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  1. Christianity as a Justification for Slavery
    date September 29, 1835map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Slave owners had many justifications for why holding people in bondage was acceptable. From the idea that African Americans were a lesser race who needed taking care of by white patriarchs to the economic justification, slave owners were always trying to find new ways to dispute those who disagreed with their choice to hold others in captivity. Charleston slave holders were no exception in attempting...

  2. Delage's Last Days
    date July, 1840 to July 21, 1841map SUMTER, South Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Health/Death, Women

    When Natalie Delage fell ill in 1841, she found support in the community around her. The wife of Thomas Sumter Jr. kept a diary detailing the last year of her life on the plantation in Sumter District, South Carolina. She visited doctors in town, and doctors came to visit her. They prescribed all sorts of medicines: Castor oil salts, elixirs, chocolates, chicken broth, snake root, and creamor tartar....

  3. A Petition on Behalf of a Slave Named Royal
    date 1824map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Government, Slavery

    Several citizens of upstate South Carolina approached the state assembly with a petition concerning a runaway slave of special concern to the region. Several years earlier a South Carolina citizen by the name of George Ford had been murdered by a slave named Joe (also called Forest) owned by a Mr. Carroll of Richland County. Both Mr. Ford's relatives, as well as the state, offered more than 1,000 dollars...

  4. Secession
    date December 20, 1860map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Government, Politics, War

    On December 17, 1860, a convention formed in the South Carolinian capital of Columbia to debate and confront the single most important decision facing the state since voting on independence from Great Britain over 80 years earlier. As fate would have it, the city of Charleston would be the one to hear the verdict on secession first. We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled,...

  5. South Carolina Enacts New Election Law
    date 1877map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Race-Relations

    In 1877 at the meeting of the South Carolinian General Assembly, a new decree was passed which initiated a re-drawing of precinct boundaries. Most importantly, this new law greatly reduced the number of polling places available in counties consisting of a majority of black people. By doing this, blacks were forced to travel long distances to be able to speak their voice on political issues. The...

  6. Blacks in South Carolina: Education and Christianization
    date 1834map CHESTER, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Government, Law, Politics, Slavery

    Several members of South Carolina's Chester County delivered a petition to the state assembly in response to an 1834 act outlawing teaching reading to slaves. The citizens expressed outrage at the legislation, saying themselves and other citizens were prepared to disobey the law because slaves across Southern plantations already had the ability to read. They further expressed their opinion that the...

  7. Commissioner Adams' Dispatch
    date December 5, 1860map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Government, Politics, War

    Guard your harbor well-Hasten your preparations for war. James Hopkins Adams was certainly aware of the tumult he caused with that short declaration. A former governor of South Carolina from 1854 to 1856, Adams was, in December 1860, serving as a commissioner to the committee discussing the possibility of secession and civil war in South Carolina. His remarks caused Charleston resident Emma Holmes,...

  8. Black Ministers Gather in Columbia to form a Suffrage Committee
    date July 10, 1895map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    As racial tension mounted throughout the South, many black citizens felt that voting the only way that African-Americans could achieve racial equality. Although a few blacks could vote in South Carolina, many were unable to vote because they were chased away from the poles by whites, couldn't afford to pay the pole taxes, or didn't own enough property to be eligible to vote. In order to combat this...