USA Guide
The South
Charleston
Charleston is a compelling place to visit, its historic district lined with tall, narrow houses of peeling, multicoloured stucco, adorned with wooden shutters and wide piazzas. The Caribbean feel is augmented by palm trees and the tropical climate, while the town's hidden gardens, leafy patios, and ironwork balconies evoke the romance of New Orleans.
Founded by a group of English aristocrats in 1670, Charles Towne swiftly boomed as a port serving the rice and cotton plantations. It became the region's commercial and cultural center with immigrants including French, Germans, Jews, Italians, and Irish, as well as the English majority. One-third of the nation's enslaved Africans passed through Charleston, sold at the market on the riverfront and bringing with them their ironworking, building, and farming skills. The town had a sizeable free black community too. Nevertheless there was still slave unrest, culminating in the abortive Veysey revolt of 1823, after which the city built the Citadel armory and later the military university.
Charleston was practically ruined by the Civil War, which started on its very doorstep, at Fort Sumter in the harbor. Fire swept through in 1861 and Union bombardment was relentless. Union forces took the city in February 1865. After the war, the decline of the plantation economy and slump in cotton prices led to an economic crash, made worse by a catastrophic earthquake in 1886. As the upcountry industrialized, capital steadily deserted the city, and it only really recovered when World War II restored its importance as a port and naval base. Since then, a steady program of preservation and restoration has made tourism Charleston's main focus. Downtown there's a genteel air about the place and prices tend to be high, whether you're looking for a room, a quick lunch, or a beer. Despite the gentrification, Charleston has kept its charming atmosphere, while maintaining all the energy and life of a functioning town. The traditions of the sea islands are a tangible presence here, too: many residents – both black and white – speak the distinctive Gullah dialect.
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