Charleston: The Brief History of a Remarkable City

3.1/5 ( ratings)

"Charleston" is a highly readable primer on the South Carolina City's incredible history from its founding through the 2015 Emanuel AME Church massacre and the massacre's aftermath. It was designed specifically to give readers unfamiliar with Charleston's incredible history, especially visitors, a way to learn that history in one or two easy and interesting sessions.

By any measure, Charleston is a remarkable city. From her earliest beginnings she has experienced the lowest of lows and the highest of highs. She has known extreme shame and extreme glory. She arguably has been America's most hated city and its most beloved.

The City of Charleston has been attacked by Native Americans, pirates, and the militaries of four nations, including the United States of America which put the city under the longest siege in modern warfare history. An earthquake nearly destroyed her. Monster fires have blackened huge swaths of her. The Civil War, which she started, left her citizens destitute and starving as thousands of people joyously danced on her grave.

But Charleston also once was England's most important property in the New World, and later home of the first major military victory over England during the American Revolutionary War. She had become so wealthy by the early 19th Century she was able to lend the United States of America money to help it fight the War of 1812.

Charleston has been home to an astounding number of firsts, including first public library, first opera performed, first fire insurance company, first building constructed solely as a theater, first systematic and scientific recording of weather information, first public museum, first cotton mill, first fireproof building, first Reform Jewish congregation, first regularly scheduled passenger rail service, first municipal college, first commercial tea farm, and much more.

Charleston's greatest shame may be her history of greeting slaves from Africa to the American shores, and using so many of those slaves on her mammoth plantations. And her greatest glory may be how the direct descendants of those slaves forgave a white man who tried to start a race riot in Charleston by murdering nine of their relatives while they participated in a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in 2015. Their action set off a love fest in Charleston that was reflected throughout the world.

Today, the readers of various travel magazines constantly award Charleston with titles ranging from "Best City in the World" to America's friendliest city, most mannerly city, most gracious city, and much more.

Perhaps the best way to show her history quickly is by listing the book's table of contents, which tell the chronological story:

Charles Town is Born
Relations with England Sour
An Impossible Mission
British Armada Attacks
A Hero Story
War Rages in South Carolina
No Compromise on Slavery
Charleston Prospers, Then Declines
Nullifiers Gain Momentum
Secession Talk Increases
South Carolina Secedes
The Civil War Begins
Army Attacks Charleston
Navy Attacks Charleston
Army and Navy Attack Charleston
All-Black Regiment Attacks
Lincoln Orders Charleston Bombarded
War's Tide Turns Against the South
Sherman Attacks Atlanta
Sherman Attacks South Carolina
Charleston Falls
The Civil War Ends
Rejoicing, Anarchy and Starvation
Reconstruction, Southern Style
Radicals Take Over Reconstruction
Corruption Flourishes
Reconstruction Crumbles
"Pitchfork Ben" Tillman
Charleston Today