“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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This view of the Battery in Charleston, circa 1865, gives a good view of how that city appeared during the Civil War, and how it had prepared for its defense. The area is still known as the Battery...
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"Friends and Amateurs in Musick" was drawn in 1827 by Thomas Middleton, an amateur artist; it is probably deliberately modeled on the convivial gathering of "Peter Manigault and His Friends" (see...
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John C. Calhoun (see John C. Calhoun and John C. Calhoun), newly elected to the House of Representatives in 1811, was an eager supporter of avenging American honor by going to war against England...
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Plan of the Siege of Charleston, 1780. The British did not capture Charleston in 1776, but when their strategy for winning the war shifted the military offensive from the north to the south in 1779...
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The "old powder magazine," built in 1703 as part of the northwest bastion of the city's original fortifications, was a storage area for arms as Charleston prepared for the Revolutionary War. Courtesy...
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When a British shot tore the South Carolina flag from its staff during the attack on Sullivan's Island, Sergeant Jasper, an Irishman, risked becoming a target himself to replace the flag, lest the...
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The British ships fired on Fort Moultrie on June 28, 1776, in an attack outlined in this map. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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The heroic defense of the fort on Sullivan's Island from a determined attack in June 1776, by a British Fleet under Sir Peter Parker (see Sir Peter Parker) gave South Carolina its state symbol. The...
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The focal point of this 1780 view of Charleston from the harbor is the handsome Exchange Building, begun in 1767 as an exchange and customs house for one of the most prosperous shipping towns in the...
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The town house of Charles Pinckney (1757-1824, see Charles Pinckney) on Meeting Street in Charleston, painted from memory by Mrs. Colden Tracy after it had been destroyed in the 1861 Charleston fire...
