Episodes

  • Episode 298: Illuminating the Streets of Early Charleston

    Episode 298: Illuminating the Streets of Early Charleston
    Dec 13 2024
    Can you imagine navigating the streets and roads of Charleston County between dusk and dawn without the aid of street lamps? The earliest inhabitants of this area relied on moonlight to guide their steps at night, but a campaign to provide nocturnal illumination commenced in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The number of street lamps fueled by whale oil, then manufactured gas, then electricity gradually increased over the decades, establishing the comforting but unnatural glow that brightens the night sky over modern Charleston.
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    34 mins
  • Episode 297: Giving Thanks for Native American Food in 1670 Charleston

    Episode 297: Giving Thanks for Native American Food in 1670 Charleston
    Nov 22 2024
    Thanksgiving, an American holiday rooted in harvest celebrations, acknowledges the bounty of food so many of us take for granted. This tradition in South Carolina recalls the meals shared by English adventurers who landed at Albemarle Point in 1670. They arrived with modest supplies of perishable provisions and planned to sow fresh crops immediately, but a series of misfortunes quickly eroded their food security. The survival of the infant colony depended on contributions from hospitable Native Americans who sustained the hungry immigrants during a season of need.
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    25 mins
  • Episode 296: Charleston Common: A Brief History of A Fractured Landscape

    Episode 296: Charleston Common: A Brief History of A Fractured Landscape
    Nov 8 2024
    The place-name “Charleston Common” applies to a large swath of land reserved for public use since 1735. Conscious that the provincial capital lacked a traditional English common, South Carolina’s colonial government designated approximately eighty-five acres abutting the Ashley River for the perpetual use of all inhabitants. Municipal leaders violated that trust through a series of questionable sales, however, leaving just fifteen acres of the forgotten common at three sites now identified as Colonial Lake, Moultrie Playground, and Horse Lot Park.
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    31 mins
  • Episode 295: Mutiny and Murder aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion, Part 4

    Episode 295: Mutiny and Murder aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion, Part 4
    Oct 25 2024
    The trial of Hispanic carpenter Joseph Lortia, accused of confederating with pirates aboard the Cuban schooner Nuestra Señora, unfolded through a series of episodes within South Carolina’s executive Council Chamber in July 1734. Conflicting testimony from the survivors recounted Lortia’s odd behavior at sea and challenged Anglo-American judges to determine the measure of his guilt. After settling the carpenter’s fate in court, Governor Robert Johnson restored the vessel’s remaining treasure to the widowed Doña Petrona de Castro, who sailed from Charleston with her newborn child.
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    36 mins
  • Episode 294: Mutiny and Murder aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion, Part 3

    Episode 294: Mutiny and Murder aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion, Part 3
    Oct 18 2024
    The young Cuban widow, Doña Petrona de Castro, suffered in the shadows during the first half of this story, but moved to center stage after the bloodied vessel Nuestra Señora docked in Charleston. When her disheveled treasure came ashore in late June 1734, the pregnant lady’s plight attracted the personal attention of South Carolina’s respected royal governor. Under his personal supervision, members of the provincial government secured the señora’s private property and initiated steps designed to render solace to their distressed Hispanic guest.
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    26 mins
  • Episode 293: Mutiny and Murder aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion, Part 2

    Episode 293: Mutiny and Murder aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion, Part 2
    Oct 11 2024
    The terrified survivors of a murderous mutiny aboard the Cuban schooner Nuestra Señora sailed from the Bahamas under the command of a hired English pilot in mid-June 1734. They sought to return to Havana with no questions asked, but the crew’s curious behavior alerted the new captain to mortal danger ahead. A secret pact forged in desperation spawned a violent counter-mutiny that spilled more blood and further depleted the crew, forcing the weakened schooner to make an emergency detour to the British port of Charles Town (now Charleston), South Carolina.
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    25 mins
  • Episode 292: Mutiny and Murder aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion, Part 1

    Episode 292: Mutiny and Murder aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion, Part 1
    Oct 4 2024
    An affluent Cuban merchant and his young pregnant wife set sail from Havana in May 1734 on a peaceful voyage to Hispaniola aboard their private schooner, but a piratical mutiny at sea claimed many lives and set the vessel adrift. Aided by a passing Bahamian mariner, the Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion came to Charleston in distress and gained protection from local authorities. Interviews with the survivors sparked a formal trial that imposed British law on foreign visitors and delivered resolution to a grieving Hispanic widow and her newborn daughter.
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    28 mins
  • Episode 291: Line Street: Vestige of the War of 1812

    Episode 291: Line Street: Vestige of the War of 1812
    Sep 20 2024
    Line Street isn’t the most glamorous thoroughfare in the City of Charleston, but it recalls a significant episode in the community’s history. During the darkest days of the War of 1812 with Britain, thousands of men and women—both enslaved and free—rushed to construct a zigzag line of fortifications across the peninsula between the rivers Ashley and Cooper to protect the city against the threat of hostile invasion. The peace of 1815 rendered their work superfluous, but the erasure of the “lines” after the Demark Vesey Affair of 1822 left a permanent record of the war on the urban landscape.
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    37 mins