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JEWEL OF THE SOUTH —
With a new direct transatlantic route to Charleston launched earlier this year, Peter Ellegard discovers the South Carolina city’s countless gems
S
itting in a grand room of Charleston’s venerable Old Exchange building, I’m spellbound by historian and author Ruth
Miller as she brings the city’s chequered past to life during a guided walk. Thanks to Ruth’s wealth of knowledge and
easygoing, schoolma’am style – she was formerly a high school teacher in South Carolina’s Lowcountry – I am learning more about Charleston and its African American culture than on previous visits. Now linked by twice-weekly flights with British
Airways from Heathrow, Charleston has long been lauded as the best city to visit in the US, with good reason. There are hidden gems across the city: streets and passageways crowned by soaring church spires (it’s nicknamed the Holy City for its numerous churches); rows of traditional single houses in pastel shades with narrow fronts and long, covered side porches; and decorative, wrought-iron gates framing fountains and exquisite secret gardens.
RICH HISTORY The city is planning celebrations to mark Charleston’s 350th anniversary in 2020. Its Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated National Historic Landmark, with 2,800 buildings of historic importance. Skyscrapers are banned, so the skyline has not changed much from its heyday. Charleston has been through a lot as a city: the
ABOVE: A re-enactment of days gone by in Middleton Place
ABOVE RIGHT: The historic French Quarter
Civil war, devastating fires in the 1830s, a violent earthquake in 1886 and Hurricane Hugo, which caused $2.8 billion worth of damage in 1989, have all taken their toll. Once the richest city in colonial America – surpassing New York, Philadelphia and Boston – Charleston’s wealth was founded on gold. Not the precious metal, but Carolina Gold: a strain of long-grain rice introduced from Africa in the 1680s that thrived in the swampy Lowcountry.
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Slave trading in the English colonies had begun a decade earlier and Charleston quickly became America’s most important slave port, capitalising on the trade in human cargo for its labour- intensive rice plantations. The Old Exchange – built in 1771 with Purbeck
stone imported from England – was a hub for slave sales. Of the estimated 388,000 African slaves imported to North America, some 40% were sold in Charleston. After leaving the Old Exchange, where we also visit the Provost Dungeon to see the only surviving part of the original Charles Town city wall, we continue walking and Ruth explains about Gullah, a Creole-based language and culture created by African slaves in the Lowcountry that still exists today. Among other highlights of the two-hour tour is the Cabbage Row tenement courtyard, the inspiration for local poet DuBose Heyward’s book, Porgy, depicting life in the city and later adapted into a popular play. Visitors can get an overview of the main sights
on a guided, one-hour horse-and-carriage tour. Some companies also offer night tours – booking in advance is recommended due to their popularity.
A TROUBLED PAST The American Civil war began in Charleston, so to learn more about its history, I take a boat tour
Photography: Peter Ellegard
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