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In the early 1880s, the federal government began to purchase land in the Port Royal area for a permanent naval base. Plans for such a base had long been the dream of Robert Smalls, the U.S...
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Scarcely had the city of Charleston recovered from the 1886 earthquake than the entire coast, including Charleston, was struck by a devastating hurricane in 1893. It created extensive damage in the...
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Hundreds of people were left homeless by the destruction of the 1886 earthquake. Others feared to stay in their homes lest there should be another quake, or weakened walls collapse. Here, families...
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The force of the 1886 Charleston earthquake knocked this train from its tracks. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
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At 9:45 p.m. on August 31, 1886, a major earthquake struck Charleston. There were 27 people killed in the collapse of buildings, and another 33 died later of injuries. Buildings were destroyed, roads...
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Senator Ben Tillman's "cow cartoons." Elected to the United States Senate in 1894, Tillman went to Washington determined to give the business end of a pitchfork to what he considered federal waste of...
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The South Carolina State Legislature in 1874 was known as the "Republican House," a majority of whom were African-American. Engraving from "Leslie's Illustrated Weekly," September 26, 1874. Courtesy...
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Portrait of Daniel H. Chamberlain, 1864. The events surrounding his election to the governorship in 1876 are dramatic enough to make into a movie or a television series, and can scarcely be done...
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This "composite photograph" brings together 63 members of the 1868 Reconstruction legislature of South Carolina. Of that body, 50 were African-American, 30 were white. Colonel James G. Gibbes of...
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In the aftermath of the 1876 election, Wade Hampton III stood on the steps of the State House on November 28, 1876, urging his followers to avoid acts of violence. Hampton and the Democrats elected to...