The business of peddling food through the streets is an ancient practice that became a part of Charleston’s culinary scene during the colonial era. The real “golden age” of local huckstering dawned after the Civil War, when scores of formerly-ensl...
Vending food on the streets of Charleston was a major form of commerce for centuries before it all but disappeared in the mid-twentieth century. Mobile and musical hucksters, predominantly of African descent, carried food around the city in basket...
Have you heard this one? A stranger walks into a time machine and says, “Take me back to a place and time in historic Charleston where I can buy a meal and a drink without having to toil over a hot stove.” The operator turns to the camera and says...
Working animals dominated the streetscape of early Charleston, and their rhythmic hoof beats defined the pace of life for most of the city’s history. From colonial times to the turn of the twentieth century, citizens traveled no faster than “a mod...
Hemp was one of many crops that nearly became a staple part of the economy in the early years of South Carolina. Requiring large quantities of the weed for use in the maritime industry, the provincial government and British Parliament offered sust...
The City of Charleston is celebrating its 350th birthday this month, as is the state of South Carolina in general. While the festivities may be subdued for the moment, the quiet passing of this anniversary presents an opportunity to contemplate th...
Separating the sick from the healthy has been a part of Charleston’s public health policy since 1698, when our provincial government instituted a quarantine policy unprecedented in the English-speaking world. Over the ensuing two and a half centur...
White Charlestonians of 1795 were shocked to find a local magistrate at the center of an illegal black dance raided by city police. Revelers fleeing the nocturnal “frolick” left William Cunnington to face the law alone, and he defended his honor b...
The traditions of African-American dance and music form an important part of Charleston’s cultural heritage that survived many generations of local discrimination and active suppression. In 1795, for example, the sounds of a nocturnal “negro dance...
Pandemic and panic visited Charleston in the autumn of 1918 when the Spanish Influenza spread throughout the community in a wave of acute sickness and death. Under the shadow of the Great War raging in Europe, the city was ill-equipped to counter ...