Charleston is rich with history and with our January Museum Mile passes, we're doing our best to take advantage of it! We heard lots of interesting stories today (Tue, 22-Jan) of which I'll only share a few.
Rebekah, I think you're on the wrong end of this stroller... but your smile somehow makes it all okay!
Benjo got excited, started to run, and biffed it. He couldn't bring himself to smile for a picture of his scrape even sometime after he was feeling generally happy again. Poor dude!
Charleston has a free bus (read, paid for by taxes--the bus drivers are not volunteers) that does a loop around the Charleston peninsula, circling near each stop on our museum mile pass. The bus itself, though, may have been one of the favorite events of the day.
Our first stop today was the Powder Magazine! Well, no, the first stop was the restroom at the visitor's center were we parked and caught the bus. Important, that! So our second stop...
Charleston set up on the peninsula as a walled city in 1713. With French, Spanish, Native Americans, and general brigands about, this position was chosen for its defensibility. The magazine was located in the middle of the north (northwest) wall, where a light is on the map below. Around 1719, after various scuffles, the main proprietors of the area were bought out by the British and the first royal British royal governor arrived in 1721. The conclusion of the buyout was a long process, however, not finalizing until about 1729. Charleston and its magazine was used by the British until the revolutionary war, at which point it was used against the British!
Map of old Charleston and the old Peninsula, which has grown due to land-filling.
A sample of powder barrels with three types or grades of powder. Pistol powder was the finest, almost like sand but not quite so fine. Next was musket which were pieces the size of, well, um... all I can think of to compare it to would be small, baby boogers. Sorry for that visual, but nothing else is coming to me at the moment! Cannon grade powder was larger, probably the size of tiny wood chips (a better analogy than boogers, right?), perhaps 1/4 inch in length at the largest. The ceiling of the magazine was brick, but above that was a thick, heavy layer of sand, and then the shingles. This was a safety precaution so that if the magazine had an explosive disaster, hopefully the sand would fall and smother any fire, as well as prevent debris from flying too far. They never had such a disaster, not in small part due to always entering the magazine barefoot. Shoes then used nails to attach the soles and a single spark from a nail would have meant, in formal English terms, kablooey!
The current flag of South Carolina has a crescent moon and a Palmetto tree. The flag above is often considered the first flag of South Carolina called the Moultrie flag. It was influenced by a Stamp Act opposition banner which featured a blue field with three white crescents. The motto of South Carolina is "while I breathe, I hope."
And this was my favorite postcard! 😂
Another stop was the Provost Exchange and Dungeon. I'm afraid I didn't get many good pics here despite it being one of the more interesting stops. However, for reference, if you look along the waterline in the map above, find the semicircle near the midpoint of the walled city. Do you see the little dot of a building there? That is where the dungeon and exchange are located.
This building was not present during the 1713 era of that map. It wasn't completed until 1771. The basement or "dungeon," was built directly on top of that semicircle sea-wall of brick, even beyond it a little into what then would have been into the river. Landfilling however made it possible and it was, in 1771, overlooking the river. While it was not used much for a dungeon, when it was, it merited the name--crowded, dank, and dark, with rats and unsanitary accommodations.
However, the building's main purpose was for commerce--a place to store and exchange large quantities of goods such as rice, tea, cotton, and more. The basement was usually used for storing such items. A few fun stories about this place:
Shortly before the Boston Tea Party, they had a Tea Party of their own though a bit different. To resist the taxes, they would not allow the ship bringing Tea to dock and unload for a time. After an agreement was made that no one would buy the tea, it was unloaded and put in the basement of the exchange where it sat for some years. After the revolutionary war, it was fetched out and some of it had gotten wet, but most of it was fine. I forget now how it was parceled out after that, but no tea tax was paid, if indeed the tea itself was even paid for.
At one point during the war, there was concern that the British would conquer Charleston. The colonists hid a significant amount of black powder from the magazine by placing it in the basement of the Exchange, closing it in with a new brick wall. The British did indeed overcome Charleston and controlled the Exchange building for some years. Though the architecture of the building followed symmetrical patterns over both the x and y axis, the odd-placed brick wall was never given much attention and the British never discovered the significant reserve of powder in their possession.
These next pictures were taken in the Exchange building, but not about that building. I really liked this story though and wanted to include it here:
The story of Rebecca Motte
A painting of Rebecca Motte's home and experience
A sculpture of Rebecca Motte
Between the Magazine and the Dungeon, we stopped at Ryan's Slave Mart. Man, it's hard to even write that--the name makes it sound so casual, like a convenience store. But then, that's how it was seen then, I gather.
This slave mart opened in 1856 when the city banned public outdoor auctions. There were several reasons for this ban: the outdoor auctions were creating congestion issues. The outdoor auctions were loud and affected the public image--no, not because of moral reasons, but simply for the ruckus they caused. Moving auctions to private, indoor locations also enabled more tax income from not just the slave transactions, but also from the slave houses. Ryan's slave mart was one, only one, of about 40... in a 4-block area! It closed in 1863 during the civil war.
Intro sign about the Slave Mart
The museum itself was well done, filled with engaging information while maintaining a somber feeling for the tragedies that occurred here. I highly recommend this museum to anyone visiting Charleston, and I wish I had been able to experience more of it--I took some kids outside to cool off after a tantrum and some fighting because, you know, families. I sometimes wonder if helping them handle their sibling relationships isn't some of the most important education they get. As I like to ask: what is the #purposeofeducation?
In between we also walked through the Postal museum. It was a bit... underwhelming. But still had a few interesting tidbits. But I think this post is long enough!
The postal museum off of a post office. It was by far the most beautiful post office I can ever remember seeing--a large historic building. It felt a bit like I was walking into a state capitol building.
As we took the bus back toward our car, Eliza spotted this lovely place. We were delayed a bit (couldn't let the bus get ahead of schedule) at the bus stop right next to it, and the bus driver let me jump off and take a quick selfie!
I didn't get any ice cream there this time, but I do know where it is now!
