Here is a preview of four more factual snippets from the new book, 350 Facts About Charleston:
Start of the Atlantic Ocean
According to old-time wags and natives who see Charleston as the epicenter of the world, the Atlantic Ocean actually starts in Charleston harbor at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. (See Robert Ariail’s cartoon at right that’s the cover of the book.) The late U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, born in the Holy City in 1922, often was heard saying, “Every great city has a great river. London has the Thames. New York has the Hudson. Washington has the Potomac. And Charleston, Andrew, Charleston has two great rivers — the Ashley and the Cooper — and that’s where the Atlantic Ocean starts.”
The state was occupied by natives for millennia before colonization
At least 29 distinct tribes of Native Americans lived in the borders of modern-day South Carolina before the arrival of European settlers. The names of many tribes are still with us today in places like the Stono and Ashepoo rivers, Kiawah Island and Edisto Island. The native population sharply declined after the arrival of the Europeans, who brought diseases such as smallpox and conflicts over trade practices and land. Many tribes are now extinct; a few tribes, though, still exist and are active today, including the Catawba, Pee Dee and Santee tribes. Many tribes made their homes around what would become Charleston, such as the Edisto, Kiawah, Stono and Etiwan tribes.
Getting here in olden days was a nightmare for travelers
The ships that made the voyage to the Carolinas in 1669 were met with rough waters and even rougher weather. Damaged in the first trip to Barbados, ships were scattered by storms during the next outing, during which one shipwrecked and another disappeared in a hurricane. It wasn’t until the following year that the expedition’s surviving ship, the Carolina, dropped anchor at the mouth of the Ashley River, with the only known date of arrival to be “early in April,” 1670.
Carolina was a “colony of a colony”
Charleston and Barbados have a strong connection. In 1670, the Lords Proprietors invited Englishmen who had spent up to four decades successfully settling on the Caribbean island to be part of the expedition to start the Carolina colony. Settlers in the Carolinas imported the “Barbados Model” of governance, which included forced labor by indentured servants and enslaved Africans. “Carolina thus became what one historian called a ‘colony of a colony’ — a colony of Barbados,” according to Rhoda Green, honorary consul for Barbados in South Carolina. Other similarities between the two are found in similar surnames, such as Drayton, Middleton and Gibbes, and similar architecture, such as how the Charleston single house may be adapted from a type of dwelling in Barbados.
350 Facts About Charleston, a new book of historical facts commemorating the 350th anniversary of the city of Charleston, will be available in print in mid-September. Published by the staff of sister publication, Charleston City Paper, you can pre-order a copy today.
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