November 26-30 - 2017 Hardeeville, South Carolina

We left Chattanooga, Tennessee on November 18th, heading for Atlanta, Georgia !! (Only 120 miles/190 km southeast). We took a little detour (1250 miles/2000 km), because we have an important appointment in Atlanta on December 3rd !!

Sunday we moved from St. Augustine, Florida to Hardeeville, South Carolina (190 miles/300 km).
We are about 15 miles/25 km north of Savannah, Georgia.

Tuesday, we drove up to Charleston. Charleston was founded in 1670, and is therefore one of the older cities in the US. Once again, we were met with revolutionary and civil war history.

The Exhange was built in 1771, and has played an important role in South Carolina history. Decisions such as South Carolina's first constitution (1776)(grundlov), the adaption of the US constitution (1788) were made here.
Slave trade took place here. It was used as a prison during the revolutionary war. Etc. etc.

The Exchange

The dungeon /fængsel

 

 

Charleston had their own Tea Party in 1773-74, with some of the tea being confiscated, some dumped in the harbor. But the incidents went more “peacefully” than in Boston, and that is probably why it is not as well known.
As for the civil war, this is where the first battle took place. On April 12, 1861 confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter, which is placed right in the middle of the entry (indsejlingen) to Charleston harbor. South Carolina was also the first state to secede (løsrive sig) from the Union (December 1860).

We learned (we learn something new EVERY day 😊) that Charleston was at some point the wealthiest city in the US. Because of slave trade and cotton, we thought for sure. No! Because of a big production and export of rice and of indigo dye (tekstilfarve, i dag bedst kendt fra den blå farve i cowboybukser).

It was not until later that slave trade and cotton became a very important factor in the Charleston economy. 40% of all slaves that came to the US passed through the Charleston harbor and slave markets.

The wealth from that time is obvious, when you walk around in the streets. The number of BIG colonial and Victorian mansions is incredible. They just keep coming, street after street.

Rainbow Row



29 East Battery (built 1856) For sale for $3.850.000/ ca. DKK 25.000.000

Once again we came across the fact that graves are never cancelled in the US.
We found a narrow walk that lead into a graveyard right downtown.
Like walking in a jungle, and actually very nice.
But it is also obvious what happens when there are no longer relatives around to weed (luge) the gravesite! 😊

We had great expectations about our visit to Charleston. Turned out that it exceeded our expectations (overgik vore forventninger).

Written by JJ

P.S.
Every town and city tries to have an oldest of something 😊
We saw this sign while walking around:

The oldest liquor store in the US