Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
South Carolina
The famous photographs at Harvard, first published in American Heritage in 1977, are at the center of a difficult debate over who owns the images.
South Carolina severed ties with the Union not out of concern for states' rights but because of slavery
At 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 20, 1860, some 170 men marched through the streets of Charleston, South Carolina, walking from St. Andrews Hall to a new meetinghouse amid the cheers of onlookers. Half of them were more than 50 years old, most well-known. Read more >>
RESEARCHERS PREPARE TO LOOK INSIDE THE LONG-BURIED CONFEDERATE SUBMARINE
How the U.S. Air Force came to drop an A-bomb on South Carolina
The United States had promised black soldiers that they would be paid as much as whites. Sergeant Walker believed that promise.
This is in honor of Sgt. William Walker, of the 3d South Carolina Infantry Regiment, a young black soldier who believed in the United States government’s promises of equal rights. This is in honor of Sgt. William Walker, who was brave enough to act on his belief in his rights. Read more >>
In the quiet luxury of the historic district, a unique form of house plan—which goes back two hundred years—is a beguiling surprise for a visitor
Charleston is and always will be a small town, the citadel of a “hereditary Nobility,” as its founders willed it to be. In its early days Charleston was a walled city, and in some sense it has continued as such, though the walls long ago vanished. Read more >>
From Fort Ticonderoga to the Plaza Hotel, from Appomattox Courthouse to Bugsy Siegel’s weird rose garden in Las Vegas, the present-day scene is enriched by knowledge of the American past
A newly discovered record of a proud Southern society that few people ever thought existed
In 1920, when Richard Samuel Roberts’s name first appeared in the Columbia, South Carolina, city directory—in the “Colored Dept.“—he was listed as a janitor in the post office. Read more >>
Courtly, gallant, handsome, and bold, John Laurens seemed the perfect citizen-soldier of the Revolution. But why did he have to seek death so assiduously?
How a nation regards its past is itself a fact of considerable historical significance, and it will be interesting to observe the treatment of the Founding Fathers during the Bicentennial celebration. Read more >>
The paintings of E. L. Henry:
As a child he sketched horses and wagons, buggies, boats, and scenes described in history lessons; during sermons in church he used the pages of prayer books and hymnals to draw the angels and the Giants in the Earth of the preacher’s text. Read more >>
In 1860, Southern delegates bolted the Democratic convention at Charleston. An eyewitness describes the first giant step toward secession
At Fort Wagner the Negro soldier was asked to prove the worth of the “powerful black hand”
In the spring of 1863 the Union government tried hard to break into the strongly defended harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Read more >>
At Cowpens, Dan Morgan showed how militia can be used. The formula worked in three later fights.