Charleston Ghost Tours -- A Spooky Tale Just in Time for Halloween!

Edward Teach aka Blackbeard

Charleston is a city of memory. Through its many years  the city has experienced a rich confluence of wars, pestilence and flood. This has created a rich tapestry of lore and legend. One such legend was  related to me by an old Charleston dowager named Adeline. My good friend Dan lived with Adeline in a grand old house facing White Point Gardens. One Indian Summer evening in late September 15 years or so back, Dan, Adeline and I were sitting on the upstairs porch watching the sun set over the Ashley River. The weather was perfect, and I asked Dan why they had the house shut up tight as a drum, that old place was designed to ventilate. But Dan ignored my question, but not Adeline, she pipes up: “Don’t you know boy, it gets eerie around here this time of the year. I don’t like it, we keep the windows shut.” I thought maybe she was talking about the kids that like to party on the seawall. But then, she started into a tale which takes us back to the earliest days of the colony,  Most often, these tales reflect an ethic of strength and courage in adversity. But there is one tale of a terrified populace fleeing for the hills, and that would be Adeline’s story of Blackbeard’s raid in the spring of 1718.
Blackbeard’s raid was his biggest take ever, seizing 11 ships coming and going. He himself had an Armada of seven ships with 400 men. Lurking beyond the bar, he seized a ship entering port which held important local officials, among them was Samuel Wragg, the comptroller for the colony, and his five year old son John. Pirates were a democratic sort in their dealings with each other, and so it was  that Blackbeard called his pirate comrades together to inform them that they had hostages. His question to them, “Look boys, we have hostages, more valuable than gold itself. What is it that we desire from the good people of Charles Towne?”

The pirates had already accumulated enough booty to make each wealthy for a lifetime. But there was one thing they desperately needed that they did not have: Medicine. They needed medicine to treat diseases they had picked up from young ladies in Jamaica. There was  an old saying: “One night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury.”

Sending his first mate Ezra Hand and two rowers into the city to demand medicine, the rowers immediately disappeared into the taverns and the brothels. Hand presents his terms to Governor Johnson, who initially refuses to surrender anything to the pirates.

Blackbeard's " Jolly Roger"

A day passes and Blackbeard’s men do not return. Blackbeard assumes that his men have been captured and jailed by the Governor.  Flying his Jolly Roger, Blackbeard enters the harbor and sends a second demand to Johnson: "Return my men with the medicine and  I will leave the city unmolested, if not, I will loot the city and burn it to the ground!"

 The sight of pirate ships in the harbor terrorizes the townspeople and they flee for the woods. Panicked, the Governor orders a house to house search to find the drunken pirates. Pulled from a brothel, they and First Mate Hand are returned to Blackbeard with medicine in tow. This time , Blackbeard is true to his word and departs, leaving word that they were  sailing for point south.

But Governor Johnson has had his fill of pirates. He commissions Colonel William Rhett to take three swift ships to track Blackbeard and bring him back to Charles Towne for justice. But Blackbeard gets away. Instead Rhett returns with Stede Bonnet , the Gentleman Pirate, and his crew of 29 pirates  who were, after all, with Blackbeard at the siege of the city.

 In those days there was but one building in Charles Towne stout and strong enough to hold 29 pirates, and that building was the old Court of Guard , which stood at the foot of Broad Street where today we have the Old Exchange. The basement where the pirates were kept was not a nice place. Sitting directly on the waterfront, the basement took on water at the high tide. The pirates found themselves every day, twice a day, up to their knees in the filth and nasty to be found in the waters of an eighteenth century trading ports. Seven of them died from exposure and they, dear reader, were the lucky ones. You see, the other twenty two were condemned to death by hanging Judge Nicholas Trott. Their sentence was to hang by the neck until dead.  They were escorted to White Point, today the site of our lovely park, only to discover that twenty two gallows had been erected, one for each. They watched in horror as one by one their comrades were lead to the platform, the nooses were placed around their necks, the trap doors dropped, and they danced the hempen jig.

Stede Bonnet dances the Hempen Jig

After all twenty two pirates were thoroughly dead, the good people of Charles Towne had plans for the bodies. And that , my friends, is why I tell you that the first seven were the lucky ones. You see, in order tp preserve the bodies a while longer, they covered the bodies in boiling tar and pitch. They then placed the bodies in chain harnesses with arms and legs akimbo as a sign to any other pirates, and hoisted them high at the waterfront as sign to other pirates: This is what we do to your type, stay away from Charles Towne!

The bodies were left hanging for three weeks. In a sultry Lowcountry Indian Summer, as you might imagine, their fate was rancid stinking rot. And let’s not forget the contributions of the seagulls and the buzzards, swooping in on the bloated corpses, pecking at the putrid flesh through the cracks in the tar. (The eyeballs went first.) It wasn’t long before body parts began to falloff and on to the ground. As they fell, they were gathered daily and buried in the pluff mud at the low water mark. At the high tide, the graves were covered with sea water, and exposed again at the low tide. You see, in pirate tradition , to be buried at land was right and honorable. To be buried at sea was likewise right and honorable; but to be buried at neither land nor sea , where the tide rose and the tide fell, that was the guarantee of an afterlife in Davy Jones Locker – a dark, hellish netherworld.

And so they claim, that if you down to White Point Gardens, our lovely park, on an Indian Summer night, in late September, in the middle of the night:

That’s not the wind you hear whistling in the trees, but rather the curses, the screams of the pirates, condemned to their hellish netherworld.

Charleston Old Walled City Tours offers Ghost Tours for your family, school, or corporate group by appointment. Call 8433434851 for details or got to www.walledcitytours.com

The History Behind the Confederate Flag

  The Confederate Battle Flag  at the Confederate Monument in Columbia has been a source of contention since its first placement atop the State House dome in 1962. Perhaps a little history on the flag itself is in order.

  Sad events in Charleston South Carolina have created the impetus to remove the flag once and finally from the State House Grounds   It is ironic that that this  flag was the design of a Charlestonian who worked just three blocks away from Mother Emanuel Church.  William Porcher Miles  (July 4, 1822 – May 11, 1899) was  a tenured  Professor of Mathematics at the College of Charleston from 1843 to 1855. An ardent  States Rights advocate and  supporter of slavery, he is numbered among the notorious  Southern Secessionists who came to be known as the “Fire Eaters”, who considered  any northern efforts to restrict slavery as justification for secession. Elected as mayor of Charleston in 1855 and then serving in the United States House of Representatives from 1857 until South Carolina seceded in December 1860, Miles went on to represent his state in the Confederate House of Representatives

  As a member of the Confederate Congress, he chaired the Badges and Flag Committee which was tasked with creating a national flag for the Confederate States. The battle flag was rejected as the national flag in 1861.Instead, General Robert E. Lee  adopted it as the battle flag for his Army of Northern Virginia.

  For some the flag is a symbol of bravery, sacrifice and defense of hearth and home. It symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice of those who died for Southern Independence in the War Between the States.  For many, this flag is a great symbol of heritage and solemn remembrance. The graves of those who died in the War for Southern Independence are even today decorated with this flag. But for others, it is a dark symbol. It symbolizes the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. It represents racial hatred and terrorism.

  April 9, 1865 was a sad day for the 28,000 strong  Army of Northern Virginia. It was the day that marked the end of the long struggle by southern states for independence. General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to General Grant at Appomattox. Grant’s terms were generous, allowing the men to go home and carry their personal property. Officers were even allowed to keep their swords. Grant wanted to strike a tone of reconciliation. As the surrender was announced, his men commenced firing a salute of a hundred guns in honor of the victory.

 Quoting Grant “. I at once sent word, however, to have it stopped. The Confederates were now our prisoners, and we did not want to exult over their downfall. “

. General Robert E Lee announced the terms of surrender to his vanquished troops. Among his final orders he declared:,

 “Let us furl the banner, never to unfurl it again”

. Robert E Lee became a symbol of national reconciliation. The leader of a Confederate army earned respect and admiration both north and south. Because Robert E Lee was such a great man, and because he set the tone for reconciliation after the War, he was lionized, and rightly so, by vanquished southerners. He aimed to set the tone for healing the wounds of a war torn nation. Shortly after the War he became president of Washington College, later Washington and Lee University. The day he was sworn in as college President, he took an oath to “henceforth” support the U.S. Constitution, his recommendation to all former Confederates. At his funeral in 1870, no flags of the Confederacy were displayed.. Lee did not want such divisive symbols following him to the grave. Former Confederate soldiers marching did not don their old military uniforms, and neither did the body they buried. The flag was folded up and put away, making occasional appearances at funerals and later, Veteran’s reunions.

  The flag is frequently associated with the KKK., but it is inaccurate to claim the KKK took it up during Reconstruction. There is little evidence that the 19th century Klan ever took it up.  Founded in 1866 by ex-Confederate soldiers and other Southerners opposed to Reconstruction, the Klan was primarily a white terrorist organization that carried out hundreds of murders. The Klan waned and disbanded  with the firm establishment of Jim  Crow by the 1890s .

 The desecration of the Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia started with the release of D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of A Nation in 1915.  The film portrayed the Klansmen as great heroes, and Griffith appropriated the Confederate banner for the movie.. This movie was sensational for cinematic excellence, and is even today numbered among the greatest examples of cinematic skill. But it was also sensational for its dark content. The Birth of a Nation played to the deepest and darkest fears of the white population presenting a warped history of Reconstruction. with  the KKK as heroes and Southern blacks as villains and violent rapists and threats to the social order. It held great appeal to white Americans who subscribed to the mythic, romantic view (similar to Sir Walter Scott historical romances) of the Old Plantation South.   The Klan was portrayed as the South's savior from Black tyranny. And these heroes, clad in white robes and pointy white hats. saved the day leading with --- you guessed it---Robert E. Lee’s battle flag. Promotional posters for Birth of A Nation featured the flag, reviving this Confederate symbol as a respectable symbol of White Supremacy.
 

  When President Woodrow Wilson saw the film, he commented: "It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." African-American audiences were horrified and wept in their seats, while white audiences cheered. A frenzy of racial hatred swept the nation as white mobs roamed city streets attacking blacks. there were riots in Boston and Philadelphia.  In Lafayette, Indiana, a white man killed a black teenager after seeing the movie. Consequently, it was denied release in many other places (Chicago, Ohio, Denver, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Minneapolis). The Confederate Flag became the symbol of White Supremacy.

The film inspired "Colonel" William Joseph Simmons to revive the Klan. Setting a cross on fire atop a mountain was his  first official to mark the rebirth of the Klan. The resurrected Klan targeted blacks, Jews and Catholics with its message of hate. The Klan promoted fundamentalism and devout patriotism along with advocating white supremacy. They blasted bootleggers, motion pictures and espoused a return to "clean" living. Appealing to folks uncomfortable with the shifting nature of America from a rural agricultural society to an urban industrial one, the Klan attacked the elite, urbanites and intellectuals.
 

  Their message struck a chord, and membership in the Klan ballooned in the 1920s. By the middle of the decade, estimates for national membership in this secret organization ranged from three million to as high as eight million Klansmen. The Confederate Battle Flag became a national symbol for a powerful national organization. In the 1920s, the Klan moved in many states to dominate local and state politics. Known as the "Invisible Empire," the KKK's presence was felt across the country.

   In 1925 Klan leader David C. Stephenson, was convicted for second-degree murder. Charges of  corruption by other members such as the governor of Indiana and the mayor of Indianapolis brought on a steep decline in membership. By 1944 the national organization was disbanded. Nonetheless, across the nation, pockets persisted that terrorized blacks in the countryside. Lynchings and house burnings were not uncommon. The symbols present at these horrific events were burning crosses and the Confederate Flag. These events etched the flag in the minds of many Blacks as a symbol of domestic terrorism.
 

  The next incarnation of the Confederate Flag came in 1948 when President Harry Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights ordered an immediate desegregation of the Armed Forces. This created a shudder of horror in the Deep South, and the backlash resulted in the formation of the States Rights Democratic Party, popularly called “Dixiecrats”. Their nominee for President was Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Here is the Party Platform:

"We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights.”

   The flag appeared at Dixiecrat  conventions and rallies as the proud banner of segregation. Desegregation in schools and universities, coupled with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, prompted leadership in the Deep South to raise the Confederate Flag above their state houses. Many incorporated it into the design of their state flags. It rose above the State House in Columbia in 1961 to supposedly commemorate the Centennial of the Battle of Fort Sumter. But it was also a statement that South Carolina would never bow to desegregation.
General Robert E Lee’s sadly misappropriated flag was removed from the flagstaff atop the Capitol in 2000 and was placed at the Confederate Monument on the State House Grounds. But now, the flag has come down from the State House Grounds. A symbol of heritage to some, a symbol of  terrorism to others. The young man that killed the nine martyrs at Mother Emanuel AME Church in June wrapped himself in that flag, and so now the flag has been furled, never to fly again. At least not on the State House grounds.
General Robert E Lee would be pleased.

Charleston House and Garden Tours - Springtime in Charleston!

What could be more beautiful than springtime in Charleston? It's nothing new, you know. People have been coming to Charleston for the high spring bloom for nigh 150 years, when Reverend Drayton opened  the Gardens at Magnolia Plantation to the public. Charlestonians have been in love with ornamental gardening for many more years than that. It was in the 1740s that Mrs. Lamboll first  planted her ornamental garden in the neighborhood of the street that bears the name. Her "Gardener's Chronicle" was in high demand and widely read by a generation of budding garden fanciers. Eighteenth century Charlestonians flocked to the docks to buy exotic saplings and bulbs  off the ships arriving from the Orient.  Many of the great plantations were improved with gardens at this time.  The gardens at Middleton Place, with its butterfly terraces, were being laid out in the French style circa 1760. Harriett Horry Ravenel, writing in 1906, reflects on Charleston gardens before 1800 :

" In the town, behind their high walls, grew oleanders and pomegranates, figs and grapes, and orange trees, both sweet and bitter, and bulbs brought from Holland, jonquils and hyacinths.The air was fragrant with the sweet olive, myrtle and gardenia. There were old fashioned roses! The cinnamon, the York and Lancaster, the little white musk and the sweet Damascus. The glossy leaved Cherokee clothed the walls with its great white disks, and was crowded with jasmine and honeysuckle."



Mrs. Whaley's Garden

Thomas Rose House Garden, the design of Loutrell Briggs
 

Such a fitting description of Charleston ! Isn't it great that some things never change? So you locals, busy in your everyday lives, take time out to 'smell the roses" so to speak this year. Just take a walk downtown or visit the Gardens. Charleston Old Walled City Tours offers a Charleston Home and Garden Tour five days a week at 1:30. For details go to http://walledcitytours.com/tours/charleston-home-and-garden-walk.html For those of you from off, it looks like peak bloom, barring a disastrous frost, should be March 27-April 10. Come see Charleston painted pastel and create memories that will last a lifetime!

Tour Charleston SC -- It was 150 Years Ago This Week That Sherman Burnt Out My Family

On my Charleston Walking Tours I have been emphasizing Sherman's March this month. After leaving Savannah Georgia in mid January, he systematically burnt his way through South Carolina, leaving a swath of destruction and misery 40 miles wide. He was virtually unopposed until he attempted to cross the swampy Salkehatchie River. After a few days of stalling, the Confederates were overwhelmed and the enemy crossed the River. This is known as the Battle of Rivers Bridge.

After bivouacking and regrouping on the north side of the river, they exacted a heinous vengeance on the countryside. Sherman's orders to his men as they entered South Carolina was to burn everything except the houses of the plain folk (log cabins), but he made exception for the communities at the site that dared resist his advance. A terrorized civilian population witnessed the pillage and burning of their homes and outbuildings. Even slave quarters were torched, lest the whites seek shelter in them. Sherman's men ruthlessly and systematically burnt everything to the ground except the Mizpah Church. The farming community of Buford's Bridge, the site of my Ray Family Home Place, disappeared and never recovered. My brother formerly owned a charred plantation desk supposedly removed from the farm office before it was torched. Sitting on the ground as the office burnt, the building collapsed on the desk and it had to be rescued from the embers, or so the story goes. Sherman's men took great satisfaction in their pillage and destruction. Although some speak of rape, no stories of that survive in my family history or others I have read. But then again, recollections of such wouldn't be repeated , would they? All food stores and livestock--everything--was stolen. The livestock they couldn't carry was killed, crocks containing preserved food were shattered so that nothing remained to sustain the civilians.That pillage took place 150 years ago this week. For that reason, today I am reposting my blog entry on Southern Memory, for my friends from the North who don't get why we remember.

So Here It Is

I was looking for some information in the Charleston Mercury newspaper ( the old one, not the current newspaper) for an 1864 article. As often happens when I peruse, I found myself on other topics. I happened across a poem that somehow touched an ancient retained memory, one barely discernible in an age so far removed from the time of the War Between the States.You see, my family was burned out by Sherman's March. So many people move here from other places, with no understanding of Southern Memory. Perhaps this poignant poem will lend perspective.


Published in the Charleston Mercury

May 1864

At Fort Pillow.
By James R. Randall

You shudder as you think upon
The carnage of the grim report--
The desolation when we won
The inner trenches of the fort.

But there are deeds you may not know
That scourge the pulses into strife;
Dark memories of deathless woe
Pointing the bayonet and knife.

The house is ashes, where I dwelt
Beyond the mighty inland sea;
The tombstones shattered where I knelt
By that old Church in Pointe Coupee.

The Yankee fiend! that came with fire,
Camped on the consecrated sod,
And trampled in the dust and mire
The Holy Eucharist of God!

The spot where darling mother sleeps,
Beneath the glimpse of yon sad moon,
Is crushed with splintered marble heaps
To stall the horse of some dragoon!

God! when I ponder that black day,
It makes my frantic spirit wince--
I marched--with Longstreet--far away,
But have beheld the ravage since.

The tears are hot upon my face
When thinking what bleak fate befell
The only sister of our race--
A thing too horrible to tell.

They say that, ere her senses fled,
The rescue of her brothers cried;
Then feebly bowed her stricken head,
Too pure to live thus--so she died.

Two of those brothers heard no plea,
With their proud hearts forever still--
John shrouded by the Tennessee,
And Arthur there at Malvern Hill.

But I have heard it everywhere
Vibrating like a passing knell;
'Tis as perpetual as the air
And solemn as a funeral bell.

By scorched lagoon and murky swamp
My wrath was never in the lurch;
I've killed the picket in his camp
And many a pilot on his perch.

With deadly rifle, sharpened brand,
A week ago, upon my steed,
With Forrest and his warrior band
I made the hell hounds writhe and bleed.

You should have seen our leader go
Upon the battle's burning marge,
Swooping like falcon on the foe,
Heading the grey line's iron charge!

All outcasts from our ruined marts,
We heard th' undying serpent hiss,
And in the desert of our hearts
The fatal spell of Nemesis.

The Southern yell rang loud and high
The moment that we thundered in,
Smiting the demons hip and thigh,
Cleaving them to the very chin.

My right arm bared for fiercer play,
The left one held the rein in slack;
In all the fury of the fray
I sought the white man, not the black.

The dabbled clots of brain and gore
Across the swirling sabres ran;
To me each brutal visage bore
The front of one accursed man.

Throbbing along the frenzied vein,
My blood seemed kindled into song--
The death-dirge of the sacred slain,
The slogan of immortal wrong.

It glared athwart the dripping glaives,
It blazed in each avenging eye--
The thought of desecrated graves
And some lone sister's desperate cry.

Wilmington, April 25.

How We Love Charleston!! Come See Us!

Here is a great music video designed to inspire you, gentle reader,  to come visit Charleston!

So many things to see and do! We're about done with the sultry dog days of  summer, and one of Charleston's best kept secrets is that September is wonderful weather and the city is empty!
Eventsin September include Charleston Restaurant Week --great food at bargain prices. Participating restaurants include the very best in town, with prix fixe menus at $20, $30, and $40 the week of September 3-September 10). Charleston Watersports Week offers 10 days  of continuous opportunities to enjoy one of  Charleston's greatest assets--the water! Events include competitive sports, leisure activities and special water tours for your getaway trip to Charleston.The Charleston Maritime Center offers a Watersports EXPO September 12-14.
As if Restaurant Week were not enough to satisfy the most discriminating gastronome, , the Southern Living Taste of Charleston will be held September 26-28 at one of my favorite venues, Boone Hall Plantation.Fifty of Charleston's best restaurants will showcase their creations with sample plates. There is also entertainment to keep the kids busy!
And to round it out, the MOJA Festival,  a celebration of African American and Caribbean culture, it is in its 30th year here and brings to Charleston the vibe of the Islands, doncha know? Find out more at  http://www.mojafestival.com/ . I will be offering my Charleston Slavery and Freedom Walking Tour daily during the Festival.
Ya'll come down now, you hear?

Preservation Society of Charleston Annual Awards Program

This past Thursday night I attended the Preservation Society of Charleston’s Annual Carolopolis Awards Presentation at the old Riviera Theater on King Street. For those of you not familiar with the Preservation Society, it was founded in 1920 and pioneered the modern preservation movement in Charleston. I hate that I forgot my printed program at the meeting, (it really was informative), but they awarded at least 10 Carolopolis Awards this year, a number of them to homeowners who restored by repairing or replacing original fabric with like kind. As an old school preservationist I have been an advocate for sensitive and authentic work and I was pleased to see such efforts being held up as a “Gold Standard”.

For all you oyster fans, the Preservation Society of Charleston  is holding their Membership Oyster Roast this coming Saturday, February  4  from 2:00-5:00 at the historic Quarters A at the old Navy Yard in North Charleston. For $35, you get oysters, music and fun---chili too I guess? –PLUS an annual membership to the Preservation Society! Hey, you gotta do it! For more info and to purchase tickets go to http://preservationsociety.org

Edwin Augustus Harleston: African American Master of the Charleston Renaissance Arts Movement and Vanguard Civil Rights Leader

We who know the history of the Arts in Charleston are aware of Charleston Renaissance Artists such as Alfred Hutty, Elizabeth O’Neill Verner and Alice Smith.




Boone Hall, by Edwin Harleston

 But today is the Birthday of the greatest and perhaps only African American member of that movement. His name is Edwin Harleston  Born March 14,1882, in Charleston, SC. Edwin Augustus Harleston was one of eight children. His father was a rice planter, a sea captain, and owned a funeral home.

Harleston received a scholarship to study at the Avery Normal Institute in Charleston and graduated valedictorian in 1900. For four years he attended Atlanta University where he played football and sang in a quartet. He relocated to Boston in 1905 to attend the art school of the Boston Museum of Fine Art where he studied under William Paxton and Frank Benson until 1913.

The seven year course was formed under the Beaux Arts tradition and formed the foundation of his style. With a passion for his art, he reluctantly returned to South Carolina to help in his father’s funeral home. It was during this time that he became active in local civil rights groups and eventually became president of the newly formed Charleston branch of the N.A.A.C.P. He led an effort that soon forced the public school system to hire Black teachers.He married Elise Forrest in 1920. She was a photographer , and two years later they opened a studio, which featured both of their works.

Influenced by of much of her work, he developed a highly realistic and academic technique of portraiture; many of his works were commissioned. His patrons included prominent national figures including the president of Atlanta University, philanthropist-Pierre S. Dupont, and the president of the Atlanta Life Insurance Co. Harleston's character studies include The Bible Student (1924), and Miss Bailey with the African Shawl (1930)..

At the request of Aaron Douglass, he assisted in painting murals for Fisk University that depicted a panoramic view of Black history from slavery onward. This work was completed in 1931 the year that he died. Shortly before his death Edwin Harleston received the Alain Locke Prize for portrait painting for his work The Old Servant at an exhibition of the Harmon foundation.



Edwin Augustus Harleston,self portrait


Source: African American Registry