Charleston Raconteurs in Charleston, SC

HISTORY TOLD WITH WIT AND SKILL

1758
Feb. 28 -- Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet, who author Walter J. Fraser Jr. (Charleston! Charleston!) called a "brash thirty-eight-year-old British soldier-of-fortune" demanded that the colonial Assembly pay for his officers' housing needs. The Assembly refused his request. Soldiers' housing would become one of colonists' complaints as the country moved toward revolution.

March 18 -- The Assembly denied Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet's demand that they pay for his soldiers' housing. Among those who were opposed were Peter Manigault, Christopher Gadsden, Charles Pinckney, Henry Laurens and Rawlins Lowndes, writing "Officers and Soldiers cannot, legally or constitutionally, be quarter'd in private Houses, without the special Consent of the Owners or Possessors of such Houses."

1760
Jan. 9 -- Gov. Lyttleton and his soldiers marched (somewhat) victoriously down Broad Street and at noon cannons fired to welcome the troops back to Charleston after having concluded a peace treaty with the Cherokees near Keowee. The treaty was hastily made as a raging smallpox epidemic was ravaging the tribe, and the soldiers feared catching it.

Jan. 12 -- Three days after Gov. Lyttleton's return, the worst epidemic to date of smallpox broke out within the colony.

1761
Dec. 17 -- Early Patriot leader Christopher Gadsden wrote an editorial in the Gazette accussing Lt. Col. James Grant, a Scottish officer in the British Army, of not having been aggressive enough in his attacks on the Cherokees, claiming he did not permit his men "to cut the throats of as many as they could have." In Charleston! Charleston!, author Walter J. Fraser Jr. suggests the criticism may have been fueled, at least in part, by "personal jealousies increasingly common in relations between British regular officers and provincial officers" (p. 95).

1764
Aug. 19 -- Arthur Middleton married Mary Izard, "a Lady who is one of the first of her sex for sense, politeness and every female accomplishment."

1765
Sept. 4 -- Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch and John Rutledge set sail for the illegally called Stamp Act Congress in New York City. Gadsden, ever the ardent Patriot, served as chair of the committee that drafted resolutions condemning the act.

Oct. 24 -- An angry mob seeking the whereabouts of the destested tax stamps issued through the Stamp Act stormed a number of notable residences in downtown Charleston, including that of Henry Laurens, who said that under the guise of "Patriotism ... committed at length Burglary & Robbery." (Fraser Jr., West J. in Charleston! Charleston!, p. 109)

Oct. 26 -- Leaders of a rebel mob spread rumors that Charles Town's two local stamp agents, George Saxby and Caleb Lloyd, were hiding out at Fort Johnson on James Island. Over the next two days, the mob rampaged through the streets of Charles Town, threatening to kill the agents if they did not resign their office. (Source: Charleston, Charleston!, p. 109, by Walter J. Fraser Jr.)

Oct. 28 -- Because of the murderous threats by an angry rebel mob two days before, Charles Town's stamp agents, George Saxby and Caleb Lloyd, announced that to ensure the peace of the province (and save their lives), they would not enforce the hated Stamp Act. The Sons of Liberty poured into the streets and unfurled the blue flag of "Liberty." (Source: Charleston, Charleston!, p. 109, by Walter J. Fraser Jr.)

Dec. 17 -- Amid rumors of a possible slave rebellion, Acting Governor William Bull called an emergency Council meeting. A hundred militia men were deployed to patrol the city and the captains of ships moored in the harbor had their sailors stand sentinel at night. The holidays passed peacefully, though the patrols continued both day and night through early January (Charleston! Charleston! by West Fraser Jr., p. 113).

1766
Jan. 1 -- Becoming increasingly alarmed at the ratio of the enslaved vs. white population in Charles Town, the Assembly imposed heavy import duties on all slaves brought into the colony as of this date.

June 6 -- Elizabeth Thomas Broun dies and is buried in the St. James Goose Creek Chapel of Ease churchyard.

1768
Oct. 1 -- In preparation for the upcoming Assembly elections, Charles Town's mechanics nominated candidates who opposed the Quartering Act, Stamp Act, and Sugar Act. Led by Patriot Christopher Gadsden, they met at the Liberty Tree "where many loyal, patriotic and constitutional toasts were drank." The company then marched on to Dillon's Tavern to continue the celebration.

1769
July 22 -- The colonial Assembly appointed a Committee of Thirty-Nine, which included an equal number of merchants, planters and artisans, thus for the first time granting the laboring classes a significant voice in the colony's government. (Source: Walter J. Fraser Jr. in Charleston, Charleston!, p.125)

Dec. 8 -- The S.C. General Assembly voted to send 1,500 pounds Sterling to John Wilkes, a member of England's Parliament who had been arrested and imprisoned for criticizing the King. As Patriotic tensions here grew, they felt a kinship with Wilkes's cause. Unfortunately, the King's counselors saw the gift as a slap in the face to their sovereign, which did nothing to mellow the rebellous tensions that were brewing. (Source: Walter J. Fraser Jr. in Charleston, Charleston!, p.126)

1770
Jan. 30 -- Lt. Gov. William Bull recommended to the General Assembly the establishment of a provincial college, which became what we know today as the College of Charleston (and my Alma Mater).

Dec. 13 -- Charlestonians voted a local boycott against the importation of British goods (with the exceptions of tea and luxury items) as a result of the repeal of the Townshend Act. (Source: Walt Fraser in Charleston. Charleston! page 127)

1773
Jan. 12 -- Though authoritative accounts vary, what may indeed have been the first public museum in America was established, The Charleston Museum.

Nov. 19 -- The so-called "Club Forty-Five" met at the Liberty Tree to agitate for independence from English rule.

Dec. 2 -- The English ship London dropped anchor in Charles Town harbor with 257 chests of tea aboard. As the tension of the impending revolution filled the air, it was clear that if the colonists allowed the cargo to be delivered with its three-pence-per-pound duty collected as authorized by Parliament, it would be an admission that the colony was answerable to the governing body of England so far away. Christopher Gadsden was incensed. He and his friends posted handbills all over town calling for a meeting the next day at the Old Exchange Building to discuss what should be done. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 136)

1774
Oct. 22 -- Henry Middleton was elected President of the first Continental Congress.

1775
April 14 -- News reached Charles Town that Parliament was sending additional troops to enforce British policies (and taxation) in the colonies. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 141)

April 26 -- In response to the news that British troops were being dispatched to the colonies, the Secret Committee of Five, created by the Provisional. Congress and led by William Henry Drayton, seized the arms and powder that were being stored in local magazines and hid them in private houses throughout the city. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 141)

June 8 -- Two Charlestonians who remained loyal to the Crown, a small-time merchant named Laughlin Martin and another man named James Dealy, were tarred and feathered by locals calling for revolution, based on an accusation that they had cheered rumours that enslaved Blacks, Catholics, and Native Americans were to receive arms from British forces to help quell the rebellion. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 143)

June 16 -- A slave named Jemmy said in a depostion to Revolutionary authorities that he had been approached by his brother-in-law Thomas Jeremiah to "take a few guns" to a runaway slave named Dewar. The weapons, he said, were "to be placed in Negroes hands to fight against the inhabitants of this Province" to support the British. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 145)

August 11 -- The slave Thomas Jeremiah went on trial under the Negro Act of 1740 for helping to arm other enslaved Blacks in support of the British cause. Found guilty, he was sentenced "to be hanged, and then burned to ashes." (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 145)

August 12 -- A local mob seized a British soldier "for some insolent speech he had made," tarred and feathered him, and "putting him in a cart paraded through the Town ... using him very cruelly all the time." But the afternoon, the crowd had grown to 400, who roamed through the streets, stopping at the houses of suspected Crown sympathizers, using the soldier to demonstrate what their fate might be if they continued their support of the Crown. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 145)

August 17 -- Jemmy, the slave who testified against his brother-in-law Thomas Jeremiah, recanted his testimony that Jeremiah had been involved in transporting British arms to this enslaved colleagues. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 146)

August 18 -- Despite his brother-in-law's recanted tesimony that he was distributing British arms to enslaved Negros, Thomas Jeremiah was hanged anyway, then burnt to ashes as his sentence decreed. He had maintained his innocence to the end. S.C. Gov. William Campbell believed Jeremiah was innocent, as did the Royal Attorney General, saying Jeremiah was the victim of local hysteria. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 146)

1776
June 3 -- S. Smith published "A View of Charles-Town, the Capital of South Carolina, from an Original Picture Painted at Charlestownin the Year 1774," painted by Thomas Leitch and engraved by Samuel Smith.

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CHARLESTON WITHDRAWS INTO HERSELF

1821-1860

This rare image of S.C. Institute Hall comes from the earliest days of photography. We visit the site, where the Ordinance of Seccession was signed on our Lost Charleston Tour. (Photo: Library of Congress)

Some would argue that the "real" beginning of the Civil War was not when Confederates troops fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, but when Confederate troops seized Castle Pinckney on Dec. 30, 1860. We discuss this forgotten fort on our Lost Charleston Tour.

This one-story single house on Bull Street was for a time the residence of Denmark Vesey. We visit it on our Public Square tour.

Kahal Kadesh Beth Elohim Synagogue can be seen on our Charleseton Overview Tour.

1822

July 2 -- Denmark Vesey and several others who had been convicted along with him for planning a slave rebellion were quietly hanged in the early morning hours for fear of a riot.

July 14 -- Bastille Day, the date that had been selected for the thwarted Denmark Vesey Rebellion.

Aug. 27 -- A hurricane estimated to be a Category 3 storm made landfall just north of Charleston, producing severe damage, mainly around the Santee River.

1824

Oct. 29 -- Charles Pinckney, the son of Col, Charles Pinckney and Ruth Brewton and an architect of the U.S. Constitution, died.

Nov. 21 -- The first Reform Jewish congregation in the nation was founded in Charleston by 47 members of the Kahal Kadesh Beth Elohim Synagogue.

1837
Jan. 20 -- Sarah and Angelina Grimke began the first of a six-week lecture series about slavery in New York Baptist churches. Though fiction, a great book about the Grimke sisters is The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.

1838
Jan. 1 -- Osceola arrived as a prisoner at Fort Moultrie.

Jan. 30 -- Osceola died and was buried at Fort Moultrie.

Sept. 30 -- James Matthews shared horrific stories of being an enslaved person sent to the notorious "Sugar House" for punishment.

1839
Oct. 6 -- Susan M. Breaker died and was buried at the Bethlehem Baptist Church, where she had been an active member for 40 years.

Dec. 31 -- Jenny Lulu Lofton was born in Christ Church Parish.

1840

Feb. 9 -- Henry Michael Lofton was born in St. James Santee Parish.

1845

June 16 -- John Marion Lofton was born in St. James Santee Parish.

1847

Aug. 11 -- Benjamin Ryan Tillman Jr. came bawling into the world, the last of 11 children born to Benjamin and Sophia Tillman in Edgefield.

Nov. 19 -- Mary Ann Lofton was born in St. James Santee Parish.

1851

Dec. 31 -- Jenny Lulu Lofton was born in Christ Church Parish.

1854

Sept. 7 -- The Great Carolina Hurricane of 1854 made landfall south of Savannah as a large Category 3 hurricane.

Sept. 9 -- After two days the Great Carolina Hurricane weakened to a tropical storm as it crossed into South Carolina. Although most of the significant wind damage was south of Charleston, substantial storm surge flooding occurred well northward along the South Carolina coast ruining many crops. This was the first storm to hit the area since the keeping of official records.

Sept. 28 -- L.E.A. Shier was born to Aaron and Mary Shier in Goose Creek.

1857

Sept. 18 -- Sarah Ann Lowry Lofton died in Christ Church Parish.

Sept. 20 -- Samuel Herd Lofton died in Christ Church Parish.

1858

July 12 -- The Charleston Courier reported that "James Kennedy ... convicted of stealing a gold watch valued at $100 ... sentenced to be imprisoned one week, and then to receive upon the bare back, in the Jail yard, twenty stripes; afterwards to be imprisoned one week, and then discharged." (Source: Abode of Misery, p. 12)

Oct. 18 -- Eliza(beth) C. Walling Donnely died and was buried at Bethlehem Baptist Church, former site of the St. James Goose Creek Chapel of Ease.

1859
Sept. 10 -- L.E.A. Shier, sometimes known as the Trillium Angel, died aged four years, 11 months and 13 days, a victim of the "bilious fever" epidemic that was going around after an unusally hot, humid summer.

Sept. 11 -- L.E.A. Shier, 4, was buried at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Goose Creek.

1860

April 23 -- The Democratic National Convention, which turned out to be a disaster, convened at S.C. Institute Hall on Meeting Street.

April 30 -- Most of the Southern delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which was meeting in S.C. Institute Hall, walked out, feeling that their concerns regarding states' rights had not been heard.

May 3 -- After struggling unsuccessfully to find common ground, delegates to the Democratic National Convention called it quits, splitting the Democratic Party and paving the way for a relatively unknown Republican named Abraham Lincoln to succeed in his bid for the White House.

Nov. 7 -- News of Abraham Lincoln's election reaches Charleston, fueling the call of secessionists who give impassioned speeches at S.C. Institute Hall on Meeting Street.

Nov. 9 -- Two days after news of Abraham Lincoln's election as president, pro-secessionists stage a rally at the S.C. Institute Hall, next to the Circular Congregational Church on Meeting Street.

Nov. 14 -- Sparks from a polishing machine ignited a fire at the West Point Rice Mill, “brilliantly illuminating” the entire west side of the city, according to one newspaper account, and destroying the mill, its ancillary buildings, and more than 23,000 bushels of rice.

Nov. 25 -- The Rev. William O. Prentiss, in his sermon at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, referneced the threat of the "Wide Awake" groups, paramilitary organizations that formed in the North in the late 1850s and became closely affiliated wth the Republican Party and the presidential election of 1860. (Source: Confederate South Carolina)

Dec. 20 -- South Carolina delegates vote unanimously for seccession at St. Andrew's Hall on Broad Street. The document was drawn up and signed later that evening before a cheering crowd at S.C. Institute Hall on Meeting Street.

Dec. 27 -- In what some say to have been the "real" start of the Civil War, the Charleston militia ousted a small group of civilian laborers and two Union officers from Castle Pinckney, making it the first Federal military installation to seized by the Confederates. *** Robert Gourdin, a prominent Charleston merchant, wrote a letter to his old friend Major Robert Anderson, who had evacuated his Federal troops from Sullivan's Island to Fort Sumter the previous day, expressing his profound sorrow over the major's decision to evacuate and protesting that the garrison had been in no danger at Fort Moultrie. (Source: Confederate South Carolina)

Dec. 29 -- U.S. Major Robert Anderson wrote to his friend, Charlestonian Robert N. Gourdin, saying "I have supplies of provisions, of all kinds, to last my command about five months, but it would add to our comfort to be enabled to make purchase of fresh meat and so on, and to shop in the city."

Dec. 30 -- Ten days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the state militia seized the United States Arsenal in Charleston.

A stop by the Lofton family obelisk is a part of our French Santee Tour.

We visit Susan Breaker's grave on our Day on the Cooper River Tour.

Four-year-old L.E.A. Shier is remembered as the Trillium Angel. We visit her grave on our Day on the Cooper River Tour.