Charleston, SC

Spring Break in Charleston, SC

I spent Spring Break with another history teacher, Leslie Harris, in Charleston.  It is a place so rich in history that I have always wanted to visit. 

We spent the first day exploring the historical downtown area.  We started off by visiting the local history exhibit at the Charleston Museum.  After getting a good overview of the history in the area, we walked across the street to the Aiken-Rhett house.  The house provided an interring look at urban slavery. When people think about slavery they usually picture the plantations and not the slaves working in big houses in the cities. Walking through the slave dwellings gave us insight into the lives of these enslaved people.   

In the afternoon, we made a stop at the slavery market museum. As the only preserved slave market I had high hopes for the museum.  The exhibit did a great job discussing the effects of the slavery system on the owners, sellers, and slaves.  However, the fact that the museum was located in a building where people were bought and sold was totally lost on the visitor.  

The next day, we started out by taking the boat to Fort Sumter.  After reading about the fort for so long, I was amazed at the small size of the structure. It was cold and windy, which gave me some insight into the conditions soldiers faced living in the fort. I particularly enjoyed talking to the NPS ranger, who helped me solve the mystery of why the palm tree is so important to South Carolinian. 

 For lunch we stopped at a restaurant that served traditional Gullah cuisine. Gullah is the term for the decadents of slaves who live in the low country regions in South Carolina and Georgia. Rice is a major part of their meals but they also eat a lot of chicken and vegetables. After a stop to buy sweetgrass earrings,  I could not afford the baskets, we traveled to Charles Pinckney Historical Site. The site is apart of the National Park Service. We were lucky that the ranger on duty, Micheal Allen, is the director of the state's Gullah heritage program.  I got to ask him all kinds of questions about his efforts to preserve the local culture.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Boone Plantation.  I didn't have high hopes for the plantation because I realized that the house had been rebuilt in the 1930's and the plantation had started in several Hollywood films. While the plantation is not authentic, it does look like what you would imagine a plantation to look like. The property is privately owned and they are doing a bit of everything to keep the place running.  The NPS ranger at Charles Pickney told us that he had been working the Boone Plantation on their interpretation of slavery after they had gotten some bad reviews for ignoring the topic in their tours.  While the tours still do not discuss slavery, they now have a wonderful interpretation center in reconstructed slave cabins.  There are nine cabins with audio that discuss topics like slave religion and archaeology.  I was really impressed by the interactive exhibits.  I also enjoyed the farm tour, where I learned a lot about modern day farming techniques and spotted an alligator. Leslie and I had such a great time at Boone plantation, we really did not want to leave. 

On Saturday, there was a big race across the Cooper river bridge. We headed the other way out of town.  We stopped at the Drayton house on the way out of town.  The Drayton house, is one of the only colonial plantation houses still standing.  It was saved during the Civil War because the house was owned by a doctor who set up a quarantine around the house. The architecture of the house was beautiful and I liked how the tour guide pointed out how the different owners changed the interior to reflect different trends.  The tour guide also incorporated slavery in the tour by telling stories not only of the white family but also of the enslaved population. 

Leslie and I had a wonderful trip and I can't wait to share what I learned with my classes.