About Charleston Time Machine
The Charleston Time Machine is an imaginary time-travel device created by historian Dr. Nic Butler. It uses stories and facts from the rich, deep, colorful history of Charleston, South Carolina, as a means to educate, inspire, amuse, and even amaze the minds of our community. By exploring the stories of our shared past, we can better understand our present world and plan more effectively for the future.
The Charleston Time Machine is piloted by Nic Butler, Ph.D., an interdisciplinary historian with an infectious enthusiasm for Charleston’s colorful past. A native of Greenville County, South Carolina, Dr. Butler attended the University of South Carolina before completing a Ph.D. in musicology at Indiana University. He has worked as archivist of the South Carolina Historical Society, as an adjunct faculty member at the College of Charleston, and as an historical consultant for the City of Charleston.
Recent Trips in Charleston's History
Posturing in Charleston Harbor, September 1775: Prelude to a Firefight
In late September 1775, elements of the Royal Navy and South Carolina’s provincial army exchanged threats and postured aggressively within Charleston Harbor, but neither side possessed sufficient martial confidence to initiate the use of lethal force. Amidst the cracking veneer of polite détente within the provincial capital, possession of Sullivan’s Island quickly emerged as the principal objective of their competing military agendas.The Collapse of British Rule in South Carolina, September 1775
One hundred and five years after the founding of modern South Carolina, the king’s royal governor dissolved the provincial government and fled the capital in mid-September 1775. Lord William Campbell’s famous nocturnal flight to the warship Tamar followed a sustained summer campaign of rebel intimidation, and triggered an autumnal stand-off between hostile American colonists and British officials desperate to preserve control of Charleston Harbor.The Tamar in Rebellion Road: Asylum for Loyalists in 1775
While the spirit of revolution percolated within the capital of South Carolina during the late summer of 1775, those loyal to the British Crown looked to the warship Tamar in Rebellion Road as a beacon of strength and security. Its power, like that of the colony’s royal governor, was fading precipitously, however, and their respective vulnerabilities became increasingly evident as the community’s appetite for political violence increased step by step.The Flight of Sampson the Pilot in the Summer of 1775
In the summer of 1775, amid smoldering tension between the British government rebellious colonists, officers of the Royal Navy in Charleston quietly negotiated with an enslaved mariner named Sampson Waldron. The warship Scorpion briefly required his piloting skills to exit the harbor, but the prospect of freedom via service to the king induced him to remain aboard and commence a new life as an enemy to colonial resistance.The First Days of South Carolina's Last Royal Governor
Lord William Campbell, the new royal governor of the colony of South Carolina, stepped ashore at Charleston in late June 1775 to an uneasy reception. Family, friends, and old acquaintances greeted him politely, but a pervasive spirit of rebellion clouded their sentiments. Insulted by apathy for his authority and direct expressions of seditious opinions, Campbell nevertheless chose to stand his ground and jettison a convenient means of escape.Governor William Campbell and the Scorpion, sailing to Charleston in 1775
The first sparks of the American Revolution ignited during the spring of 1775, while Lord William Campbell prepared to sail from England to his post as Governor of South Carolina. His contacts and conversations during that turbulent year presaged an uncertain reception in Charleston. As civil war erupted in Massachusetts, the king’s ministers empowered Campbell to choose his future course—either trim the sails of unruly Carolina, or abandon the provincial ship of state.
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