Charleston Black Heritage | History - Charleston, SC - Charleston Black Heritage

Home	Bring two hundred to three hundred thousand African slaves to the 18 wharfs and 28 auction blocks of a single American city set on a tiny peninsula only a mile and a half wide, establish the only American colony with a black majority at the time of American independence, and there are bound to be historic footprints that lead to epic stories of achievement, triumph, and celebration. Tour Charleston and its homes and gardens, and everywhere your heart and mind look back through time. Near the river views of Waterfront Park, still stands one dock on which slaves landed - a site later used by black churches to baptize the faithful. For over a century, the harbor itself was home to a celebrated group of ocean, "bluewater," fishermen called the mosquito fleet, for the small size of their boats. Inside the Episcopal, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches in the city their balconies once echoed with the powerful rhythms of lowcountry spirituals. Members of the 33rd South Carolina Volunteers, USCT, the first black United States soldiers, brought freedom to the city's slaves, and preserved Charleston's peace after the Civil War. On the city's oldest streets, opening the way to the city's historic homes, are the iron gates and wrought iron of America's greatest blacksmith. And along the highways, markets, and downtown streets are sweetgrass baskets once used to hull rice and gather eggs on the rice plantations of the lowcountry, now used for serving bread, holding flowers, or decorating a door or table, still made in the traditional, centuries-old techniques of West Africa. "Charleston Black Heritage" - The Official Visitors Guide for African-American History and Culture will take you from the Colonial Era to the Civil War & Reconstruction to the Civil Rights & Contemporary period of Charleston, South Carolina. Compiled and written by: Walter Rhett for the Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston.
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