Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, though known the world over, and occupying as conspicuous a place in history as the largest cities of the Northern States in the great drama of the Revolutionary War,…
From: 1670 C.E. To: 1908 C.E.
Location: Charleston, South Carolina, United States of America
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“Charleston, S. C.” from Sketches of South Carolina by Gustavus Memminger Middleton, 1908.
Charleston, though known the world over, and occupying as conspicuous a place in history as the largest cities of the Northern States in the great drama of the Revolutionary War, and noted for its culture and refinement, cannot lay claim to being the first choice of the adventurers who visited this Province in quest of fortunes and new habitations in the last half of the sixteenth century. It is generally admitted that the earliest permanent settlement at "Old Town" on the west bank of the Ashley was the result of the sober second thought that it was a more secure harbor against the foray of Indians and the attacks of Spanish and French competitors for the possession of the new world than the more imposing but exposed situation of Port Royal, where the first Governor, William Sayle, is believed to have sojourned with his company from Barbadoes (before moving to Ashley River) for several years prior to 1670, which date is accepted as that of the founding of the city and so declared by its seal. Beyond the knowledge of the site but little has survived in the way of records or landmarks to afford any glimpse of that brief experiment.
Its short life seems to have consisted of preparing to make still another move, which occurred in the administration of Governor est in pursuance of orders from Lord Ashley, one of the Lords Proprietors of the Province, in a series of minute directions as to the dimensions of the streets, the laying-out of squares and the erection of a palisade on the land side of the New Town. Some time before this Sir John Yeamans, the predecessor of Governor West, had brought with him negroes from the West Indies, an example soon followed by subsequent immigrants, thus introducing an element productive of great wealth in the reclamation of swamps and tide-water lands by a race alone fitted for such work in a semi-tropical climate, and who for nearly two hundred years proved their efficiency by converting the low country, though unsuited to European laborers, into a land of abundant and profitable harvests.
The different climate, soil and productions of the upper country being then an unknown asset, the Province flourished thenceforward as a slave-holding colony of the coast for many years, the commercial and social progress of the interior not making itself felt until a later period in the surveying of new tracts of land and in the accession of immigrants from other Provinces, from the North generally, of smaller means and cultivating the soil themselves, not large proprietors like those of the lower section on the coast.
Besides its full share of danger growing out of conflicts with the Indians experienced by all the colonies, the fact that the Lords Proprietors were the legal owners of the two Carolinas led very soon to conduct on their part tending to foster their personal interest to the injury and neglect of the infant community, in consequence of which an estrangement sprang up which resulted in an event of signal importance and which may be regarded as a forerunner of the Revolution which occurred some fifty years later, viz: a successful demand for the transfer of authority from the Proprietors to the King.
The opposition in the Colony took practical effect in 1719. when Arthur Middleton, President of the Convention of the people, announced their determination no longer to recognize the Proprietary Government, whereupon Sir Francis Nicholson was commissioned Provisional Governor who, soon returning home on account of ill health, left the discordant elements as he found them, in the hands of Arthur Middleton, who, as President of the Council, continued at the helm for five years until the arrival of the first commissioned Royal Governor in the person of Robert Johnson, in 1731. This point having been gained, prosperity and comparative quiet reigned under the joint government of Royally commissioned Governors and their Councils on the one hand, and Assemblies elected by the people on the other, until the great expense of the French and Indian War ending in the conquest of Canada, induced the Home Government to tax the Colonies in various ways out of proportion to their interest in the policies that had created the debt. Here then was raised the cry, "No Taxation without Representation," which was the keynote to the call for a general conference and culminated in the separation and Independence of the Colonies. In the varying phases of the struggle to establish self-government on the continent, Charleston bore a conspicuous part, gaining the first signal victory at Fort Moultrie and suffering siege and capture at a later stage of the war, remaining like New York, at the mercy of the enemy until the successful termination of hostilities by the surrender at Yorktown.
Throughout the weary years and often waning fortunes of that memorable period Charleston's hand still continued plainly visible in the direction of affairs at the Council board of the Continental Congress, in which two of her sons, Henry Middleton and Henry Laurens, served in the capacity of President, besides having supplied at the outset the entire delegation who signed the eventful Declaration of Independence, viz: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., and Arthur Middleton. The year after the evacuation of Charleston by the English witnessed also the city's starting point on a higher plane of progress and development in its incorporation by the Legislature and change of name to its present designation. Eight years later President Washington sojourned here for several days and was received with unbounded hospitality. The second war with England in 1812 necessitated defensive preparations along the coast during the administration of Governor Henry Middleton.
The next distinguished visitor was the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824, who was hailed with an enthusiasm second only to the greeting accorded Washington. The doctrine of Nullification though intended as a "high and peaceful remedy'' for resisting encroachments on the rights of the States, came near precipitating a collision in the matter of collecting duties under the provisions of an exorbitant tariff law, and Charleston was the theatre of great excitement between the extremists and conservatives. This difficulty having been adjusted by a change in the law and reduction of the duties, the more vital danger of interference with the internal and widespread institution of slavery soon appeared on the horizon; the political Niagara of Secession in 1860 to which the country was rapidly drifting, engrossed more and more intensely the minds of all parties.
The National Democratic Convention, held in Charleston in May, 1860, clearly revealed the cleavage between North and South independently of party names, which was confirmed in the fall of the same year by the election of the first sectional President. Secession, not Nullification, was now the watchword, and the famous Ordinance which made South Carolina the first member of a new Confederacy, was signed in Charleston. The dispute about the possession of Fort Sumter, culminating in its bombardment and capture, placed Charleston in the van of the greatest conflict of modern times, nor was it ever successfully assaulted through four long years of war and siege and it was only surrendered when the armies elsewhere had ceased to keep the field. The ten years' misrule of suffrage given the emancipated slaves was no "feather in the cap" of those who inspired the saturnalia of plunder following the ruin of war, but it raised in the person of Wade Hampton a Deliverer who signalized the centennial of American Independence by restoring self-government to his native State and city.
From the earliest times Charleston has endured visitations of nature by storm and tide, but in 1886 an earthquake of great severity shook its foundations and inflicted serious damage to even its strongest buildings, but this calamity was not without its blessing in the generous response of sympathy and assistance which flowed in from the whole country; the restoration was so complete as to amount to an improvement in many instances. The South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition, held at Charleston in the first year of the present century, marked the dawning of a new era of industrial prosperity, and its beautiful site, since transformed into "Hampton Park,'' has added thereby a very popular and attractive resort.
The attention of the National Government having been drawn to the increasing depth of the channel resulting from the erection of the jetties, the construction of a Navy Yard with all its modern accompaniments promises, under the favorable auspices and generous appropriations with which it was inaugurated, to become an important factor in the new life of Charleston in demonstrating to the world the easy ingress and egress of warships as well as vessels of all nationalities engaged in the more profitable and peaceful vocation of trade.
Middleton, Gustavus Memminger. Sketches of South Carolina. Walker, Evans, and Cogswell, 1908.
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