Charleston, South Carolina

{{Main|History of Charleston, South Carolina}}

{{For timeline}}

File:Pink-house-charleston-sc1.jpg, at 17 Chalmers Street, was built of Bermudian limestone between 1694 and 1712 and is the oldest stone building in Charleston.]]

File:Indians NW of South Carolina.jpg chief for Governor Francis Nicholson. "This map describing the scituation [sic] of the several nations of Indians to the NW of South Carolina was coppyed [sic] from a draught [sic] drawn & painted on a deer skin by an Indian Cacique and presented to Francis Nicholason Esqr. Governor of South Carolina by whom it is most humbly dedicated to his Royal Highness George, Prince of Wales".]]

King Charles II granted the chartered Province of Carolina to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietors, on March 24, 1663. In 1670, Governor William Sayle arranged for several shiploads of settlers from Bermuda and Barbados.{{cite web |last=Lewis |first=J.D. |year=2007 |title=Carolina – The Barbadian Settlers, et.al. |url=http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Settlement/barbadian_settlers.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703194506/http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Settlement/barbadian_settlers.html |archive-date=July 3, 2007 |access-date=January 6, 2018 |website=www.carolana.com |quote=Charles Town and surrounding areas were first settled by folks from Barbados and Bermuda}}{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0293.xml |chapter=Barbados in the Atlantic World |last=Roberts |first=Justin |title=Atlantic History |date=April 26, 2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/OBO/9780199730414-0293 |isbn=978-0-19-973041-4 |access-date=January 6, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501035412/http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0293.xml |archive-date=May 1, 2018 |df=mdy-all}} These settlers established what was then called Charles Town at Albemarle Point, on the west bank of the Ashley River, a few miles northwest of the present-day city center.{{sfnp|EB|1911|p=944}} Charles Town became the first comprehensively planned town in the Thirteen Colonies. Its governance, settlement, and development were to follow a visionary plan known as the Grand Model prepared for the Lord's Proprietors by John Locke.Wilson, Thomas D. The Ashley Cooper Plan: The Founding of Carolina and the Origins of Southern Political Culture. p. 12. Because the Carolina's Fundamental Constitutions was never ratified, however, Charles Town was never incorporated during the colonial period. Instead, local ordinances were passed by the provincial government, with day-to-day administration handled by the wardens and vestries of St{{nbsp}}Philip's and St{{nbsp}}Michael's Anglican parishes.{{sfnp|EB|1911|p=944}}

At the time of European colonization, the area was inhabited by the indigenous Cusabo, on whom the settlers declared war in October 1671. The settlers initially allied with the Westo, a northern indigenous tribe that traded in enslaved Indians. The settlers abandoned their alliance with the Westo in 1679 and allied with the Cusabo instead.{{citation |last=Gallay |first=Alan |date=2002 |title=The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South 1670–1717 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=0-300-10193-7}}

The initial settlement quickly dwindled and disappeared while another village—established by the settlers on Oyster Point at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers around 1672{{sfnp|EB|1911|p=944}}—thrived. In 1680, this second settlement formally replaced the original Charles Town,{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} which today is commemorated as Charles Towne Landing. The second location was more defensible and had access to a fine natural harbor. The new town had become the fifth largest in North America by 1690.{{cite web |url=http://www.scottishritecalifornia.org/charleston_time_line.htm |title=Charleston Time Line |access-date=July 9, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806100339/http://www.scottishritecalifornia.org/charleston_time_line.htm |archive-date=August 6, 2007 |df=mdy-all}}

A smallpox outbreak erupted in 1698, followed by an earthquake in February 1699. The latter caused a fire that destroyed about a third of the town. During rebuilding,{{cite web |url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma97/danforth/thesis/mainframe.html |title=A Charleston Love Story |website=Xroads.virginia.edu |date=October 17, 2000 |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124045715/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma97/danforth/thesis/mainframe.html |archive-date=November 24, 2015 }} a yellow fever outbreak killed about 15% of the remaining inhabitants. Charles Town suffered between five and eight significant yellow fever outbreaks over the first half of the 18th century.

It developed a reputation as one of the least healthy locations in the Thirteen Colonies for ethnic Europeans. Malaria was endemic. Although malaria did not have such high mortality as yellow fever, it caused much illness. It was a major health problem throughout most of the city's history before dying out in the 1950s after the use of pesticides cut down on the mosquitoes that transmitted it.{{cite book |editor-last=Edgar |editor-first=Walter B. |last=McCandless |first=Peter |date=2006 |location=Columbia |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |url=http://charlestoncurrents.com/2015/03/malaria/ |title=Malaria |access-date=October 9, 2016 |archive-date=January 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110033120/http://charlestoncurrents.com/2015/03/malaria/ |url-status=live }}

File:CharlestonSC1733.jpg's 1733 Town and Harbour of Charles Town in South Carolina, showing the town's defensive walls.]]

Charles Town was fortified according to a plan developed in 1704 under Governor Nathaniel Johnson. Both Spain and France contested Britain's claims to the region. Various bands of Native Americans and independent pirates also raided it.

On September 5–6, 1713 (O.S.), a violent hurricane passed over Charles Town. The Circular Congregational Church manse was damaged during the storm, and church records were lost. Much of Charles Town was flooded as "the Ashley and Cooper rivers became one." At least seventy people died in the disaster.{{Cite web |url=http://www.circularchurch.org/history |title=A Brief History of the Circular Church |website=Circular Congregational Church |access-date=November 14, 2018 |archive-date=September 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922233914/http://www.circularchurch.org/history |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/1713-sep-16-17-hurricane-charleston-and-vicinity-south-carolina-70/ |title=1713 – Sep 16–17, Hurricane, Charleston and vicinity, South Carolina – 70 – Deadliest American Disasters and Large-Loss-of-Life Events |website=www.usdeadlyevents.com |date=September 1713 |language=en-US |access-date=November 14, 2018 |archive-date=November 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181114100519/http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/1713-sep-16-17-hurricane-charleston-and-vicinity-south-carolina-70/ |url-status=live }}

From the 1670s, Charleston attracted pirates. The combination of a weak government and corruption made the city popular with pirates, who frequently visited and raided the city. Charles Town was besieged by the pirate Blackbeard for several days in May 1718. Blackbeard released his hostages and left in exchange for a chest of medicine from Governor Robert Johnson.D. Moore. (1997) "A General History of Blackbeard the Pirate, the Queen Anne's Revenge and the Adventure". In Tributaries, Volume VII, 1997. pp. 31–35. (North Carolina Maritime History Council)

Around 1719, the town's name began to be generally written as Charlestown{{sfnp|EB|1911|p=944}} and, excepting those fronting the Cooper River, the old walls were largely removed over the next decade. Charlestown was a center for the inland colonization of South Carolina. It remained the southernmost point of the Southern Colonies until the Province of Georgia was established in 1732. As noted, the first settlers primarily came from Europe, Barbados and Bermuda. The Barbadian and Bermudan immigrants were planters who brought enslaved Africans with them, having purchased them in the West Indies.

Early immigrant groups to the city included the Huguenots, Scottish, Irish, and Germans, as well as hundreds of Jews, predominately Sephardi from London and significant cities of the Dutch Republic, where they had been given refuge.{{harvp|Edgar|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EFSbwGk2szgC&pg=PA61 61]}} As late as 1830, Charleston's Jewish community was the most prominent and wealthiest in North America.{{citation |contribution-url=http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/0103137.html |contribution=A 'Portion of the People' |url=http://www.harvardmagazine.com |title=Harvard Magazine |publisher=Harvard University |access-date=August 1, 2006 |archive-date=January 15, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070115130446/http://www.harvardmagazine.com/ |url-status=live }}

By 1708, most of the colony's population were Black Africans. They had been brought to Charlestown via the Atlantic slave trade, first as indentured servants and then as enslaved people. In the early 1700s, Charleston's largest slave trader, Joseph Wragg, pioneered the settlement's involvement in the slave trade. Of the estimated 400,000 captive Africans transported to North America to be sold into slavery, 40% are thought to have landed at Sullivan's Island off Charlestown. Free people of color also migrated from the West Indies, being descendants of white planters and their Black consorts and unions among the working classes.{{cite book |author1=Michael P. Johnson |author2=James L. Roark |title=Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n_rkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA405 |year=1986 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-24548-6 |page=405 |access-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-date=January 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116130442/https://books.google.com/books?id=n_rkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA405 |url-status=live }}

In 1767, Gadsden's Wharf was constructed at the city port on the Cooper River; it ultimately extended 840 feet and could accommodate six ships at a time. Many enslaved people were sold from here.[https://iaamuseum.org/history/gadsdens-wharf/ History: Gadsden's Wharf] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722145328/https://iaamuseum.org/history/gadsdens-wharf/ |date=July 22, 2017 }}, International African American Museum; accessed March 29, 2018 Devoted to plantation agriculture that depended on enslaved labor, South Carolina became a slave society: it had a majority-Black population from the colonial period until after the Great Migration of the early 20th century, when many rural Blacks moved to northern and midwestern industrial cities to escape Jim Crow laws.

File:Rainbow Row front.jpg's 13 houses along East Bay Street formed the commercial center of the town in the colonial period.]]

At the foundation of the town, the principal items of commerce were pine timber and pitch for ships and tobacco. The early economy developed around the deerskin trade, in which colonists used alliances with the Cherokee and Creek peoples to secure the raw material.

At the same time, Native Americans kidnapped and enslaved each other in warfare. From 1680 to 1720, approximately 40,000 native men, women, and children were sold through the port, principally to the West Indies such as (Bermuda and the Bahamas), but also to other Southern colonies.{{citation |contribution-url=http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/james_poyas_daybook_eighteenth/historical-context-settlement- |title=The James Poyas Daybook: An Account of a Charles Town Merchant, 1760–1765 |publisher=Lowcountry Digital History Initiative |url=http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/james_poyas_daybook_eighteenth/introduction |contribution=Settlement, Trade, and Conflicts in Colonial South Carolina |access-date=October 7, 2016 |archive-date=October 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009150920/http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/james_poyas_daybook_eighteenth/introduction |url-status=live }} The Lowcountry planters did not keep enslaved Native Americans, considering them too prone to escape or revolt. They used the proceeds of their sale to purchase enslaved Black Africans for their own plantations.{{cite periodical |title=The Great Indian Slave Caper |url=http://www.common-place-archives.org/vol-03/no-01/reviews/hall.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009142917/http://www.common-place-archives.org/vol-03/no-01/reviews/hall.shtml |archive-date=2016-10-09 |periodical=Common-Place |volume=III |issue=1 |date=October 2002 |access-date=June 17, 2022}} The slave raiding—and the European firearms it introduced—helped destabilize Spanish Florida and French Louisiana in the 1700s during the War of the Spanish Succession. But it also provoked the Yamasee War of the 1710s that nearly destroyed the colony. After that, South Carolina largely abandoned the Indian slave trade.

The area's unsuitability for growing tobacco prompted the Lowcountry planters to experiment with other cash crops. The profitability of growing rice led the planters to pay premiums for enslaved people from the "Rice Coast" who knew its cultivation; their descendants make up the ethnic Gullah who created their own culture and language in this area.{{citation |contribution-url=http://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/South%20Carolina%20Rice%20Plantations.pdf |contribution=South Carolina Rice Plantations |url=http://glc.yale.edu/gullah-rice-slavery-and-sierra-leone-american-connection |title=The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection |last=Opala |first=Joseph A. |publisher=Yale University Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition |location=New Haven |date=2016 |access-date=October 7, 2016 |archive-date=October 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006082735/http://glc.yale.edu/gullah-rice-slavery-and-sierra-leone-american-connection |url-status=live }} Slaves imported from the Caribbean showed the planter George Lucas's daughter Eliza how to raise and use indigo for dyeing in 1747.

Throughout this period, enslaved people were sold aboard the arriving ships or at ad hoc gatherings in the town's taverns. Runaways and minor slave rebellions prompted the 1739 Security Act, which required all white men to carry weapons at all times (even to church on Sundays). Before it fully took effect, the Cato or Stono Rebellion broke out. The white community had recently been decimated by a malaria outbreak, and the rebels killed about 25 white people before being stopped by the colonial militia. As a result of their fears of rebellion, whites killed a total of 35 to 50 Black people.{{cite book |editor-first=Ballard C. |editor-last=Campbell |editor-link=Ballard C. Campbell |title=Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History: A Reference Guide to the Nation's Most Catastrophic Events |year=2008 |publisher=Facts on File |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8160-6603-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/disastersacciden0000camp/page/22 22–23] |first=Marjoleine |last=Kars |chapter=1739 – Stono Rebellion |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VitlO1mWxzAC&pg=PA1760 |url=https://archive.org/details/disastersacciden0000camp/page/22}}{{cite book |first=Herbert |last=Aptheker |author-link=Herbert Aptheker |title=American Negro Slave Revolts |year=1983 |orig-date=1943 |edition=Fifth |publisher=International Publishers |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7178-0605-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americannegrosla00apth/page/187 187–189] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americannegrosla00apth/page/187}}

The planters attributed the violence to recently imported Africans and agreed to a 10-year moratorium on slave importation through Charlestown. They relied for labor upon the slave communities they already held. The 1740 Negro Act also tightened controls, requiring a ratio of one white for every ten Blacks on any plantation (which was often not achieved) and banning enslaved people from assembling, growing personal food, earning money, or learning to read. Drums were banned because Africans used them for signaling; enslaved people were allowed to use string and other instruments.{{sfnp|Diouf|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=2VGoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA273 273]}} When the moratorium expired and Charlestown reopened to the slave trade in 1750, the memory of the Stono Rebellion resulted in traders avoiding buying enslaved people from the Congo and Angola, whose populations had a reputation for independence.

By the mid-18th century, Charlestown was the hub of the Atlantic slave trade in the Southern Colonies. Even with the decade-long moratorium, its customs processed around 40% of the enslaved Africans brought to North America between 1700 and 1775,{{harvp|Edgar|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EFSbwGk2szgC&pg=PA67 67]}} and about half up until the end of the African trade.

The plantations and the economy based on them made this the wealthiest city in the Thirteen Colonies{{citation |contribution=Building Boom |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5VoBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT59 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=G5VoBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT59 59] |editor-last=Sullivan |editor-first=Mark |date=2015 |publisher=Fodor's Travel |title=Charleston, with Hilton Head and the Lowcountry, 4th ed. |location=New York |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-date=June 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617065144/https://books.google.com/books?id=G5VoBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT59 |url-status=live }} and the largest in population south of Philadelphia. In 1770, the city had 11,000 inhabitants—half enslaved—and was the 4th-largest port in the colonies, after Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia.

The elite began to use their wealth to encourage cultural and social development. America's first theater building was constructed in 1736; today's Dock Street Theater later replaced it.{{Cite web |last=Collector |first=Senator Ernest F. Hollings-- |date=2000 |title=Dock Street Theatre |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/loc.afc.afc-legacies.200003498/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=lcweb2.loc.gov}} St{{nbsp}}Michael's was erected in 1753.{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} Benevolent societies were formed by the Huguenots, free people of color,{{efn|The Brown Fellowship Society, initially a burial society, operated from 1790 to 1945.}} Germans, and Jews. The Library Society was established in 1748 by well-born young men who wanted to share the financial cost of keeping up with the scientific and philosophical issues of the day.{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Dale |url=http://archive.org/details/writersguidetoev0000tayl |title=The writer's guide to everyday life in Colonial America |publisher=Writer's Digest Books |others=Internet Archive |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-89879-772-5 |location=Cincinnati, Ohio |pages=217}}

{{Further|American Revolution|American Revolutionary War}}

File:CharlestownSC1780.jpg

Delegates for the Continental Congress were elected in 1774, and South Carolina declared its independence from Britain on the steps of the Exchange. Slavery was again an important factor in the city's role during the Revolutionary War. The British attacked the settlement three times,{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} assuming that the settlement had a large base of Loyalists who would rally to their cause once given some military support.{{citation |title=Fusiliers |first=Mark |last=Urban}} The loyalty of white Southerners towards the Crown had largely been forfeited, however, by British legal cases (such as the 1772 Somersett case which marked the prohibition of slavery in England and Wales, a significant milestone in the abolitionist struggle) and military tactics (such as Dunmore's Proclamation in 1775) that promised the emancipation of people enslaved by Patriot planters; these efforts did, however, unsurprisingly win the allegiance of thousands of Black Loyalists.

The Battle of Sullivan's Island saw the British fail to capture a partially constructed palmetto palisade from Col. Moultrie's militia regiment on June 28, 1776. The Liberty Flag used by Moultrie's men formed the basis of the later South Carolina flag, and the victory's anniversary continues to be commemorated as Carolina Day.

Making the capture of Charlestown their chief priority, the British sent Sir Henry Clinton, who laid siege to Charleston on April 1, 1780, with about 14,000 troops and 90 ships.{{sfnp|McCandless|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NMrqxrLAHUgC&pg=PA89 89]}} Bombardment began on March 11, 1780. The Patriots, led by Benjamin Lincoln, had about 5,500 men and inadequate fortifications to repel the forces against them. After the British cut his supply lines and lines of retreat at the battles of Monck's Corner and Lenud's Ferry, Lincoln's surrender on May 12, 1780, became the greatest American defeat of the war.

The British continued to hold Charlestown for over a year following their defeat at Yorktown in 1781. However, they alienated local planters by refusing to restore full civil government. Nathanael Greene had entered the state after Cornwallis's pyrrhic victory at Guilford Courthouse and kept the area under a kind of siege. British Army officer Alexander Leslie, commanding Charlestown, requested a truce in March 1782 to purchase food for his garrison and the town's inhabitants. Greene refused and formed a brigade under Mordecai Gist to counter British forays. The British finally evacuated Charlestown in December 1782. Greene presented the British leaders of the town with the Moultrie Flag.

File:31 Meeting.JPG]]

File:Old-slave-mart-facade-sc1.jpg, at 8 and 6 Chalmers Street, respectively, were built in 1859.]]

File:Edmondston-Alston_with_carriage_tour.jpg

File:East Battery Street Charleston Aug2010.jpg]]

Between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, Charleston experienced an economic boom, at least for the top strata of society. Expanding cotton as a cash crop in the South led to massive wealth for a small segment of society and funded impressive architecture and culture. However, it also escalated the economic importance of enslaving people and led to greater and greater restrictions on Black Charlestonians.

By 1783, the city's growth had reached a point where a municipal government became desirable; therefore, on August 13, 1783, an act of incorporation for Charleston was ratified. The act originally specified the city's name as "Charles Ton", as opposed to the previous Charlestown, but the spelling "Charleston" quickly came to dominate.{{Cite podcast |last=Butler |first=Nic |date=August 9, 2019 |title=The Evolution of Charleston's Name |url=https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/evolution-charlestons-name |access-date=July 11, 2022 |website=Charleston Time Machine |publisher=Charleston County Public Library |archive-date=July 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220711175928/https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/evolution-charlestons-name |url-status=dead }}

Although Columbia had replaced it as the state capital in 1788, Charleston became even more prosperous as Eli Whitney's 1793 invention of the cotton gin sped the processing of the crop over 50 times. Britain's Industrial Revolution—initially built upon its textile industry—took up the extra production ravenously and cotton became Charleston's major export commodity in the 19th century.

File:Garden wall and piazzas, the Poyas-Mordecai House, 69 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC - Flickr - Spencer Means.jpg

The Bank of South Carolina, the second-oldest building in the nation to be constructed as a bank, was established in 1798. In 1800 and 1817, branches of the First and Second banks were also located in Charleston.

Throughout the Antebellum Period, Charleston continued to be the only major American city with a majority-slave population.{{efn|Savannah, Georgia, and Richmond, Virginia, came closest, reaching 40% at times.{{harvp|McInnis|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=a8g3CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA28 28]}}}} The city's widespread use of enslaved people as workers was a frequent subject of writers and visitors: a merchant from Liverpool noted in 1834 that "almost all the working population are Negroes, all the servants, the carmen & porters, all the people who see at the stalls in Market, and most of the Journeymen in trades".{{harvp|Thompson|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Cs27BwAAQBAJ&pg=PP48 48]}} American traders had been prohibited from equipping the Atlantic slave trade in 1794 and all importation of enslaved people was banned in 1808, but American merchantmen frequently refused to permit British inspection for enslaved cargo, and smuggling remained common. Much more important was the domestic slave trade, which boomed as the Deep South developed into new cotton plantations. As a result of the trade, there was a forced migration of more than one million enslaved people from the Upper South to the Lower South in the antebellum years. During the early 19th century, the first dedicated slave markets were founded in Charleston, mostly near Chalmers and State streets. Many domestic slavers used Charleston as a port in the coastwise trade, traveling to such ports as Mobile and New Orleans.

Enslaving was the primary marker of class, and even the town's freedmen and free people of color typically enslaved people if they had the wealth to do so.Kroger, Larry Black. Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790–1860. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. Visitors commonly remarked on the sheer number of Blacks in Charleston and their seeming freedom of movement,{{harvp|Thompson|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Cs27BwAAQBAJ&pg=PP49 49]}} though in fact—mindful of the Stono Rebellion and the slave revolution that established Haiti—the whites closely regulated the behavior of both enslaved and free people of color. The town fixed wages and hiring practices, sometimes required identifying badges, and sometimes censored work songs.{{harvp|Thompson|2015|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Cs27BwAAQBAJ&pg=PP49 49–50]}} Punishment was handled out of sight by the city's workhouse, whose fees provided the municipal government with thousands a year.{{harvp|McInnis|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=a8g3CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA225 225 ff]}} In 1820, state law mandated that each act of manumission (freeing an enslaved person) required legislative approval, effectively halting the practice.

The effects of slavery were pronounced on white society as well. The high cost of enslaving people in the 19th century and their high rate of return combined to institute an oligarchic society controlled by about ninety interrelated families, where 4% of the free population controlled half of the wealth, and the lower half of the free population—unable to compete with enslaved or rented people—held no wealth at all. The white middle class was minimal: Charlestonians generally looked down upon hard work, considering it as labor meant for enslaved people.{{harvp|McInnis|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=a8g3CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 29]}} All the enslavers taken together held 82% of the city's wealth and almost all non-enslavers were poor. Olmsted considered their civic elections "entirely contests of money and personal influence" and the oligarchs dominated civic planning:{{refn|Olmsted,{{citation |last=Olmsted |first=Frederick Law |title=mcJourney in the Seaboard Slave States}} cited in McInnis.}} The lack of public parks and amenities was noted, as was the abundance of private gardens in the wealthy's walled estates.{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=428}}

In the 1810s, the town's churches intensified their discrimination against their Black parishioners, culminating in Bethel Methodist's 1817 construction of a hearse house over its Black burial ground. 4,376 Black Methodists joined Morris Brown in establishing Hampstead Church, the African Methodist Episcopal church now known as Mother Emanuel.{{citation |last=Curtis |first=Nancy C. |title=Black Heritage Sites: An African American Odyssey and Finder's Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rk7NPRm_nB0C |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rk7NPRm_nB0C&pg=PA194 |contribution=Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church |publisher=American Library Association |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-838-90643-9 |location=Chicago |oclc=45885630 |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-date=May 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506044401/https://books.google.com/books?id=Rk7NPRm_nB0C |url-status=live }} State and city laws prohibited Black literacy, limited Black worship to daylight hours, and required a majority of any church's parishioners be white. In June 1818, 140 Black church members at Hampstead Church were arrested, and eight of its leaders were given fines and ten lashes; police raided the church again in 1820 and pressured it in 1821.{{citation |contribution=The Long, Troubled History of Charleston's Emanuel AME Church |contribution-url=https://newrepublic.com/article/122070/long-troubled-history-charlestons-emanuel-ame-church |title=The New Republic |date=June 18, 2015 |issn=0028-6583 |first=Douglas R. |last=Egerton |access-date=March 6, 2017 |archive-date=June 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150619075150/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122070/long-troubled-history-charlestons-emanuel-ame-church |url-status=live }}

In 1822, members of the church, led by Denmark Vesey, a lay preacher and carpenter who had bought his freedom after winning a lottery, planned an uprising and escape to Haiti—initially for Bastille Day—that failed when one enslaved person revealed the plot to his enslaver.{{efn|A monument to Vesey as a freedom fighter was long opposed by Charleston's white community but was finally begun in 2010 after a compromise placed it in Hampton Park, out of the historic district and far from the original proposed site in Marion Square.{{citation |title=Bernews |url=http://bernews.com |contribution-url=http://bernews.com/2011/01/row-over-statue-to-bermudians-slave/ |contribution=Row over Statue to Bermudian's Slave |date=January 3, 2011 |access-date=November 10, 2013 |archive-date=October 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131009124153/http://bernews.com/ |url-status=live }}}} Over the next month, the city's intendant (mayor) James Hamilton Jr. organized a militia for regular patrols, initiated a secret and extrajudicial tribunal to investigate, and hanged 35 and exiled 35 or 37 enslaved people to Spanish Cuba for their involvement.{{harvp|Frazier & al.|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7o7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA70 70]}} Hamilton imposed more restrictions on both free and enslaved Blacks: South Carolina required free Black sailors to be imprisoned while their ships were in Charleston Harbor, although international treaties eventually required the United States to quash the practice; free Blacks were banned from returning to the state if they left for any reason;{{citation |first=William H. |last=Freehling |title=The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay 1776–1854 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1990 |pages=253–70}} enslaved people were given a 9:15 pm curfew; the city razed Hampstead Church to the ground and erected a new arsenal. This structure later was the basis of the Citadel's first campus. The AME congregation built a new church, but in 1834, the city banned it and all Black worship services following Nat Turner's Rebellion in Virginia in 1831.{{citation |contribution='Mother Emanuel' A.M.E. Church History |contribution-url=http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/churchhistory.php |title=Official website |location=Charleston |publisher=Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church |date=2016 |access-date=October 9, 2016 |archive-date=June 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120620235612/http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/churchhistory.php }} The estimated 10% of enslaved people who came to America as Muslims{{citation |last=Robertson |first=David M. |title=Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man who Led It |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=c_98WSvh6s8C&pg=PA37 37] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c_98WSvh6s8C |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |date=1999 |isbn=9780307483737}} never had a separate mosque. Enslavers sometimes provided them with beef rations instead of pork in recognition of religious traditions.{{citation |last=Diouf |first=Sylviane Anna |title=Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=2VGoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 121] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2VGoAAAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=New York University Press |date=1998 |isbn=9781479830510}}

The registered tonnage of Charleston shipping in 1829 was 12,410.The American annual register. (1827-1829). New York: G. & C. Carvill, vol. 3-4. p. 593. In 1832, South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification, a procedure by which a state could, in effect, repeal a federal law; it was directed against the most recent tariff acts. Soon, U.S. soldiers were dispensed to Charleston's forts, and five United States Coast Guard cutters were detached to Charleston Harbor "to take possession of any vessel arriving from a foreign port, and defend her against any attempt to dispossess the Customs Officers of her custody until all the requirements of law have been complied with." This federal action became known as the Charleston incident. The state's politicians worked on a compromise law in Washington to gradually reduce the tariffs.{{cite book |last=Willoughby |first=Malcolm F. |title=The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II |url=https://archive.org/details/uscoastguardinw00will |url-access=registration |publisher=United States Naval Institute |date=1957 |location=Annapolis, Maryland |page=[https://archive.org/details/uscoastguardinw00will/page/4 4]}}

Charleston's embrace of classical architecture began after a devastating fire leveled much of the city. On April 27, 1838, Charleston suffered a catastrophic fire that burned more than 1000 buildings and caused about $3 million ({{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=3000000|start_year=1838|r=-3|fmt=eq}}) in damage at the time. The damaged buildings amounted to about one-fourth of all the businesses in the main part of the city. A great cultural awakening occurred when many homes and businesses were rebuilt or repaired. Before the fire, few homes were styled as Greek Revival; many residents decided to construct new buildings in that style after the conflagration. This tradition continued, making Charleston one of the foremost places to view Greek Revival architecture. The Gothic Revival also made a significant appearance in the construction of many churches after the fire that exhibited picturesque forms and reminders of devout European religion.{{cite web |url=https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/3531 |title=History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research | Episodes |website=Historyengine.richmond.edu |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-date=May 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508144325/https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/3531 |url-status=live }}

File:BRIGHTEN Eyre Crowe - Subasta de esclavos.jpg selling slaves in Charleston in 1853]]

By 1840, the Market Hall and Sheds, where fresh meat and produce were brought daily, became a hub of commercial activity. The slave trade also depended on the port of Charleston, where ships could be unloaded and enslaved people bought and sold. The legal importation of enslaved Africans had ended in 1808, although smuggling was significant. However, the domestic trade was booming. More than one million enslaved people were transported from the Upper South to the Deep South in the antebellum years, as cotton plantations were widely developed through what became known as the Black Belt. Many enslaved people were transported in the coastwise slave trade, with slave ships stopping at ports such as Charleston.

{{Main|Charleston in the American Civil War}}

File:SouthBatteryCharleston1863.jpgs guarding the Battery in 1863.]]

File:charleston sc 1865.jpg

File:DofC Monument in Charleston SC.jpg memorializing the Confederate defenders of Fort Sumter.]]

Charleston was significant in the American Civil War. As a pivotal city, the U.S. Army and Confederate States Army vied for control of it. The rebellion began in Charleston Harbor in 1861 and ended mere months after the U.S. soldiers retook control of Charleston in 1865.

Following the election of Abraham Lincoln, the South Carolina General Assembly voted on December 20, 1860, to declare secession from the United States, becoming the first state to do so. On December 27, the U.S. Army garrison of Castle Pinckney surrendered to the state militia. On January 9, 1861, Citadel cadets opened fire on the USS{{nbsp}}Star of the West as it entered Charleston Harbor.

The first full battle of the war occurred on April 12, 1861, when shore batteries under the command of General P. G. T. Beauregard fired upon the {{nowrap|US Army-}}held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} After a 34-hour bombardment, Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort.

On December 11, 1861, an enormous fire burned over {{cvt|500|acre|sp=us}} of the city.

U.S. Navy control of the North Atlantic coastline permitted the repeated bombardment of the city, causing vast damage. Although Admiral Du Pont's naval assault on the town's forts in April 1863 failed,{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} the U.S. Navy's blockade shut down most commercial traffic. Throughout the war, some blockade runners got through, but not a single one made it into or out of Charleston Harbor between August 1863 and March 1864.Craig L. Symonds, The Civil War at Sea (2009) p. 57 The early submarine H.L. Hunley made a night attack on the {{USS|Housatonic|1861|6}} on February 17, 1864.{{cite web |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org12-3.htm |title=H. L. Hunley, Confederate Submarine |publisher=History.navy.mil |access-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014220553/http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org12-3.htm |archive-date=October 14, 2007}}

General Gillmore's land assault in July 1864 was unsuccessful{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} but the fall of Columbia and advance of General William T. Sherman's army through the state prompted the Confederates to evacuate the town on February 17, 1865, burning the public buildings, cotton warehouses, and other sources of supply before their departure.{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} U.S. soldiers liberated the city within the month.{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} The War Department recovered what federal property remained. Also, it confiscated the campus of the Citadel Military Academy and used it as a U.S. Army garrison for the next 17 years. The facilities were finally returned to the state and reopened as a military college in 1882 under the direction of Lawrence E. Marichak.

After the defeat of the Confederacy, U.S. soldiers remained in Charleston during the Reconstruction era. The war had shattered the city's prosperity. Still, the African-American population surged (from 17,000 in 1860 to over 27,000 in 1880) as freedmen moved from the countryside to the major city.{{Cite web|url=http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4870&context=etd|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028004634/http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4870&context=etd|url-status=dead|title=Jeffrey G. Strickland, Ethnicity And Race In The Urban South: German Immigrants And African-Americans In Charleston, South Carolina During Reconstruction, 2003, p. 11, Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. Paper 1541|archivedate=October 28, 2014}} Blacks quickly left the Southern Baptist Church and resumed open meetings of the African Methodist Episcopal and AME Zion churches. They purchased dogs, guns, liquor, and better clothes—all previously banned—and ceased yielding the sidewalks to whites. Despite the efforts of the state legislature to halt manumissions, Charleston had already had a large class of free people of color as well. At the onset of the war, the city had 3,785 free people of color, many of mixed race, making up about 18% of the city's black population and 8% of its total population. Many were educated and practiced skilled crafts; they quickly became leaders of South Carolina's Republican Party and its legislators. Free men of color comprised 26% of those elected to state and federal office in South Carolina from 1868 to 1876.E. Horace Fitchett, "The Traditions of the Free Negro in Charleston, South Carolina", Journal of Negro History, XXV (April 1940), p. 139[https://books.google.com/books?id=LIqiqdeHMscC&pg=PA43 Thomas Holt, Black Over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina During Reconstruction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116110148/https://books.google.com/books?id=LIqiqdeHMscC&pg=PA43 |date=January 16, 2016 }}, University of Illinois Press, 1979, p.43

The Pacific Guano Company, established in 1861, opened a plant in Charleston which consumed immense quantities of menhaden scrap brought from the water by the vessels which carried on their return trip a supply of South Carolina phosphates for the Woods Hole, Massachusetts factory.{{cite book |author1=United States Bureau of Fisheries |title=Report on the Condition of the Sea Fisheries of the South Coast of New England |date=1879 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=166, 169, 228, 529 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1BstAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA228 |access-date=9 November 2024 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} By the late 1870s, industry was bringing the city and its inhabitants back to a renewed vitality; new jobs attracted new residents.{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=429}} As the city's commerce improved, residents worked to restore or create community institutions. In 1865, the Avery Normal Institute was established by the American Missionary Association as the first free secondary school for Charleston's African American population. Gen. Sherman lent his support to the conversion of the United States Arsenal into the Porter Military Academy, an educational facility for former soldiers and boys left orphaned or destitute by the war. Porter Military Academy later joined with Gaud School and is now a university-preparatory school, Porter-Gaud School.

In 1875, blacks made up 57% of the city's and 73% of the county's population. With leadership by members of the antebellum free black community, historian Melinda Meeks Hennessy described the community as "unique" in being able to defend themselves without provoking "massive white retaliation", as occurred in numerous other areas during Reconstruction.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/27567894 Melinda Meeks Hennessy, "Racial Violence During Reconstruction: The 1876 Riots in Charleston and Cainhoy"], South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 86, No. 2, (April 1985), 104–106 {{subscription required|via JSTOR}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928082928/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27567894 |date=September 28, 2018 }} In the 1876 election cycle, two major riots between black Republicans and white Democrats occurred in the city, in September and the day after the election in November, as well as a violent incident in Cainhoy at an October joint discussion meeting.

Violent incidents occurred throughout the Piedmont of the state as white insurgents struggled to impose white supremacy in the face of social changes after the war and the granting of citizenship to freedmen by amendments to the U.S. Constitution. After former Confederates were allowed to vote again, election campaigns from 1872 on were marked by violent intimidation of blacks and Republicans by conservative Democratic paramilitary groups, known as the Red Shirts. Violent incidents occurred in Charleston on King Street on September 6 and nearby Cainhoy on October 15 in association with political meetings before the 1876 election. The Cainhoy incident was the only one statewide in which more whites were killed than blacks.[http://www.screconstruction.org/Reconstruction/Sites_of_violence/Entries/1876/10/16_Cainhoy_Riot.html Reconstruction as Armed Insurgency: Cainhoy] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106211013/http://www.screconstruction.org/Reconstruction/Sites_of_violence/Entries/1876/10/16_Cainhoy_Riot.html |date=November 6, 2014 }}, South Carolina during Reconstruction, 2010–2012, accessed October 27, 2014 The Red Shirts were instrumental in suppressing the black Republican vote in some areas in 1876 and narrowly electing Wade Hampton as governor, and taking back control of the state legislature. Another riot occurred in Charleston the day after the election when a prominent Republican leader was mistakenly reported killed.

In the early 20th century, strong political machines emerged in the city, reflecting economic, class, racial, and ethnic tensions. The factions nearly all opposed U.S. Senator Ben Tillman who repeatedly attacked and ridiculed the city in the name of upstate poor farmers. Well-organized factions within the Democratic Party in Charleston gave the voters clear choices and played a large role in state politics.Doyle W. Boggs, "Charleston Politics, 1900–1930: An Overview," Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association 49 (1979) 1–13.

{{main|1886 Charleston earthquake}}

On August 31, 1886, Charleston experienced a strong earthquake. The shock was estimated to have a moment magnitude of 7.0 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). It was felt as far away as Boston to the north, Chicago and Milwaukee to the northwest, as far west as New Orleans, as far south as Cuba, and as far east as Bermuda. It damaged 2,000 buildings in Charleston and caused $6 million worth of damage (${{Inflation|US-CAP|6|1886}} million in {{Inflation-year|US-CAP}} dollars), at a time when all the city's buildings were valued around $24 million (${{Inflation|US-CAP|24|1886}} million in {{Inflation-year|US-CAP}} dollars).

{{main|Charleston riot of 1919}}

The Charleston race riot of 1919 took place on the night of Saturday, May 10, between members of the US Navy and the local black population. They attacked black individuals, businesses, and homes, killing six and injuring dozens.

File:PHOTOGRAMMETRIC IMAGE- SOUTH FRONT ELEVATION, INCLUDES -28 SOUTH BATTERY - James E. Spear House, 30 South Battery Street, Charleston, Charleston County, SC HABS SC,10-CHAR,360-7.tif

Charleston languished economically for several decades in the 20th century, though the large federal military presence in the region helped to shore up the city's economy. Charleston's tourism boom began in earnest following the publication of Albert Simons and Samuel Lapham's Architecture of Charleston{{citation |last1=Simons |first1=Albert |last2=Lapham |first2=Samuel VI |ref={{harvid|Simons & al.|1927}} |publisher=Press of the American Institute of Architects |title=Charleston, S.C. |series=The Octagon Library of Early American Architecture, Vol. I |date=1927}}. in the 1920s.{{citation |last=Horton |first=Tom |title=History's Lost Moments, Vol. V |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=thPUBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA182 182] |date=2014 |publisher=Trafford |contribution=Touring Charleston Back in 1912}}

The Charleston Hospital Strike of 1969, in which mostly black workers protested discrimination and low wages, was one of the last major events of the civil rights movement. It attracted Ralph Abernathy, Coretta Scott King, Andrew Young, and other prominent figures to march with the local leader, Mary Moultrie.

Joseph P. Riley Jr. was elected mayor in the 1970s and helped advance several cultural aspects of the city.

Between 1989 and 1996, Charleston saw two significant economic hits. First, the eye of Hurricane Hugo came ashore at Charleston Harbor in 1989, and though the worst damage was in nearby McClellanville, three-quarters of the homes in Charleston's historic district sustained damage of varying degrees. The hurricane caused over $2.8 billion in damage. The city rebounded fairly quickly after the hurricane and has grown in population, reaching an estimated 124,593 residents in 2009.{{cite web |url=http://www.charlestoncity.info/shared/docs/0/2010_population_estimates.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721192558/http://www.charlestoncity.info/shared/docs/0/2010_population_estimates.pdf |archive-date=July 21, 2011 |title=Century V City of Charleston Population 2010 Estimates}} Second, in 1993, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) directed that Naval Base Charleston be closed. Pursuant to BRAC action, Naval Base Charleston was closed on April 1, 1996, although some activities remain under the cognizance of Naval Support Activity Charleston, now part of Joint Base Charleston.{{cite web |url=http://www.northcharleston.org/Visitors/Attractions/Greater-Charleston-Naval-Base-Memorial/Naval-Base-History.aspx |title=Search Results for "Naval Base History" – City of North Charleston, SC |access-date=September 4, 2018 |archive-date=September 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905023221/http://www.northcharleston.org/Visitors/Attractions/Greater-Charleston-Naval-Base-Memorial/Naval-Base-History.aspx |url-status=live }}

After having been a majority-minority city for most of its history, in the late 20th century, many whites began returning to the urban core of Charleston, and the area gentrified with rising prices and rents. From 1980 to 2010, the peninsula's population shifted from two-thirds black to two-thirds white; in 2010, residents numbered 20,668 whites and 10,455 blacks.[http://www.postandcourier.com/news/racial-shift-charleston-peninsula-s-makeup-reverses-in-years-with/article_69581977-ef00-5f6c-b969-edb7104344bb.html David Slade, "RACIAL SHIFT: Charleston peninsula's makeup reverses in 30 years, with blacks leaving for suburbs, area becoming two-thirds white"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516163040/http://www.postandcourier.com/news/racial-shift-charleston-peninsula-s-makeup-reverses-in-years-with/article_69581977-ef00-5f6c-b969-edb7104344bb.html |date=May 16, 2017 }}, The Post and Courier, March 28, 2011; accessed November 10, 2016 Many African Americans moved to the less-expensive suburbs in these decades.

On June 17, 2015, 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof entered the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and sat in on part of a Bible study before shooting and killing nine people and injuring a tenth, all African Americans.{{cite news |last1=Bever |first1=Lindsey |last2=Costa |first2=Robert |title=9 dead in shooting at historic Charleston African American church. Police chief calls it 'hate crime.' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/17/white-gunman-sought-in-shooting-at-historic-charleston-african-ame-church/ |access-date=June 18, 2015 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 17, 2015 |archive-date=February 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226144707/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/17/white-gunman-sought-in-shooting-at-historic-charleston-african-ame-church/ |url-status=live }} Senior pastor Clementa Pinckney, who also served as a state senator, was among those killed during the attack. The deceased also included congregation members Susie Jackson, 87; Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74; Ethel Lance, 70; Myra Thompson, 59; Cynthia Hurd, 54; Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; and Tywanza Sanders, 26.{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=M. Alex |title='This Was a Hate Crime': Nine People Killed at Historic South Carolina Church |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/multiple-people-shot-historic-south-carolina-church-n377436 |access-date=June 18, 2015 |work=NBC News |date=June 17, 2015 |archive-date=November 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107112944/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/multiple-people-shot-historic-south-carolina-church-n377436 |url-status=live }} The attack garnered national attention and sparked a debate on racism, Confederate symbolism in Southern states, and gun violence, in part based on Roof's online postings. A memorial service on the campus of the College of Charleston was attended by President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, and Speaker of the House John Boehner.

On June 17, 2018, the Charleston City Council apologized for its role in the slave trade and condemned its "inhumane" history. It also acknowledged wrongs committed against African Americans by slavery and Jim Crow laws.{{cite news |title=Charleston Apologizes for City's Role in Slave Trade |first=Melissa |last=Gomez |date=June 19, 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/us/charleston-slavery-apology.html |access-date=December 21, 2018 |archive-date=December 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221230826/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/us/charleston-slavery-apology.html |url-status=live }}

{{OSM Location map

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The city proper consists of six distinct districts.

• Downtown, sometimes referred to as "The Peninsula", is Charleston's center city separated by the Ashley River to the west and the Cooper River to the east
• West Ashley, residential area to the west of Downtown bordered by the Ashley River to the east and the Stono River to the west
• Johns Island, far western limits of Charleston, bordered by the Stono River to the east, Kiawah River to the south, and Wadmalaw Island to the west
• James Island, a popular residential area between Downtown and the town of Folly Beach with portions of the independent town of James Island intermixed
• Cainhoy Peninsula, far eastern limits of Charleston, bordered by the Wando River to the west and Nowell Creek to the east
• Daniel Island, residential area to the north of downtown, east of the Cooper River and west of the Wando River

File:Charlestonriversmap.png

The incorporated city fit into {{cvt|4|-|5|sqmi|sp=us}} as late as World War I,{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=428}}{{sfnp|EB|1911|p=943}} but has since greatly expanded, crossing the Ashley River and encompassing James Island and some of Johns Island. The city limits also have expanded across the Cooper River, encompassing Daniel Island and the Cainhoy area. The present city has a total area of {{convert|135.51|sqmi}}, of which {{convert|115.03|sqmi}} is land and {{convert|20.48|sqmi}} (15.11%) is water. North Charleston blocks any expansion up the peninsula, and Mount Pleasant occupies the land directly east of the Cooper River.

Charleston Harbor runs about {{cvt|7|miles|sp=us|0}} southeast to the Atlantic with an average width of about {{cvt|2|miles|sp=us}}, surrounded on all sides except its entrance. Sullivan's Island lies to the north of the entrance and Morris Island to the south. The entrance itself is about {{cvt|1|mi|sp=us|0}} wide; it was originally only {{cvt|18|ft|sp=us|0}} deep but began to be enlarged in the 1870s.{{sfnp|EB|1878|p=428}} The tidal rivers (Wando, Cooper, Stono, and Ashley) are evidence of a submergent or drowned coastline. There is a submerged river delta off the mouth of the harbor, and the Cooper River is deep.

File:Building wrecked by Hugo.jpg in 1989]]

Charleston has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa), with mild winters, hot humid summers, and significant rainfall all year long. Summer is the wettest season; almost half of the annual rainfall occurs from June to September in the form of thundershowers. Fall remains relatively warm through the middle of November. Winter is short and mild and is characterized by occasional rain. Measurable snow (≥{{cvt|0.1|in|cm|disp=or}}) has a median occurrence of only once per decade at the airport, but freezing rain is more common; a snowfall/freezing rain event on January 3, 2018, was the first such event in Charleston since December 26, 2010. However, {{cvt|6.0|in|cm}} fell at the airport on December 23, 1989, during the December 1989 United States cold wave, the largest single-day fall on record, contributing to a single-storm and seasonal record of {{cvt|8.0|in|cm}} snowfall.

Downtown Charleston's climate is milder than the airport's due to more substantial maritime influence. This is especially true in the winter, with the average January low in downtown being {{cvt|43.6|°F|0}} to the airport's {{cvt|38.9|°F|0}} for example.

The highest temperature recorded within city limits was {{cvt|104|°F|0}} on June 2, 1985, and June 24, 1944; the lowest was {{cvt|7|°F|0}} on February 14, 1899, although there was an unofficial record low of {{cvt|1|°F|0}} in February 1835.{{Cite web |title=Great Florida Freeze of 1835 |url=https://preview.weather.gov/media/tbw/paig/PresAmFreeze1835.pdf |access-date=25 November 2024 |website=National Weather Service, Tampa Bay}} At the airport, where official records are kept, the historical range is {{cvt|105|°F|0}} on August 1, 1999, down to {{cvt|6|°F|0}} on January 21, 1985. Hurricanes are a major threat to the area during the summer and early fall, with several severe hurricanes hitting the area—most notably Hurricane Hugo on September 21, 1989 (a category 4 storm). The dewpoint from June to August ranges from {{cvt|19.9|to|21.9|°C|1|order=flip}}.

{{Charleston, South Carolina weatherbox|collapsed=Y}}

As defined by the Office of Management and Budget, for use by the U.S. Census Bureau and other U.S. Government agencies for statistical purposes only, Charleston is included within the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of three counties: Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester. The metropolitan statistical area had an estimated population of 849,417 in 2023. North Charleston is the second-largest city in the metro area and ranks as the third-largest city in the state; Mount Pleasant and Summerville are the next-largest cities.

The traditional parish system persisted until counties were established during the Reconstruction Era.{{Cite web |date=2021-06-04 |title=Parishes, Districts, and Counties in Early South Carolina |url=https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/parishes-districts-and-counties-early-south-carolina |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=Charleston County Public Library |language=en |archive-date=November 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221106192701/https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/parishes-districts-and-counties-early-south-carolina |url-status=dead }} Nevertheless, traditional parishes still exist in various capacities, mainly as public service districts. When the city of Charleston was formed, it was defined by the limits of the Parish of St. Philip and St. Michael, which now also includes parts of St. James' Parish, St. George's Parish, St. Andrew's Parish, and St. John's Parish. However, the last two are mostly still incorporated rural parishes.

{{Historical populations

|type= USA

|1770|10863

|1790|16359

|1800|18824

|1810|24711

|1820|24780

|1830|30289

|1840|29261

|1850|42985

|1860|40522

|1870|48956

|1880|49984

|1890|54955

|1900|55807

|1910|58833

|1920|67957

|1930|62265

|1940|71275

|1950|70174

|1960|60288

|1970|66945

|1980|69779

|1990|80414

|2000|96650

|2010|120083

|2020|150227

|2023|155369

|source=U.S. Decennial Census{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|title=U.S. Decennial Census|publisher=Census.gov|access-date=June 5, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426102944/http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|archive-date=April 26, 2015|df=mdy}}
1770 estimate{{cite book|author=United States Census Bureau|date=1909|title=A Century of Population Growth|chapter=Population in the Colonial and Continental Periods|chapter-url=https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/00165897ch01.pdf|page=13|access-date=August 17, 2020|archive-date=August 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804062114/https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/00165897ch01.pdf|url-status=live }}

}}

As of the 2020 census, there were 150,227 people, 58,902 households, and 31,780 families residing in the city.

In 2023, of the 150,227 people in Charleston, about 134,996 of them lived in Charleston County, and 15,231 of them lived in Berkeley County.{{cite web|url=https://info2.scdot.org/GISMapping/GISMapdl/Berkeley_County.pdf|title=General Highway System Berkeley County South Carolina|publisher=South Carolina Department of Transportation|date=April 2023|access-date=2024-10-25}}

Charleston historically had a large concentration of African Americans who spoke Gullah, a creole language that developed on the Sea Islands and in the Low Country, and local speech patterns were also influenced by this community. Today, Gullah is still spoken by some African-American residents.{{Cite web |title=Gullah {{!}} language {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gullah-language |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} However, rapid development since 1980, especially on the surrounding Sea Islands, has attracted residents from outside the area and led to a decline in Gullah's prominence.

The traditional educated Charleston accent has long been noted throughout the state and South. It is typically heard in wealthy European American older people who trace their families back generations in the city. It has ingliding or monophthongal long mid-vowels, raises ay and aw in certain environments, and is nonrhotic. Sylvester Primer of the College of Charleston wrote about aspects of the local dialect in his late 19th-century works: "Charleston Provincialisms" (1887)[https://archive.org/details/jstor-456019 "Charleston Provincialisms" (1887)], Pub. Modern Language Association of America, Vol. iii, Internet Archive and Early Journal Content on JSTOR, accessed November 5, 2014 and "The Huguenot Element in Charleston's Provincialisms", published in a German journal. He believed the accent was based on English, as the earliest settlers spoke it; therefore, it was derived from Elizabethan England and preserved with modifications by Charleston speakers. The disappearing "Charleston accent" spoken mainly by older natives is still noted in the local pronunciation of the city's name. Many Charleston natives ignore the 'r' and elongate the first vowel, pronouncing the name as "Chalston".

Charleston is known as "the Holy City". Despite beliefs that the term dates to the city's earliest days and refers to its religiously tolerant culture, the expression was coined in the 20th century, likely as a mockery of Charlestonians' self-satisfied attitude about their city.{{cite news |last1=Gilbreth |first1=Edward M. |title=Research says 'Holy City' term not church-based |work=Post and Courier |date=May 25, 2016 |location=Charleston, South Carolina}} Many sources, however, traditionally link the term to the many old church spires dotting the skyline of downtown Charleston.{{Cite web |author=Miles, Suzannah Smith |title=Learn the History behind the Holy City's Church Steeples |url=https://charlestonmag.com/features/learn_the_history_behind_the_holy_city_s_church_steeples |website=Charleston Magazine |date=December 2020 |access-date=January 4, 2025}} Regardless of the nickname's origin, residents have embraced the term and have explained it in more flattering ways.

The Anglican church was dominant in the colonial era, and the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul is today the seat of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina. St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church is another historic church in Charleston. Many French Huguenot refugees settled in Charleston in the early 18th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.huguenotsociety.org/history.htm |title=History of the Huguenot Society |publisher=Huguenotsociety.org |access-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000830073605/http://www.huguenotsociety.org/history.htm |archive-date=August 30, 2000 |df=mdy-all}} The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States and houses the oldest black congregation south of Baltimore, Maryland.{{cite news |last1=Weisman |first1=Jonathan |title=Killings Add a Painful Chapter to Storied History of Charleston Church |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-killings-evoke-history-of-violence-against-black-churches.html |access-date=June 18, 2015 |work=The New York Times |date=June 18, 2015 |archive-date=July 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702070037/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-killings-evoke-history-of-violence-against-black-churches.html |url-status=live }}

South Carolina has long allowed Jews to practice their faith without restriction. Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, founded in 1749 by Sephardic Jews from London, is the fourth-oldest Jewish congregation in the continental United States and was an important site for the development of Reform Judaism.{{cite web |url=http://www.kkbe.org/ |title=Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim |publisher=Kkbe.org |access-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-date=September 24, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924040949/http://www.kkbe.org/ |url-status=live }} Brith Sholom Beth Israel is the oldest Orthodox synagogue in the South, founded by Sam Berlin and other Ashkenazi German and Central European Jews in the mid-19th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.bsbisynagogue.com/ |title=Brith Sholom Beth Israel |publisher=Bsbisynagogue.com |access-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-date=April 12, 2008 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20080412050140/http%3A//www.bsbisynagogue.com/ |url-status=live }}

The city's oldest Catholic parish, St. Mary of the Annunciation Catholic Church is the mother church of Catholicism in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. In 1820, Charleston was established as the see city of the Diocese of Charleston, which at the time comprised the Carolinas and Georgia and presently encompasses the state of South Carolina.

The Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite, established in Charleston in 1801, is considered the mother council of the world by Scottish Rite Freemasons.{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Rhett A. |title=Freemasonry |url=http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/freemasonry/ |website=South Carolina Encyclopedia |publisher=University of South Carolina, Institute for Southern Studies |access-date=November 9, 2019 |date=May 17, 2016 |archive-date=November 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109144237/http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/freemasonry/ |url-status=live }}

Charleston's culture blends traditional Southern U.S., English, French, and West African elements. The downtown peninsula has several arts, music, local cuisine, and fashion venues. Spoleto Festival USA, held annually in late spring, was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi (the Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy.

Charleston's oldest community theater group, the Footlight Players, has provided theatrical productions since 1931.{{Cite web |title=Footlight Players |url=https://www.footlightplayers.net/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=Footlight Players |language=en-US}} A variety of performing arts venues includes the historic Dock Street Theatre. The annual Charleston Fashion Week held each spring in Marion Square brings in designers, journalists, and clients nationwide.{{Cite web |title=Lexus Charleston Fashion Week {{!}} The Events |url=https://theevents.charlestonfashionweek.com/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=theevents.charlestonfashionweek.com |language=en}} Charleston is known for its local seafood, which plays a key role in the city's renowned cuisine, comprising staple dishes such as gumbo, she-crab soup, fried oysters, Lowcountry boil, deviled crab cakes, red rice, and shrimp and grits. Rice is a staple in many dishes, reflecting the rice culture of the Low Country. The cuisine in Charleston is also strongly influenced by British and French elements.{{Cite web |last=Levine |first=Irene S. |date=2021-12-16 |title=The Cuisine of Charleston: A Unique Mix of History And Geography |url=https://www.moretimetotravel.com/the-cuisine-of-charleston-a-unique-mix-of-history-and-geography/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=More Time to Travel |language=en-US}}

Charleston annually hosts Spoleto Festival USA founded by Gian Carlo Menotti, a 17-day art festival featuring over 100 performances by individual artists in various disciplines.[http://www.charlestonspoleto.org/charleston-spoleto-festivals.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314202110/http://www.charlestonspoleto.org/charleston-spoleto-festivals.html|date=March 14, 2012}} The annual Piccolo Spoleto festival takes place at the same time and features local performers and artists, with hundreds of performances throughout the city. Other festivals and events include Historic Charleston Foundation's Festival of Houses and Gardens and Charleston Antiques Show,{{cite web |url=https://www.historiccharleston.org/Events.aspx |title=Events – Historic Charleston Foundation |website=Historiccharleston.org |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-date=June 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130610071904/https://www.historiccharleston.org/Events.aspx |url-status=live }} the Taste of Charleston, The Lowcountry Oyster Festival, the Cooper River Bridge Run, The Charleston Marathon,{{cite web |url=http://charlestonmarathon.com/ |title=MLK Weekend • Marathon · Half Marathon · 5k · Youth Marathon · Bike Ride • Going the Distance for the Arts |publisher=Charleston Marathon |date=January 14, 2017 |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-date=June 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620171946/http://charlestonmarathon.com/ |url-status=live }} Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE),{{cite web |url=http://www.sewe.com/ |title=Southeastern Wildlife Exposition 2017 |website=Sewe.com |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-date=September 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929135347/http://sewe.com/ |url-status=live }} Charleston Food and Wine Festival, Charleston Fashion Week, the MOJA Arts Festival, and the Holiday Festival of Lights (at James Island County Park), and the Charleston International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.CharlestonIFF.org |title=Charleston International Film Festival |website=Charlestoniff.org |date=May 18, 2017 |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106153129/http://www.charlestoniff.org/ |archive-date=November 6, 2014 }} The Charleston Conference is a major library industry event, held in the city center since 1980.{{cite web |url=http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/charleston-conference-to-flood-downtown-with-1600-bookworms/Content?oid=4226626 |title=Charleston Conference to flood downtown with 1,600 bookworms |last=Lawrence |first=Stratton |website=Charleston City Paper |access-date=April 29, 2017 |archive-date=January 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114073915/https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/charleston-conference-to-flood-downtown-with-1600-bookworms/Content?oid=4226626 }}

{{main|Music in Charleston}}

The Gullah community has had a tremendous influence on music in Charleston, especially when it comes to the early development of jazz music. In turn, Charleston's music has influenced the rest of the country. The geechee dances that accompanied the music of the dock workers in Charleston followed a rhythm that inspired Eubie Blake's "Charleston Rag" and later James P. Johnson's "Charleston", as well as the dance craze that defined a nation in the 1920s. "Ballin' the Jack", which was a popular dance in the years before "Charleston", was written by native Charlestonian Chris Smith.{{cite book |last=McCray |first=Jack |title=Charleston Jazz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hsWQcCvUTkC&pg=PA25 |date=June 6, 2007 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-4350-5 |pages=11, 12 |access-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-date=January 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116202512/https://books.google.com/books?id=5hsWQcCvUTkC&pg=PA25 |url-status=live }}

The Jenkins Orphanage was established in 1891 by the Rev. Daniel J. Jenkins in Charleston. The orphanage accepted donations of musical instruments, and Rev. Jenkins hired local Charleston musicians and Avery Institute Graduates to tutor the boys in music. As a result, Charleston musicians became proficient on various instruments and could read music expertly.{{cite book |last=McCray |first=Jack |title=Charleston Jazz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hsWQcCvUTkC&pg=PA25 |date=June 6, 2007 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-4350-5 |page=27 |access-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-date=January 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116202512/https://books.google.com/books?id=5hsWQcCvUTkC&pg=PA25 |url-status=live }} These traits set Jenkins musicians apart and helped land some of them positions in big bands with Duke Ellington and Count Basie. William "Cat" Anderson, Jabbo Smith, and Freddie Green are but a few of the alumni who became professional musicians. Orphanages around the country began to develop brass bands in the wake of the Jenkins Orphanage Band's success.{{Cite web |title=Jenkins Orphanage Band - Charleston, South Carolina |url=https://www.sciway.net/south-carolina/jenkins-orphanage.html |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=www.sciway.net}}{{Cite web |title=Our History |url=https://jenkinsinstitute.org/index.php/our-history |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=jenkinsinstitute.org |archive-date=November 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221106192650/https://jenkinsinstitute.org/index.php/our-history |url-status=dead }}

As many as five bands were on tour during the 1920s. The Jenkins Orphanage Band played in the inaugural parades of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft and toured the US and Europe.Edgar, Walter. South Carolina Encyclopedia (2006) pp. 590–591, {{ISBN|1-57003-598-9}} The band also played on Broadway for the play "Porgy" by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, a stage version of their novel of the same title. The story was based in Charleston and featured the Gullah community. The Heywards insisted on hiring the genuine Jenkins Orphanage Band to portray themselves on stage.{{cite web |last=Hubbert |first=Julie |title=Jenkins Orphanage |url=http://www.sc.edu/orphanfilm/orphanage/symposia/scholarship/hubbert/jenkins-orphanage.html/ |access-date=February 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929081937/http://www.sc.edu/orphanfilm/orphanage/symposia/scholarship/hubbert/jenkins-orphanage.html |archive-date=September 29, 2012 }} Only a few years later, DuBose Heyward collaborated with George and Ira Gershwin to turn his novel into the now famous opera, Porgy and Bess (so named to distinguish it from the play). George Gershwin and Heyward spent the summer of 1934 at Folly Beach outside of Charleston writing this "folk opera", as Gershwin called it. Porgy and Bess is considered one of the first Great American Operas and is widely performed.{{Cite web |title="Porgy and Bess," the first great American opera, premieres on Broadway |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/porgy-and-bess-the-first-great-american-opera-premieres-on-broadway |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}{{cite web |last=Erb |first=Jane |title=Porgy and Bess (1934) |url=http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/gershwin/porgy&bess.php |access-date=February 19, 2013 |archive-date=January 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130131112657/http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/gershwin/porgy%26bess.php |url-status=live }}

To this day, Charleston is home to many musicians in all genres.{{Cite web |title=Charleston SC Music: Full Guide to Symphonies, Bands, Singers, and Musicians |url=https://www.sciway.net/sc-bands/charleston-bands.html |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=www.sciway.net}} For example, Heyrocco is a local indie band.

Charleston has a vibrant theater scene, home to America's first theater. Most of the theaters are part of the League of Charleston Theatres, better known as Theatre Charleston.{{cite web |url=http://www.theatrecharleston.com |title=Theatre Charleston |work=theatrecharleston.com |access-date=September 4, 2015 |archive-date=September 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905224422/http://www.theatrecharleston.com/ |url-status=live }} Some of the city's theaters include:

• Dock Street Theatre, opened in the 1930s on the site of America's first purpose-built theater building, is home to the Charleston Stage Company, South Carolina's largest professional theater company.
• Queen Street Playhouse, a former cotton warehouse, was fully converted into a theater in 1986. It is the home of the Footlight Players, a Charleston theater troupe first organized in 1932.
• Sottile Theater, on the campus of the College of Charleston.

{{See also|Charleston Historic District}}

File:The Calhoun Mansion, Charleston, SC IMG 4648.JPG, at 16 Meeting Street, was built in 1876 by George Williams but derived its name from a later occupant, his grandson-in-law Patrick Calhoun.]]

File:Nathaniel Russell House (Front Façade).JPG, built in 1808]]

File:Customs_House_-_2013.jpg Dungeon, on Broad Street, built in 1767]]

Charleston has many historic buildings, art and historical museums, public parks, and other attractions, including:

• Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, established to collect, preserve, and make public African Americans' unique historical and cultural heritage in Charleston and the South Carolina Low Country. Avery's archival collections, museum exhibitions, and public programming reflect these diverse populations and the wider African Diaspora.
• The Battery, a historic defensive seawall and promenade located at the tip of the peninsula along with White Point Garden, a park featuring several memorials and Civil War-era artillery pieces.
• Calhoun Mansion, a {{convert|24000|sqft|adj=on}}, 1876 Victorian home at 16 Meeting Street, is named for a grandson of John C. Calhoun, who lived there with his wife, the builder's daughter. The private house is periodically open for tours.
• Charleston Museum, America's first museum, founded in 1773.
• Exchange and Provost, built in 1767, it is operated as a museum by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• Gibbes Museum of Art, opened in 1905, it houses principally American works with a Charleston or Southern connection.
• Gov. William Aiken House, also known as the Aiken-Rhett House, is a house museum built in 1820.
• Fireproof Building houses the South Carolina Historical Society, which offers a rotating series of historical displays.
• Fort Sumter, the site of the first shots fired in the Civil War, is located in Charleston Harbor. The National Park Service maintains a visitor center for Fort Sumter at Liberty Square (near the South Carolina Aquarium), and boat tours including the fort depart nearby.
• Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, a free a non-collecting contemporary arts organization.{{Cite web |title=Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art |url=http://halsey.cofc.edu/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051124184357/http://halsey.cofc.edu/ |archive-date=November 24, 2005 |access-date=May 30, 2018 |website=halsey.cofc.edu |language=en-US}}
• Heyward-Washington House, a historic house museum owned and operated by the Charleston Museum. The house is furnished in the late 18th century and includes a collection of Charleston-made furniture.
• International African American Museum, opened in 2023.
• Joseph Manigault House, a historic house museum owned and operated by the Charleston Museum. Gabriel Manigault designed the house, which is significant for its Adam style architecture.
• Market Hall and Sheds, also known as the City Market or simply the Market, stretches several blocks behind 188 Meeting Street. Market Hall, built in 1841, houses the United Daughters of the Confederacy Museum. The sheds house some permanent stores but are mainly occupied by open-air vendors.
• Nathaniel Russell House, a federal-style house open to the public as a house museum.
• Old Slave Mart Museum, located at 6 Chalmers Street in the historic district, is the first African American Museum. It has operated since 1938.{{cite web |title=Old Slave Mart Museum |url=http://www.oldslavemartmuseum.com/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612165904/http://www.oldslavemartmuseum.com/ |archive-date=June 12, 2016 |access-date=June 24, 2016 |website=www.oldslavemartmuseum.com/}}
• Powder Magazine, a 1713 gunpowder magazine and museum. It is the oldest surviving public building in South Carolina.
• Rainbow Row, an iconic strip of homes along the harbor, dates back to the mid-18th century. Though the houses are not open to the public, they are one of the most photographed attractions in the city and are featured heavily in local art.{{cite news |last=Jinkins |first=Shirley |title=Charleston S.C. has had a long and turbulent history, but a remarkable number of its buildings have survived |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |date=February 23, 1997 |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/49585150.html?dids=49585150:49585150&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+23%2C+1997&author=Shirley+Jinkins&pub=The+Sun&desc=Charleston+S.C.+has+had+a+long+and+turbulent+history%2C+but+a+remarkable+number+of+its+buildings+have+survived.&pqatl=google |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120729104311/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/49585150.html?dids=49585150:49585150&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+23,+1997&author=Shirley+Jinkins&pub=The+Sun&desc=Charleston+S.C.+has+had+a+long+and+turbulent+history,+but+a+remarkable+number+of+its+buildings+have+survived.&pqatl=google |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 29, 2012 |access-date=May 30, 2012}}
• South Carolina Aquarium, includes revolving exhibits while its permanent focus is on the aquatic life of South Carolina.
• Waterfront Park, located on the Cooper River.{{cite web |url=https://www.planning.org/greatplaces/spaces/2008/waterfrontpark.htm |title=Waterfront Park: Charleston, South Carolina |website=www.planning.org |access-date=April 27, 2016 |archive-date=October 12, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012050054/https://www.planning.org/greatplaces/spaces/2008/waterfrontpark.htm |url-status=live }}

File:Blackbaud Stadium 2.jpg, home of the Charleston Battery from 1998 until 2019]]

Charleston is home to some professional, minor league, and amateur sports teams:

• Charleston RiverDogs, a Minor League Baseball team, plays in the Single-A Carolina League and are an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.{{cite web |title=RiverDogs renew affiliation with Tampa Bay Rays |url=https://charlestonbusiness.com/news/hospitality-and-tourism/79740/ |website=charlestonbusiness.com |date=December 11, 2020 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |archive-date=December 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201212062909/https://charlestonbusiness.com/news/hospitality-and-tourism/79740/ |url-status=live }} The RiverDogs play at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park.
• Charleston Battery, a professional soccer team, play in the USL Championship. The Battery plays at Patriots Point Soccer Complex.
• South Carolina Stingrays, a professional hockey team, plays in the ECHL. The Stingrays play in North Charleston at the North Charleston Coliseum. The Stingrays are an affiliate of the Washington Capitals and Hershey Bears.
• Credit One Charleston Open, a major Women's Tennis Association Event, hosted at Credit One Stadium, on Daniel Island.
• Charleston Outlaws RFC, a rugby union club in the Palmetto Rugby Union, USA Rugby South, and USA Rugby. It competes in Men's Division II against the Cape Fear, Columbia, Greenville, and Charlotte "B" clubs. The club also hosts a rugby sevens tournament during Memorial Day weekend.
• Lowcountry Highrollers, a women's flat-track roller derby league in the Charleston area. The league is a local Women's Flat Track Derby Association member.
• Charleston Gaelic Athletic Association, a Gaelic athletic club focusing on the sports of hurling and Gaelic football. The club competes in the Southeastern Division of the North American County Board of the GAA. The club hosts other division clubs in the Holy City Cup each spring.{{cite web |title=Charleston Hurling Club |publisher=Charleston Hurling Club |url=http://charlestonhurling.com/ |access-date=March 30, 2015 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402142532/http://charlestonhurling.com/ |url-status=live }}

Other notable sports venues in Charleston include Johnson Hagood Stadium (home of The Citadel Bulldogs football team), McAlister Field House (home of The Citadel Bulldogs basketball team), and Toronto Dominion Bank Arena at the College of Charleston, which seats 5,100 people who view the school's basketball and volleyball teams.

{{Main|Creative works set in Charleston, South Carolina|List of television shows and films set in Charleston, South Carolina}}

Various books and films have been set in Charleston; some of the best-known works are listed below. In addition, Charleston is a popular filming location for movies and television, both in its own right and as a stand-in for Southern historical settings.

• Porgy (1925), by DuBose Heyward, adapted into the play in 1927. George Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess (1935), based on the novel Porgy, is set in Charleston and was partially written at Folly Beach, near Charleston. A film version was released in 1959.
• North and South, series of books by John Jakes, was partially set in Charleston. The North and South miniseries was partially set and filmed in Charleston.
• Part of the 1989 film Glory, starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman, features the 1863 Second Battle of Fort Wagner on Morris Island.
• The movies Swamp Thing (1982) and The Lords of Discipline (1983) (based on the novel by Pat Conroy) were partly filmed in Charleston.Barth, Jack (1991). Roadside Hollywood: The Movie Lover's State-By-State Guide to Film Locations, Celebrity Hangouts, Celluloid Tourist Attractions, and More. Contemporary Books. Page 177. {{ISBN|9780809243266}}.

{{see also|Economy of South Carolina#Modern_economy|label 1=Economy of South Carolina}}

Commercial shipping is important to the economy. The city has two shipping terminals, of a total of five terminals owned and operated by the South Carolina Ports Authority in the Charleston metropolitan area, which are part of the fourth-largest container seaport on the East Coast and the seventh-largest container seaport in the United States.{{cite web |title=Top 25 Water Ports by Containerized Cargo |url=https://www.bts.dot.gov/browse-statistical-products-and-data/freight-facts-and-figures/top-25-water-ports-containerized |website=USDOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics - Freight Facts and Figures Figure 3-11 |language=en |date=October 13, 2020 |access-date=October 13, 2020 |archive-date=October 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018140054/https://www.bts.gov/top-25-water-ports-containerized-cargo-0 |url-status=live }} The port is also used to transfer cars and car parts for Charleston's auto manufacturing business, such as Mercedes and Volvo.{{cite web |title=Volvo shows off its new car plant in South Carolina |url=https://www.autoblog.com/2018/06/20/volvo-first-us-factory-south-carolina/ |website=Autoblog |language=en |date=June 20, 2018 |access-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-date=January 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125121929/https://www.autoblog.com/2018/06/20/volvo-first-us-factory-south-carolina/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last1=Wren |first1=David |title=Volvo to build Charleston-area battery plant to power SC-made vehicles |url=https://www.postandcourier.com/business/volvo-to-build-charleston-area-battery-plant-to-power-sc/article_c44113a4-33cd-11ea-a049-5f0cafb689af.html |website=Post and Courier |date=January 13, 2020 |language=en |access-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-date=January 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200113231223/https://www.postandcourier.com/business/volvo-to-build-charleston-area-battery-plant-to-power-sc/article_c44113a4-33cd-11ea-a049-5f0cafb689af.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Automotive Industry in Charleston, SC - Auto Business |url=https://www.crda.org/automotive/ |website=www.crda.org |access-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-date=February 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223200214/https://www.crda.org/automotive/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=South Carolina Car and Automotive Manufacturers |url=https://www.sciway.net/bus/automfgs.html |website=www.sciway.net |access-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-date=February 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223200212/https://www.sciway.net/bus/automfgs.html |url-status=live }}

Sometimes known as Silicon Harbor,{{cite web | last=Swartz | first=Jon | title=Silicon Harbor has become a tech landing spot for some weary city dwellers | website=USA TODAY | date=2017-07-29 | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2017/07/29/silicon-harbor-has-become-tech-landing-spot-some-weary-city-dwellers/481879001/ | access-date=2022-07-06}}{{cite web | title=Charleston is Silicon Harbor | website=Charleston is Known As Silicon Harbor | date=2019-11-18 | url=https://blogs.cofc.edu/gradschool/2019/11/18/charleston-is-silicon-harbor/ | access-date=2022-07-06}} the city is becoming a popular location for high tech and innovation,{{cite web |url=https://huffingtonpost.com/lisa-chau/charleston-south-carolina_b_7796950.html |title=Charleston, South Carolina Outpaces the Nation in Tech Growth |last=Chau |first=Lisa |date=July 15, 2015 |website=HuffingtonPost.com |access-date=January 21, 2017 |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202003023/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-chau/charleston-south-carolina_b_7796950.html |url-status=live }} and this sector has had the highest rate of growth between 2011 and 2012, due in large part to the Charleston Digital Corridor. In 2013, the Milken Institute ranked the Charleston region as the ninth-best performing economy in the US because of its growing IT sector. Notable companies include Blackbaud, Greystar Real Estate Partners, Evening Post Industries, Le Creuset, SPARC a Booz Allen Hamilton subsidiary, BoomTown, CSS, and Benefitfocus.

In June 2017, the mean sales price for a home in Charleston was $351,186 ({{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=351186|start_year=2017|r=-2|fmt=eq}}) and the median price was $260,000 ({{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=260000|start_year=2017|r=-2|fmt=eq}}).{{cite web |url=http://www.charlestonrealtors.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CTAR_MMI_2017-06.pdf |title=Monthly Indicators |publisher=Charleston Trident Association of REALTORS |page=2 |date=June 2017 |access-date=July 25, 2017 |archive-date=August 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814221521/http://www.charlestonrealtors.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CTAR_MMI_2017-06.pdf |url-status=live }}

As of the city's 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report,{{cite web |url=https://www.charleston-sc.gov/125/Annual-Comprehensive-Financial-Reports |title=Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports |publisher=Charleston, South Carolina |website=charleston-sc.gov}} the Charleston metropolitan area's top employers are:

{{stack|float=right|File:Spoleto Opening 2013.JPG is open to visitors for free historical tours (shown here during Spoleto Festival USA)]]}}

Charleston has a strong mayor–council government, with the mayor acting as the chief administrator and the executive officer of the municipality. The mayor also presides over city council meetings and has a vote, the same as other council members. The current mayor, since 2024, is Republican William S. Cogswell Jr. The council has 12 members who are each elected from single-member districts.

File:Charlestonfd.JPG

The City of Charleston Fire Department consists of over 300 full-time firefighters. These firefighters operate out of 21 companies located throughout the city: 16 engine companies, two tower companies, two ladder companies, a heavy rescue company, a HAZ-MAT unit, and several special units. Training, Fire Marshall, Operations, and Administration are the department's divisions.{{cite web |url=http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=6677598 |title=Investigation examining Charleston firefighters' handling of deadly blaze |date=June 19, 2007 |publisher=Ksla.com |access-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140717143939/http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=6677598 |archive-date=July 17, 2014 |df=mdy-all}} The department operates on a 24/48 schedule and is a Class 1 ISO rating.{{Cite web|url=https://powerofattorneycalifornia.net/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327074539/http://www.charlestoncity.info/dept/content.aspx?nid=114&cid=411|url-status=dead|title=California Power of Attorney | Providing POA Forms for California|archivedate=March 27, 2012|website=powerofattorneycalifornia.net}} Russell (Rusty) Thomas served as Fire Chief until June 2008, and was succeeded by Chief Thomas Carr in November 2008. Chief Daniel Curia presently leads the department.

The City of Charleston Police Department, with 456 sworn officers and 117 civilians is South Carolina's largest police department.{{Cite web|url=https://powerofattorneycalifornia.net/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207061132/http://www.charlestoncity.info/dept/content.aspx?nid=237&cid=1109|url-status=dead|title=California Power of Attorney | Providing POA Forms for California|archivedate=February 7, 2012|website=powerofattorneycalifornia.net}} Chico Walker serves as the current Chief of Police. He follows Luther Reynolds, Greg Mullen and Reuben Greenberg. Chief Reynolds is credited with continuing successful community outreach programs such as The Illumination Project and fostering a culture of mutual respect. Under Chief Reynolds, the agency has successfully withstood challenges such as the Coronavirus and downtown disturbances. Additionally, the agency continues to recruit police candidates in a competitive market.

Emergency medical services (EMS) for the city are provided by Charleston County Emergency Medical Services (CCEMS) & Berkeley County Emergency Medical Services (BCEMS). The city is served by the EMS and 911 services of both Charleston and Berkeley counties since the city is part of both counties.

Charleston is the primary medical center for the eastern portion of the state. The city has several major hospitals located in the downtown area: Medical University of South Carolina Medical Center (MUSC), Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center,{{cite web |url=http://www.charleston.va.gov/ |title=Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center |website=Charleston.va.gov |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-date=June 4, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080604225502/http://www.charleston.va.gov/ |url-status=live }} and Roper Hospital.{{cite web |url=http://www.ropersaintfrancis.com/roper/ |title=Charleston Hospital – Roper Hospital – Roper St. Francis – Roper St. Francis |first=Carly |last=Messmer |website=Ropersaintfrancis.com |access-date=December 21, 2005 |archive-date=July 18, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718231356/http://www.ropersaintfrancis.com/roper/ }} MUSC is the state's first school of medicine, the largest medical university in the state, and the sixth-oldest continually operating school of medicine in the United States. The downtown medical district is experiencing rapid growth of biotechnology and medical research industries coupled with substantial expansions of all the major hospitals. Additionally, more expansions are planned or underway at another major hospital located in the West Ashley portion of the city: Bon Secours-St Francis Xavier Hospital.{{cite web |url=http://www.carealliance.com/bssf/default.asp/ |title=Roper St. Francis Healthcare | Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital |access-date=December 14, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090420032524/http://www.carealliance.com/bssf/default.asp |archive-date=April 20, 2009}} The Trident Regional Medical Center[http://www.tridenthealthsystem.com/CustomPage.asp?guidCustomContentID=1BC3E34B-F91D-11D3-A2CA-00508B1245EF/]{{dead link|date=May 2017}} located in the City of North Charleston and East Cooper Regional Medical Center{{cite web |url=http://www.eastcoopermedctr.com/CWSContent/eastcoopermedctr/ |title=Compassionate Pregnancy & Child Birth Services – East Cooper Medical Center |last=RC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201161757/http://eastcoopermedctr.com/CWSContent/eastcoopermedctr |archive-date=February 1, 2009}} located in Mount Pleasant also serve the needs of residents of the city of Charleston.

Coast Guard Station Charleston responds to search and rescue emergencies, conducts maritime law enforcement activities, and performs ports, waterways, and coastal security (PWCS) missions. Personnel from Station Charleston are highly trained professionals, composed of federal law enforcement officers, boat crew members, and coxswains capable of completing various missions. In 2020, the Coast Guard announced plans to construct a {{convert|2800|acres|km2|adj=on}} "superbase" on the former Charleston Naval Shipyard complex to consolidate all its Charleston-area facilities and become the homeport for five Security cutters and additional offshore cutters. Construction began on the Superbase in 2024.{{Cite news |last=Novelly |first=Thomas |title=Coast Guard's North Charleston base and Mount Pleasant JROTC program get federal support |date=2020-07-20|language=en |work=Post & Courier |location=Charleston, South Carolina |url=https://www.postandcourier.com/militarydigest/coast-guards-north-charleston-base-and-mount-pleasant-jrotc-program-get-federal-support/article_c8585fd0-ca9d-11ea-978c-1be366aa2ad2.html |access-date=2022-08-03}}{{Cite news |last=Evans |first=Clay Bonnyman |date=2020-04-20 |title=Power Port |language=en-gb |work=Hilton Head Monthly |url=https://www.hiltonheadmonthly.com/news/hilton-head/6350-power-port |access-date=2022-08-03 |archive-date=September 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925144424/https://www.hiltonheadmonthly.com/news/hilton-head/6350-power-port |url-status=dead }}

• Coast Guard Eurocopter HH-65 Dolphin, Johns Island
• Coast Guard Helicopter Air Facility, Johns Island, Charleston
• Coast Guard Maritime Law Enforcement Academy
• Coast Guard Reserves, Charleston
• Coast Guard Station Charleston
• USCGC Anvil, 75-foot inland construction tender, Charleston
• USCGC Calhoun (WMSL-759) National Security Cutter
• USCGC Friedman (WMSL-760) National Security Cutter (2024 Delivery)
• USCGC Hamilton (WMSL-753) National Security Cutter
• USCGC James (WMSL-754) National Security Cutter
• USCGC Stone (WMSL-758) National Security Cutter
• USCGC Willow, (WLB-202), Charleston
• USCGC Yellowfin, Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat, Charleston

• Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District Headquarters
• Joint Base Charleston (Navy & Air Force)
• U.S. Coast Guard

The following table shows Charleston's crime rate for six crimes that Morgan Quitno uses to calculate the ranking of "America's most dangerous cities" in comparison to the national average. The statistics shown are for the number of crimes committed per 100,000 people. Since 1999, the overall crime rate in Charleston has declined markedly. Charleston's total crime index rate in 1999 was 597.1 crimes committed per 100,000 people, while in 2011, the total crime index rate was 236.4 per 100,000.{{Cite web |title=Morgan Quitno Press |url=http://www.morganquitno.com/index.htm |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=www.morganquitno.com}}

The City of Charleston is served by the Charleston International Airport. It is located in the City of North Charleston and is about {{cvt|12|mi}} northwest of downtown Charleston. It is the busiest passenger airport in South Carolina {{airport codes|CHS|KCHS}}. The airport shares runways with the adjacent Charleston Air Force Base. Charleston Executive Airport is a smaller airport located in Charleston's John's Island section and is used by noncommercial aircraft. Both airports are owned and operated by the Charleston County Aviation Authority. As of April 2019, British Airways does seasonal non-stop flights from Charleston to London-Heathrow.

Charleston is served by two daily Amtrak trains: The Palmetto and Silver Meteor at the Amtrak station, located at 4565 Gaynor Avenue in the City of North Charleston, which is approximately 7.5 miles from downtown Charleston.

I-26 begins in Downtown Charleston, with exits to the Septima Clark Expressway, the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge and Meeting Street. Heading northwest, it connects the city to North Charleston, the Charleston International Airport, I-95, and Columbia. The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge and Septima Clark Expressway are part of US 17, which travels east–west through Charleston and Mount Pleasant. The Mark Clark Expressway, or I-526, is the bypass around the city and begins and ends at US 17. US 52 is Meeting Street and its spur is East Bay Street, which becomes Morrison Drive after leaving the east side. This highway merges with King Street in the city's Neck area (industrial district). US 78 is King Street in the downtown merging with Meeting Street.

• {{Jct|state=SC|I|26}} (eastern terminus is in Charleston)
• {{Jct|state=SC|I|526}}
• {{Jct|state=SC|US|17}}
• {{Jct|state=SC|US|52}} (eastern terminus is in Charleston)
• {{Jct|state=SC|US|78}} (eastern terminus is in Charleston)
• {{Jct|state=SC|SC|7}} (Sam Rittenberg Boulevard)
• {{Jct|state=SC|SC|30}} (James Island Expressway)
• {{Jct|state=SC|SC|61}} (St. Andrews Boulevard/Ashley River Road)
• {{Jct|state=SC|SC|171}} (Old Towne Road/Folly Road)
• {{Jct|state=SC|SC|461}} (Paul Cantrell Boulevard/Glenn McConnell Parkway)
• {{Jct|state=SC|SC|700}} (Maybank Highway)

The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge across the Cooper River opened on July 16, 2005, and was the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Americas at the time of its construction.{{Cite web |title=The $540 Million Super-Strong, Robust Cable-Stayed Bridge In Charleston {{!}} Manufacturing America |date=March 2, 2015 |url=http://www.magoda.com/construction/the-540-million-super-strong-robust-cable-stayed-bridge-in-charleston/ |access-date=2020-07-31 |language=en-US |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108094450/http://www.magoda.com/construction/the-540-million-super-strong-robust-cable-stayed-bridge-in-charleston/ |url-status=live }} The bridge links downtown Charleston with Mount Pleasant, and has eight lanes plus a 12-foot lane shared by pedestrians and bicycles. The bridge's height varies but is estimated at 573 feet. It replaced the Grace Memorial Bridge (built in 1929) and the Silas N. Pearman Bridge (built in 1966). They were considered two of the more dangerous bridges in America and were demolished after the Ravenel Bridge opened.

File:Ravenel Bridge at night from Mt Pleasant (cropped).jpg Arthur Ravenel Jr., who pushed the project to fruition, was at the time of its construction the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere.]]

The city is also served by a bus system operated by the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA). Most of the urban area is served by regional fixed-route buses equipped with bike racks as part of the system's Rack and Ride program. CARTA offers connectivity to historic downtown attractions and accommodations with the Downtown Area Shuttle trolley buses, and it offers curbside pickup for disabled passengers with its Tel-A-Ride buses. A bus rapid transit system is in development, called Lowcountry Rapid Transit, that will connect Charleston to Summerville through North Charleston.

Rural parts of the city and metropolitan area are served by a different bus system operated by the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Rural Transportation Management Association. The system is also commonly called the TriCounty Link.{{cite web |url=http://www.ridetricountylink.com/index.html |title=TriCounty Link rural bus service with flagstop system serving Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties of South Carolina |publisher=Ridetricountylink.com |access-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141101032104/http://www.ridetricountylink.com/index.html |archive-date=November 1, 2014 |df=mdy-all}}

{{Main|Port of Charleston}}

File:The 13,092-TEU container ship COSCO Development works at the Port of Charleston's Wando Welch Terminal.jpg

The Port of Charleston, owned and operated by the South Carolina Ports Authority, is one of the largest ports in the United States, ranked seventh in the top 25 by containerized cargo volume in 2018. It consists of six terminals, with the sixth opening in April 2021.{{cite web |title=Charleston Opens First New U.S. Container Terminal in 12 Years |url=https://maritime-executive.com/article/charleston-opens-first-new-u-s-container-terminal-in-12-years |website=The Maritime Executive |access-date=April 10, 2021 |language=en |date=April 9, 2021 |archive-date=April 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210409234212/https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/charleston-opens-first-new-u-s-container-terminal-in-12-years |url-status=live }} Port activity at the two terminals located in the city of Charleston is one of the city's leading sources of revenue, behind tourism.

Today, the Port of Charleston boasts the deepest water in the southeast region and regularly handles ships too big to transit through the Panama Canal. A harbor-deepening project was completed,{{cite web |date=October 13, 2020 |title=Harbor Deepening |url=http://scspa.com/facilities/port-expansion/harbor-deepening/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014010914/http://scspa.com/facilities/port-expansion/harbor-deepening/ |archive-date=October 14, 2020 |access-date=October 13, 2020 |website=South Carolina Ports |language=en}} which makes the Port of Charleston's entrance channel a depth of {{convert|54|ft}} and harbor channel 52 feet at mean low tide. With an average high tide of {{convert|6|ft}}, the depth clearances will become {{convert|60|ft}} and 58 feet, respectively. At {{convert|52|ft}}, the Port of Charleston is the deepest harbor on the East Coast.{{Cite web |date=December 5, 2022 |title=Charleston has deepest harbor on East Coast at 52 feet |url=https://scspa.com/news/charleston-has-deepest-harbor-on-east-coast-at-52-feet/ |access-date=April 4, 2024 |website=South Carolina Ports |language=en-US}}

Part of Union Pier Terminal in Charleston is a cruise ship passenger terminal hosting numerous cruise departures annually through 2019. Beginning in May 2019, until cruise operations were interrupted in April 2020, the Carnival Sunshine was permanently stationed in Charleston, offering 4, 5, and 7-day cruises to the Caribbean.{{cite web |title=Newer, larger Carnival Sunshine to call Charleston home beginning in 2019 |url=https://www.postandcourier.com/business/newer-larger-carnival-sunshine-to-call-charleston-home-beginning-in-2019/article_788e2410-db50-11e7-b310-27d2608ad604.html |website=postandcourier.com |language=en |date=December 7, 2017 |access-date=October 13, 2020 |archive-date=October 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017144430/https://www.postandcourier.com/business/newer-larger-carnival-sunshine-to-call-charleston-home-beginning-in-2019/article_788e2410-db50-11e7-b310-27d2608ad604.html |url-status=live }}

With the closure of the Naval Base and the Charleston Naval Shipyard in 1996, Detyens, Inc. signed a long-term lease. Detyens Shipyard, Inc. is one of the East Coast's most extensive commercial marine repair facilities, with three dry docks, one floating dock, and six piers. Projects include military, commercial, and cruise ships.

{{See also|List of schools in Charleston, South Carolina}}

File:Randolph_hall_college_of_charleston.JPG]]

Because most of the city of Charleston is located in Charleston County, it is served by the Charleston County School District, which covers all of Charleston County.{{cite web|url=https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st45_sc/schooldistrict_maps/c45019_charleston/DC20SD_C45019.pdf|title=2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Charleston County, SC|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|access-date=2024-10-25}} - [https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st45_sc/schooldistrict_maps/c45019_charleston/DC20SD_C45019_SD2MS.txt Text list] Part of the city, however, is served by the Berkeley County School District, which covers all of Berkeley County.{{cite web|url=https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st45_sc/schooldistrict_maps/c45015_berkeley/DC20SD_C45015.pdf|title=2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Berkeley County, SC|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|access-date=2024-10-25}} - [https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st45_sc/schooldistrict_maps/c45015_berkeley/DC20SD_C45015_SD2MS.txt Text list] This Berkeley County section includes northern portions of the city, such as the Cainhoy Industrial District, Cainhoy Historical District, and Daniel Island.

Charleston is also served by a large number of independent schools, including Porter-Gaud School (K-12), Charleston Collegiate School (K-12), Ashley Hall (Pre K-12), Charleston Day School (K-8), First Baptist Church School (K-12), Palmetto Christian Academy (K-12), Coastal Christian Preparatory School (K-12), Mason Preparatory School{{cite web |url=http://www.masonprep.org/ |title=Private School Charleston SC – Mason Preparatory School |website=Masonprep.org |date=May 24, 2017 |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-date=July 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727070541/http://www.masonprep.org/ |url-status=live }} (K-8), and Addlestone Hebrew Academy (K-8).

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston Office of Education also operates out of the city and oversees several K-8 parochial schools, such as Blessed Sacrament School, Christ Our King School, Charleston Catholic School, Nativity School, and Divine Redeemer School, all of which are "feeder" schools into Bishop England High School, a diocesan high school within the city. Bishop England, Porter-Gaud School, and Ashley Hall are the city's oldest and most prominent private schools and are a significant part of Charleston's history, dating back some 150 years.

Public institutions of higher education in Charleston include the College of Charleston, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and the Medical University of South Carolina. The city is also home to private schools, including the Charleston Southern University and Charleston School of Law. Charleston is also home to the Roper Hospital School of Practical Nursing, and the city has a downtown satellite campus for the region's technical school, Trident Technical College. Charleston has the only college in the country that offers bachelor's degrees in the building arts, The American College of the Building Arts.{{cite web |url=http://www.buildingartscollege.us/ |title=Welcome – American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, SC |website=Buildingartscollege.us |date=July 12, 2016 |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080217013414/http://buildingartscollege.us/ |archive-date=February 17, 2008 }}

{{Main|Media in Charleston, South Carolina}}

Charleston is the nation's 89th-largest Designated market area (DMA), with 332,770 households and 0.27% of the U.S. TV population.{{cite web |url=http://www.postandcourier.com/news/business |title=Charleston drops in TV market pecking order |access-date=September 8, 2010 |archive-date=September 9, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100909003043/http://www.postandcourier.com/news/business/ |url-status=live }} These stations are licensed in Charleston and have significant operations or viewers in the city:{{cite web |url=http://tvstations.procontentanddesign.com/browse/city/185_Charleston_SC.htm |title=Television station listings in Charleston, South Carolina – Total station FCC filings found |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715120014/http://tvstations.procontentanddesign.com/browse/city/185_Charleston_SC.htm |archive-date=July 15, 2011 |df=mdy-all}}

• WCBD-TV (2, NBC, CW+)
• WGWG (4, MeTV)
• WCSC-TV (5, CBS, Bounce TV, Grit)
• WITV (7, PBS)
• WLCN-CD (18, CTN)
• WTAT-TV (24, Fox)
• WAZS-CD (29, Azteca America Independent)
• WJNI-CD (31, America One Independent)
• WCIV (36, MyNetworkTV, ABC)

{{main|List of people from Charleston, South Carolina}}

Charleston's sister cities are:{{cite web |title=Our Sister Cities |url=https://www.charlestonsistercities.org/sister-cities |publisher=Charleston Sister Cities International |access-date=2021-01-20 |archive-date=May 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527194909/https://www.charlestonsistercities.org/sister-cities |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ouest-france.fr/normandie/flers-61100/flers-le-jumelage-avec-charleston-en-caroline-du-sud-officialise-e9aa3fc6-d75e-11ec-862e-32dcdc637907|title=Flers. Le jumelage avec Charleston, en Caroline du Sud, officialisé|first=Nicolas|last=GUÉGAN|date=May 20, 2022|website=Ouest-France.fr}}

• {{flagicon|Qatar}} Doha, Qatar
• {{flagicon|Sierra Leone}} Freetown, Sierra Leone
• {{flagicon|Panama}} Panama City, Panama
• {{flagicon|Barbados}} Speightstown, Barbados
• {{flagicon|Italy}} Spoleto, Italy
• {{flagicon|France}} Flers, France

The relationship with Spoleto began when Pulitzer Prize-winning Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti selected Charleston as the city to host the American version of Spoleto's annual Festival of Two Worlds. "Looking for a city that would provide the charm of Spoleto, as well as its wealth of theaters, churches, and other performance spaces, they selected Charleston, South Carolina, as the ideal location. The historic city provided a perfect fit: intimate enough that the Festival would captivate the entire city, yet cosmopolitan enough to provide an enthusiastic audience and robust infrastructure."

Sister city relation with Panama City was described as follows:{{cite web |title=Panama City |url=https://www.charlestonsistercities.org/panama-city |publisher=Charleston Sister Cities International |access-date=2021-01-20 |archive-date=May 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527194854/https://www.charlestonsistercities.org/panama-city |url-status=live }}

{{Blockquote|As you may be aware, the city of Charleston, like the city of Panama City, is a historic port City that shares a proud and prosperous history. Our stories are very similar as reflected by our citizens of European, African, Caribbean, native descent, our cuisine, our architecture, and our mutual modern growth in meritime commerce. As Panama City is enjoying a global surge of interest so is Charleston, being ranked as a top destination for travellers, commerce, technology, education, culture and fashion.|source=The Honorable Joseph P. Riley Jr., Mayor, City of Charleston 1974–2016}}

Charleston is also twinned with Speightstown. The first colonists to settle in the region designed the original parts of Charlestown based on the plans of Barbados's capital city, Bridgetown.[http://www.discoversouthcarolina.com/files/pdfs/African%20American/SC-Barbados-connection.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524181026/http://www.discoversouthcarolina.com/files/pdfs/African%20American/SC-Barbados-connection.pdf|date=May 24, 2013}} Many indigo, tobacco, and cotton planters relocated their plantation operations and the people they enslaved from Speightstown to Charleston after the sugarcane industry came to dominate agricultural production in Barbados.{{cite web |url=http://www.sciway.net/sn/43.html |title=Barbados: South Carolina's Mother Colony |publisher=Sciway.net |access-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-date=October 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023100344/http://www.sciway.net/sn/43.html |url-status=live }}

{{Portal|United States|South Carolina|Cities}}

• Anson Street African Burial Ground
• List of municipalities in South Carolina
• USS Charleston, 6 ships

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite EB9 |mode=cs2 |wstitle=Charleston |volume=5 |last= Dallas |first=William Leist Eneas Sweetland |author-link= Eneas Sweetland Dallas|ref={{harvid|EB|1878}} |pages=428–429}}
• {{cite EB1911 |mode=cs2 |wstitle=Charleston (South Carolina) |volume=5 |ref={{harvid|EB|1911}} |pages=943–945}}
• {{citation |last=Edgar |first=Walter B. |title=South Carolina: A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFSbwGk2szgC |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |date=1998 |location=Columbia |isbn=9781570032554}}
• {{citation |last=Frazier |first=Herb |author2=Bernard Edward Powers Jr. |last3=Wentworth |first3=Marjory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7o7CwAAQBAJ |title=We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel |publisher=W Publishing |location=Nashville |date=2016 |ref={{harvid|Frazier & al.|2016}}|isbn=9780718041496 }}.
• {{citation |last=McInnis |first=Maurie D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8g3CwAAQBAJ |title=The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston |location=Chapel Hill |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |date=2005 |isbn=9781469625997}}
• {{citation |last=Thompson |first=Michael D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cs27BwAAQBAJ |title=Working on the Dock of the Bay: Labor and Enterprise in an Antebellum Southern Port |date=2015 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |location=Columbia |isbn=9781611174755}}

• Borick, Carl P. A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston, 1780. University of South Carolina Press, 2003. 332 pp.
• Bull, Kinloch Jr. The Oligarchs in Colonial and Revolutionary Charleston: Lieutenant Governor William Bull II and His Family. University of South Carolina Press, 1991. 415 pp.
• Clarke, Peter. A Free Church in a Free Society. The Ecclesiology of John England, Bishop of Charleston, 1820–1842, a Nineteenth Century Missionary Bishop in the Southern United States. Charleston, South Carolina: Bagpipe, 1982. 561 pp.
• Coker, P. C., III. Charleston's Maritime Heritage, 1670–1865: An Illustrated History. Charleston, South Carolina: Coker-Craft, 1987. 314 pp.
• Doyle, Don H. New Men, New Cities, New South: Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston, Mobile, 1860–1910. University of North Carolina Press, 1990. 369 pp.
• Fraser, Walter J. Jr. Charleston! Charleston! The History of a Southern City. University of South Carolina, 1990. 542 pp. the standard scholarly history
• Gillespie, Joanna Bowen. The Life and Times of Martha Laurens Ramsay, 1759–1811. University of South Carolina Press, 2001.
• Goloboy, Jennifer L. Charleston and the Emergence of Middle-Class Culture in the Revolutionary Era. Athens, GA; University of Georgia Press, 2016.
• Hagy, James William. This Happy Land: The Jews of Colonial and Antebellum Charleston. University of Alabama Press, 1993.
• Hart, Emma. Building Charleston: Town and Society in the Eighteenth Century British Atlantic World (University of Virginia Press 2010, University of South Carolina Press 2015)
• Jaher, Frederic Cople. The Urban Establishment: Upper Strata in Boston, New York, Charleston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. University of Illinois Press, 1982. 777 pp.
• Pease, William H. and Pease, Jane H. The Web of Progress: Private Values and Public Styles in Boston and Charleston, 1828–1843. Oxford University Press, 1985. 352 pp.
• Pease, Jane H. and Pease, William H. A Family of Women: The Carolina Petigrus in Peace and War. University of North Carolina Press, 1999. 328 pp.
• Pease, Jane H. and Pease, William H. Ladies, Women, and Wenches: Choice and Constraint in Antebellum Charleston and Boston. University of North Carolina Press, 1990. 218 pp.
• Phelps, W. Chris. The Bombardment of Charleston, 1863–1865. Gretna, La.: Pelican, 2002. 175 pp.
• Rosen, Robert N. Confederate Charleston: An Illustrated History of the City and the People during the Civil War. University of South Carolina Press, 1994. 181 pp.
• Spence, E. Lee. Treasures of the Confederate Coast: the "real Rhett Butler" & Other Revelations (Narwhal Press, Charleston/Miami, ©1995) {{ISBN|1-886391-01-7}} {{ISBN|1-886391-00-9}}, {{OCLC|32431590}}

• Cothran, James R. Gardens of Historic Charleston. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. 177 pp.
• Greene, Harlan. Mr. Skylark: John Bennett and the Charleston Renaissance. University of Georgia Press, 2001. 372 pp.
• Hutchisson, James M. DuBose Heyward: A Charleston Gentleman and the World of Porgy and Bess. University Press of Mississippi, 2000. 225 pp.
• {{cite book |editor-last1=Jacoby |editor-first1=Mary Moore |title=The Churches of Charleston and the Lowcountry |place=Columbia South Carolina |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=1994 |type=hardback |isbn=0-87249-888-3}} {{ISBN|978-0-87249-888-4}}.
• {{cite book |last1=McCandless |first1=Peter |title=Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139499149}}
• O'Brien, Michael and Moltke-Hansen, David, ed. Intellectual Life in Antebellum Charleston. University of Tennessee Press, 1986. 468 pp.
• Poston, Jonathan H. The Buildings of Charleston: A Guide to the City's Architecture. University of South Carolina Press, 1997. 717 pp.
• {{cite book |last1=Severens |first1=Kenneth |title=Charleston Antebellum Architecture and Civic Destiny |place=Knoxville |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |type=hardback |page=315 |year=1988 |isbn=0-87049-555-0}} {{ISBN|978-0-87049-555-7}}
• {{citation |last1=Huger Smith |first1=Alice Ravenel |url=https://archive.org/details/dwellinghousesof00smitrich |last2=Huger Smith |first2=Daniel Elliott |ref={{harvid|Huger Smith & al.|1917}} |title=The Dwelling House of Charleston, South Carolina |last3=Simons |first3=Albert |location=Philadelphia |publisher=J.B. Lippincott & Co.|year=1917 }}
• Stephens, Lester D. Science, Race, and Religion in the American South: John Bachman and the Charleston Circle of Naturalists, 1815–1895. University of North Carolina Press, 2000. 338 pp.
• {{cite book |last1=Waddell |first1=Gene |title=Charleston Architecture, 1670–1860 |place=Charleston |publisher=Wyrick & Company |year=2003 |volume=2 |page=992 |type=hardback |isbn=978-0-941711-68-5}} {{ISBN|0-941711-68-4}}
• Yuhl, Stephanie E. A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston. University of North Carolina Press, 2005. 285 pp.
• Zola, Gary Phillip. Isaac Harby of Charleston, 1788–1828: Jewish Reformer and Intellectual. University of Alabama Press, 1994. 284 pp.
• Wilson, Thomas D. The Ashley Cooper Plan: The Founding of Carolina and the Origins of Southern Political Culture. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

• Bellows, Barbara L. Benevolence among Slaveholders: Assisting the Poor in Charleston, 1670–1860. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1993.
• Drago, Edmund L. Initiative, Paternalism, and Race Relations: Charleston's Avery Normal Institute. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1990.
• Egerton, Douglas R. He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey. Madison House, 1999.
• Greene, Harlan; Hutchins, Harry S. Jr.; and Hutchins, Brian E. Slave Badges and the Slave-Hire System in Charleston, South Carolina, 1783–1865. McFarland, 2004. 194 pp.
• Jenkins, Wilbert L. Seizing the New Day: African Americans in Post-Civil War Charleston. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998. 256 pp.
• Johnson, Michael P. and Roark, James L. No Chariot Let Down: Charleston's Free People of Color on the Eve of the Civil War. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
• Kennedy, Cynthia M. Braided Relations, Entwined Lives: The Women of Charleston's Urban Slave Society. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005.
• Powers, Bernard E. Jr. Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822–1885. University of Arkansas Press, 1994.
• Strickland, Jeff. [https://upf.com/book.asp?id=STRIC001 Unequal Freedoms: Ethnicity, Race, and White Supremacy in Civil War-Era Charleston]. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2015.
• Wilson, Thomas D. The Ashley Cooper Plan: The Founding of Carolina and the Origins of Southern Political Culture. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

{{Sister project links|Charleston, South Carolina|voy=Charleston (South Carolina)}}

• {{Official website|http://www.charleston-sc.gov/}}
• {{osmrelation|194119}}

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