes,
tornados, several wars, and urban renewal in the 20th century,
many of Charleston's historic buildings remain intact. |
| Modern-day Charleston |
| Charlestonians today fondly refer to their city
as The Holy City, and describe it as the site where the "Ashley
and Cooper Rivers merge to form the Atlantic Ocean." |
| America's most-published etiquette expert, Marjabelle
Young Stewart, has recognized the city ever since 1995 as the
"best-mannered" city in the U.S, a claim lent credence
by the fact that it has the only Livability Court in the country. |
Rainbow Row |
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