Q for Mjolners about modern Charles Towne: Does Joseph P. Riley, Jr. think its a lifetime appointment?
Yes he does and most people living in the city agree.
A history of Charleston clipped from several history websites.
Carolina, as defined by the Charters of 1663 and 1665, extended from coast to coast. North and South Carolina did not become separate colonies until about 1710.
None of the eight original Lords Proprietors ever visited South Carolina. The colony was governed by representatives they appointed. Lord Ashley Cooper was the most energetic supporter of the venture. Charleston is on a peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper River. Sir William Berkeley never had a major role in Carolina's growth, even though he spent 35 years in America as governor of Virginia. I live in Berkeley County just north of Charleston.
The Lords Proprietors were Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury; Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon; George Monck, Duke of Albemarle; William, Earl of Craven; Lord John Berkeley; Sir William Berkeley; Sir John Colleton; Sir George Carteret.
In October, 1669, three ships carrying 92 settlers left England for Carolina. Storms delayed the expedition and caused the loss of two ships. After stops in Barbados and Bermuda, the ship Carolina finally reached the new land. After choosing a spot on the south side of the Ashley River, the colonists quickly erected a stockade for protection from Indians and Spaniards. Cabins were built within the stockade, and 10-acre garden plots outside the stockade were assigned to each household.
The Proprietors wanted the first permanent settlement built at Fort Royal, near the site of present-day Beaufort. The colonists spent a few weeks there in March of 1670, but chose another location. The friendly leader of the Kiawah Indians encouraged them to pick a spot about 80 miles north. They named it Albemarle Point. The location was more suited to farming, had a better harbor and was farther from the hostile Spaniards in St. Augustine. There is park in this location now called
Charles Towne Landing
A few years later, colonists from Barbados, who were looking for more land, joined the English settlers. In 1680, the first French Huguenot refugees arrived. By then the settlement had been moved to Oyster Point, where Charleston now stands.
Three incentives draw new immigrants: free land, the titles and estates of a landed aristocracy, and religious freedom. In this small town, cultures of England, France, Germany, Iberia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, and the West Indies blend.
The colonists, searching for security and wealth, discover rich pluff mud is the perfect environment for the cultivation of rice. Carolina gold! Cultivated on high ground is indigo, the original source of blue dye for denim, and sea island cotton.
Once the means of creating fantastic wealth becomes obvious, the cry for field labor promotes expansion of the English slave trade. By the early 1700's,
Charles Towne's population is an African majority. The most cosmopolitan city of eighteenth century America flourishes.
Fast forward to the Revolution.
The Battle of Fort Sullivan was a major battle that occurred in Charleston and is still celebrated every June 28th on Carolina Day. On July 4th, 1776, picture the fourth largest municipality in the colonies, the richest per capita. Revolution arouses the citizenry. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence own homes here. The Palmetto State is born in Charles Towne, the capital of South Carolina.
Renamed in 1783, Charleston remains the hub of Carolina long after the Revolution.
President George Washington visits in 1791. The Exchange where he is entertained, the house where he stays, and the church where he prays, are all open to the public today.
In the nineteenth century South Carolinian John C. Calhoun gives powerful voice to the cause of strong state government. The great colonial city of the South is now the cradle of secession.
Yankee is spewing; ok.
