Charleston Time Machine

The nocturnal exhumation of freshly-buried bodies, a practice usually confined to gothic novels and Halloween fantasy, was once a matter of grave concern for the poor citizens of late nineteenth-century Charleston. Persons requiring cadavers for nefarious purposes found a steady supply within the city’s public cemetery, an unguarded landscape that quite literally embodied the racial inequities of that distant era.

Terrence by Nic Butler, Ph.D.

Tartanita by Nic Butler, Ph.D.

Rose by Nic Butler, Ph.D.

Joe by Nic Butler, Ph.D.

Deon by Nic Butler, Ph.D.

The aircraft carrier Yorktown (CV-10) has been a landmark of Charleston Harbor for fifty years, but few visitors recall the struggle to secure the ship for South Carolina. The opening of a naval museum at Patriots Point in 1976 capped a years-long campaign, both to save the aging carrier from the scrap heap and to prevent a rival state from claiming the famous “Fighting Lady” of World War II.

Three hundred years ago, a Black woman called Judy cultivated a small farm within the sylvan landscape of suburban Charleston. Most residents of the present community have traversed her property without noticing its ancient boundaries, and few recognize her landmark name that endured for nearly a century. Let’s expand our historical radar with an illuminating journey to Free Judy’s place on Charleston Neck.

Lord William Campbell’s six-month struggle to uphold British authority in South Carolina collapsed during the final wintry days of 1775, but the tenacious royal governor did not concede defeat. His withdrawal to neighboring colonies in January 1776 marked a significant turning point in the colony’s path to political independence, and set the stage for a violent summer reunion on Sullivan’s Island.

Episode 327: The American Raid on Sullivan's Island, 19 December 1775 by Nic Butler, Ph.D.