The history of Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the longest and most diverse of any community in the United States, spanning hundreds of years of physical settlement beginning in 1670. Charleston was one of leading cities in the South from the colonial era to the Civil War in the 1860s. The city grew wealthy through the export of rice and, later, sea island cotton and it was the base for many wealthy merchants and landowners. Charleston was the capital of American slavery.
The devastation of the Civil War and the ruin of the Charleston's hinterland lost the city its regional dominance. However, it would remain the center of the South Carolina economy. In the ensuing decades of the late 19th century, upstate politicians would routinely attack its aristocratic and undemocratic tone. By the 1900s, Charleston was emerging as a cultural center. In the 1920s, the Charleston Renaissance saw a boom in the arts sector as artists, writers, architects, and historical preservationists came together to improve the city. Preservation efforts of historic buildings and sites had been put into place by the 1940s.A Historic Overview of Charleston, SC. charlestoncvb.com. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
Beginning and during World War II, Charleston became a major naval base. A Naval presence, shipyards, the surrounding medical industry, and tourism, would help the city grow economically through the 20th century. In contemporary Charleston, tourism and other service industries have led the economy.
Pre-contact and early colonial contact: Before 1660
Pre-contact Little information seems to have been recorded regarding Native populations in what would become South Carolina's lowcountry before contact with European settlers and missionaries in the mid-to-late 16th century. Nonetheless, there is evidence of thousands of years of human activity in the region. Nearby archaological sites, such as the Topper site on the Savannah River, Green's Shell Enclosure on Hilton Head Island, and Spanish Mount Point on Edisto Island span several millennia and a wide swath of pre-contact cultures.
Initial French contact The earliest European records of the region's existing inhabitants come from French explorers Jean Ribault and René Goulaine de Laudonnière, who in 1562 described their encounters with the Edisto, Escamaçu/Saint Helena, Hoya, Mayon, Stalame, and Touppa. After establishing a short-lived outpost called Charlesfort on what is now Parris Island, Ribault and Laudonnière ventured further south, establishing the fort La Caroline at the mouth of the St. Johns River in present-day Florida. These travels brought the French colonists into contact with the Guales and Timucua.
Spanish colonization and conflict The French were ousted by Spanish forces in 1565, and the settlement on Parris Island was renamed Saint Elena and would serve as the capitol of the Spanish colonies in the region. Spanish explorer Juan Pardo, heading inland from Saint Elena, described making contact with the Kussah in the settlement's immediate vicinity. Growing friction over Spanish control, perhaps exacerbated by Parris Island lying in territory traditionally held by the Escamaçu, resulted in multiple Native rebellions beginning in 1577. Spanish retaliation and the spread of European diseases led many Indigenous groups to move either westward or northward from the Lowcountry, severely reducing the area's Native population. Spanish settlement would retreat from the area in the late 1580s, shoring up power near their colony of San Augustín, but Spanish agents would make contact with the Stono, Kiawah, and Etiwan near Charleston Harbor over the next several decades.
Colonial period: 1660–1774
Founding and initial growth
Restored to the throne following Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, King Charles II granted the chartered Carolina territory to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietors, in 1663. It took seven years before the Lords could arrange for settlement, the first being that of "Charles Town," the original name for the city. The community was established in 1670 by English colonists from Bermuda, under the first William Sayle, governor of South Carolina, on the west bank of the Ashley River a few miles northwest of the present city. It was soon designated by Anthony Ashley Cooper, leader of the Lords Proprietor, to become a "great port towne", a destiny which the city fulfilled. By 1681, the settlement had grown, joined by settlers from England, Barbados, and Virginia; and it was moved to the current peninsular location. As the capital of the Carolina colony, Charles Town was a base for colonial expansion and was the southernmost point of settlement by English American settlers during the late 17th century.
These settlers encountered the Stono, Kiawah, and Etiwan in the Harbor's immediate vicinity, while colonial efforts pushing south from the peninsula encountered the Edisto, Kussah, and Escamaçu, along with the Wimbee, Ashepoo, and Combahee. Settlers to the north and west made contact with the Wando, Sampa, Kussoe, and Sewee. Many of these groups allied themselves with the newly established English colonial settlements to facilitate trade and to secure some degree of protection from rival Native groups. The English were especially hostile to the Guale and Timucua, both of whom were considered Spanish allies.
The settlement was often subject to attack from sea and from land. Countries such as Spain and France that still contested Britain's claim to the region launched periodic assaults on the town. Native Americans and pirates both raided it, though the Yamasee War of the 1710s did not quite reach it. An example of an assault is the 1706 failed expedition during Queen Anne's War. Charleston's colonists erected a fortification wall around the small settlement to aid in its defense. Two buildings remain from the Walled City: the Powder Magazine, where the city's supply of gunpowder was stored, and the Pink House, believed to have been an old colonial tavern."Chalmers Street," Charleston County Public Library. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
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.
In late May 1718, Charles Town was besieged by Edward Teach, commonly known as Blackbeard, for nearly a week. His pirates plundered merchant ships and seized the passengers and crew of the Crowley while demanding a chest of medicine from Governor Robert Johnson. Receiving it, they released their nearly naked hostages and sailed up the coast for North Carolina.D. Moore. (1997) "A General History of Blackbeard the Pirate, the Queen Anne's Revenge and the Adventure". In Tributaries, Volume VII, 1997. pp. 31–35. (North Carolina Maritime History Council) The wreck of Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, has since been discovered and found to include a urethral syringe (used to treat syphilis), pump clysters (used to provide enemas), a porringer (possibly for bloodletting), and a brass mortar and pestle for preparing medicine.
St. Philips Episcopal Church, 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 while the Commons House of Assembly and the Royal Governor's Council Chamber met on the second floor.
By 1750, Charleston had become a bustling trade center, the hub of the Atlantic trade for the Southern Colonies, and the wealthiest and largest city south of Philadelphia. By 1770, it was the fourth largest port in the colonies, after only Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, with a population of 11,000, slightly more than half of that slaves. Cotton, rice and indigo were successfully cultivated by Gullah people who survived the Middle Passage as enslaved agricultural workers. They were captured from the Congo-Angola border and rice-producing regions of West Africa, like the "Rice Coast," the "Windward Coast," the "Gambia," and "Sierra-Leon", and forced to work in the surrounding coastal low-country. The South Carolina and Georgia colonists ultimately adopted a system of rice cultivation that drew heavily on the labor patterns and technical knowledge of their African slaves. Cotton, rice, indigo and naval stores were exported in an extremely profitable shipping industry. It was the cultural and economic center of the South. As time went on, they developed a creolized Gullah language and culture, retaining many elements from West Africa.
On Monday, May 4, 1761, a large tornado temporarily emptied the Ashley River and sank five warships lying offshore.Lane, F.W. The Elements Rage (David & Charles 1966), p. 49
Ethnic and religious diversity
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, Scots-Irish, Scottish, Irish, and Germans migrated to the developing seacoast town, representing numerous Protestant denominations, as well as Roman Catholicism and Judaism.
Sephardic Jews migrated to the city in such numbers that Charleston eventually was home to, by the beginning of the 19th century and until about 1830, the largest and wealthiest Jewish community in North America"A 'portion of the People'," Harvard Magazine, January – February 2003. Retrieved June 11, Charleston also possesses a large and influential Greek community, most of whom are Greek Orthodox. The Charlestonian Greek community has its origins in immigration from Greece to the area to find work in local industry. Charleston has an annual Greek Festival hosted by this community. 2007."The Jews of South Carolina," NPR.org, March 25, 2002. Retrieved June 11, 2007. 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 Church, 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. It is the oldest A.M.E. church in the south, and the second oldest A.M.E. church in the country. The first American museum opened to the public on January 12, 1773 in Charleston.
From the mid-18th century a large amount of immigration was taking place in the upcountry of the Carolinas, some of it coming from abroad through Charleston, but also much of it a southward movement from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, until the upcountry population was larger than the coastal population. The upcountry people were viewed by Charlestonians as being unpolished in many ways, and had different interests, setting the stage for several generations of conflicts between the upcountry and the Charleston elite.
Culture