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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FEBRUARY

February 1

1761 -- St. Michael's Church held its first service.

February 2

1734 -- The South Carolina Gazette resumes publication under its new editor, Lewis Timothy.

1801-- Joseph Alston, who would become South Carolina's governor, married Theodosia Burr, daughter of the nation's third Vice President, Aaron Burr.

1861 -- The Illustrated London News ran an illustration of the lobby of the Charleston Hotel as part of its coverage of the impending Civil War.

February 5

1775 -- Local Dissenters gathered at a meetinghouse, noting in that day's church records that they “suffered itself to be called either Presbyterian, Congregational, or Independent: sometimes by one of the names, sometimes by two of them, and at other times by all the three. We do not find that this church is either Presbyterian, Congregational, or Independent, but somewhat distinct and singular from them all.”

February 6

1861 -- Joseph Holt, U.S.President James Buchanan's Secretary of War, wrote to Isaac W. Hayne, who was S.C. Gov. Francis W. Pickens' attorney general and envoy to Washington (not to be confused with the Revolutionary hero), that Fort Sumter's purpose was the defense of Charleston Harbor and that if some "public enemy" menaced the city or the harbor, the fort's batteries would "be at once exerted for their protection." (Source: Confederate South Carolina, p. 20)

February 7

1861 -- S.C. Attorney General and Gov. Pickens' Washington envoy, Isaac W. Hayne, replied to U.S. Secretary of War Joseph Holt's letter received the day before, saying: "Are you not aware, that to hold in the territory of a foreign power a fortress against her will, avowedly for the purpose of protecting her citizens is perhaps the highest insult which one government can offer to another? But Fort Sumter was never garrisoned at all until South Carolina had dissolved her connection with your Government. This garrison entered it in the night with every circumstance of secrecy after spiking the guns and burning the gun carriages and cutting down the flag-staff of an adjacent fort which was then abandoned. South Carolina had not taken Fort Sumter into her own possession only because of her misplaced confidence in a government which deceived her." (Source: Confederate South Carolina, p. 20-21)

February 9

1840 -- Henry Michael Lofton was born.

February 10

1794 -- Planter and Revolutionary War Patriot Aaron Loocock died.

February 11

1971 -- The Wagner House at 6 Green Street on the College of Charleston campus was scheduled to be torn down to make way for the new library. Upon hearing the news, preservationists Elizabeth Jenkins Young and Jane Thornhill ran to the site and single-handedly stopped the proceedings and saved the house. (Source: Broad Street and Beyond, p. 42-43)

February 12

1736 -- The Dock Street Theatre presents its first performance, a comedy titled The Recruiting Officer.

February 13

February 15

1768 -- Harriott Pinckney, daughter of Chief Justice Charles Pinckney and Eliza Lucas, married Daniel Horry.

1792 -- The first race at the new Washington Race Course (now Hampton Park) took place.

February 16

1819 -- A group of vigilantes rode out to the Five and Six Mile taverns, operated by John and Lavinia Fisher, looking for a gang of suspected robbers. When they found a group they suspected were at Five Mile House, they ordered the suspects out of the building before setting fire to it. As Five Mile House burned to the ground, its smoke could be seen by those at Six Mile House, who escaped into the woods before the cavalcade’s arrival.

February 17

1752 -- Royal Governor James Glen laid the cornerstone of St. Michael's Church at the intersection of Broad and Meeting streets "with great ceremony, an official dinner, and toasts to King George II." (Source: A Short History of Charleston, p. 40; Broad Street and Beyond, p. 40. )

1864 -- The HL Hunley became the first submarine to successfully sink its target, the Housatonic. Though successfully completing their mission, the sub. with its crew, never returned to shore and remained on the bottom of the ocean for the next 136 years.

1865 -- Gen. P.G.T, Beauregard calls for all Confederate troops to evacuate the city, loading any useful things aboard the last train out of town and destroying anything left that the enemy could use. As fires blaze across the peninsula, the city falls to Union troops.

February 18

1735 -- The first documented opera to be performed in America, Flora, or Hob in the Well, opened in the "long room" of Shepheard's Tavern on the northeast corner of Broad and Church street.

1820 -- The Friday morning's issue of the Charleston Courier noted that John and Livinia Fisher were hanged, convicted of the crime of highway robbery, near "the lines, on the Meeting-Street Road..." for the crime of highway robbery (not murder).

1865 -- As the last train transporting Confederate soldiers and supplies, a horrible explosion at the Northeastern Railroad Depot killed more than 250 desperate men, women and children scavenging whatever left-overs they could find.

February 20

1711 -- The Rev. Francis LeJau wrote a letter to his sponsors at the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, warning them of impending trouble with the Native Americans in the St. James, Goose Creek Parish, noting "It is evident that our traders have promoted Bloody Wars this last year to get slaves and one of them bought lately one hundred of these poor souls." This Native America slave trade would lead to the Yemassee War of 1715, as LeJau predicted. (Source: Dr. Michael J. Heitzler in Goose Greek: A Definitive History, Vol. 1, page 52)

1819 -- Based on statements and identifications provided by David Ross and John Peeples, officials again headed out to Six Mile House, arresting John and Lavinia Fisher and their business partner, William Hayward, along with several others.

1820 -- The Charleston Courier ran the story recounting the execution of John and Lavinia Fisher the previous day.

February 22

1819 -- The Charleston Courier related details about the Fishers' arrests at Six Mile House.

1868 -- John G. Grant of Marlboro District filed a petition of bankruptcy in the District Court of the United States, District of South Carolina, in Charleston. A meeting of his creditors were advised to choose assignees of his estate at 59 Broad St., on April 1.

February 24

1698 -- A fire broke out and spread so quickly thoughout town that over 48 hours that more than 50 families were left homeless.

February 28

1758 -- Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet, who author Walter J. Fraser Jr. in Charleston! Charleston! called a "brash thirty-eight-year-old British soldier-of-fortune" demanded that the colonial Assembly pay for his officers' rents. The Assembly refused his request.

2020 -- At a rally at the North Charleston Coliseum, President Donald Trump asserted that Democratic complaints about his handling of the corona virus threat were "their new hoax."

One of the most poignant stories of Charleston's history is that of the Northeastern Railroad Depot, which we discuss on our Lost Charleston Tour. (Image: Library of Congress)

The Washington Race Course is one of the key stops on our Lost Charleston Tour.

On our Day on the Cooper River Tour, we visit the site of George Chicken's camp, where so many captured Native Americans spent their last night on their native soil before being marched 22 miles the next day to Charles Town's waiting slave ships, ready to transported them to labor and die on the Carribean's great sugar plantations. (Image: St. James Goose Creek Chapel of Ease)

Aaron Loocock was a wealthy landowner, local political leader, Revolutionary War soldier, and experimental planter and author. We visit his box tomb on our Day on the Cooper River Tour. (Image: Leigh Handal)

The story of the Lofton family is a part of our French Santee Tour. (Image: Leigh Handal)

The history of the Charleston Hotel is covered on our Lost Charleston tours. (Image: From the Illustrated London News, Library of Congress)

Circular Congregational Church as seen before the Great Confligration of 1861. We visit this site on our Lost Charleston and Charleston Overview Tours. (Image: Library of Congress)