“Charleston County and the city of Charleston, its county seat, are the most historic locations in the state.” Situated in the Lowcountry, the county serves as a popular vacation destination but also relies on the business that results from its port. The area in general serves as a large cultural and economic hub for the state.
Charleston County was founded as Charleston District in 1769, and the district became smaller after some of its lands were used to create Colleton and Berkeley counties. The county and its seat were named after King Charles II.
The city and county are saturated with Revolutionary War and Civil War history. Three signers of the United States Constitution and two famous abolitionists resided in Charleston County, and the Civil War began when soldiers fired shots from the county’s Fort Sumter.
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African-American workers thresh rice with a flail around 1910, a technique that is probably African in its origins. Lowcountry planters in colonial South Carolina sought out slaves from the Rice Coast...
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Winnowing rice with a fanner basket near Beaufort, in 1907. The sweet grass baskets now sold as decorative items in Charleston area open air markets were originally essential pieces of home and field...
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In a student acted play, students recount President's George Washington's visit to Snee Farm in May of 1791. Featured prominently in the video are student portraying Charles Pinckney, President...
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School children portray Charles Pinckney explaining his views on states' rights, and individual freedoms, as they align to the views of the Democratic-Republican Party. Emphasis is placed on his shift...
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Mrs. Ann Edwards talks to children about the life of Charles Pinckney and his love of his estate, Snee Farm. Mrs. Edwards highlights Charles Pinckney's service during the Revolutionary War, his public...
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Glimpse how a continental soldier in the American Revolution might view his life during America's first civil war. Based on the personal diaries of a real continental soldier, Joseph Plumb Martin, the...
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The Brotherhood Gospel Singers of Mt. Pleasant were organized in 1977 from the members of several church denominations in the Mt. Pleasant area. The Gospel Singers perform a style of unaccompanied...
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During the 1920s, the crop that a sharecropper planted was often controlled by the market to which he sold it. Many sharecroppers' wives were able to find a market for some of the vegetables from...
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One of the more unusual agricultural ventures in South Carolina has been the successful tea plantation located in Summerville. Here in the Pinehurst Tea Gardens are the fragile tea plants in the...
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Charleston County, east of Meggett, May 1936. The caption on the photo states this is the, "Packing shed on the farm of Chas. E. Gibson, truck farmer, morning scene, crating cabbage as it is cut and...
