Charleston: Where the Charleston Dance Was Born, 40 Percent of All Enslaved Africans Arrived and James Beard Cooks Shrimp Grits
Eat shrimp and grits as the Lowcountry dish that James Beard chefs made famous, walk the oldest formal gardens in America at Middleton Place terraced to butterfly lakes on the Ashley River, trace the Charleston dance origin to the Jenkins Orphanage Band children on the waterfront in the 1920s, stroll the pineapple fountain Waterfront Park to the Battery promenade with Fort Sumter in the harbor, visit Fort Moultrie on Sullivan Island where Poe served under a fake name in 1827, and enter the International African American Museum at Gadsden Wharf where 100000 enslaved people arrived.
- 1
Charleston Food Scene and Lowcountry Cuisine
Charleston has developed one of the most celebrated restaurant scenes in the American South, receiving more James Beard Award nominations and wins per capita than virtually any other American city in the 2010s. Sean Brock at Husk and McCrady pioneered a rigorous approach to Lowcountry ingredients and heritage grain varieties. The Lowcountry culinary tradition is distinct from broader Southern cooking through its African and West African foundation: rice cultivation brought by enslaved Africans from Sierra Leone, okra, field peas, and the one-pot cooking of pilau and perloo, the Lowcountry precursor to pilaf. The Gullah Geechee people, descendants of enslaved Africans who maintained distinct cultural and linguistic traditions in the Sea Islands, are the source of this culinary inheritance. Shrimp and grits, now ubiquitous in American restaurants, was essentially invented in the Lowcountry. The Wednesday and Saturday Farmers Market at Marion Square is the largest in South Carolina.
- 2
Middleton Place and Ashley River Plantations
Middleton Place on the Ashley River 14 miles northwest of Charleston, developed beginning in 1741 and now a National Historic Landmark, contains the oldest formal landscaped gardens in America, designed in the English style with terraced lawns descending to two ornamental butterfly lakes. The plantation was home to Arthur Middleton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Henry Middleton, president of the First Continental Congress. The main house was destroyed by Union troops in 1865 and the south flanker survives as the museum. The plantation honestly addresses its history of slavery with dedicated programming and interpretation. Drayton Hall, completed in 1742 and now a National Trust property, is the only pre-Revolutionary plantation house on the Ashley River to survive the Civil War intact, having been spared when its owner convinced Union soldiers it was being used as a hospital. The plantation is presented unrestored and unfurnished to show the architecture in its raw state.
- 3
Charleston Jazz and Music Heritage
Charleston is the birthplace of the Charleston dance, the jazz-era dance that swept the world in the 1920s after its introduction on Broadway in the 1923 musical Runnin Wild. The dance originated in the African American community of the Charleston waterfront, particularly on Jenkins Orphanage, and was performed by children from the Jenkins Orphanage Band. James Brown, though not from Charleston, recorded multiple shows at the Charleston Municipal Auditorium. The city music heritage extends from gospel in the historic African American churches of the Neck area through jazz and blues to the contemporary music scene centered on the Upper King Street corridor. The Charleston Music Hall on John Street presents a variety of genres. The dockworker and stevedore culture of the Charleston waterfront produced musical traditions that blended West African, Caribbean, and American influences in the pre-jazz era. Gullah spiritual song traditions are preserved through the community and through scholars and performers.
- 4
Waterfront Park and Battery Promenade
Waterfront Park at the foot of Vendue Range along the Cooper River, completed in 1990 after decades of planning, is a linear park with angled wooden piers extending into the harbor, the famous pineapple fountain reflecting pool, and views across the Cooper River to the Patriots Point naval museum and the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. The Battery at the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula combines a seawall promenade with White Point Garden, a park studded with Civil War artillery and monuments. The antebellum homes facing the harbor on Battery Street, including Edmondston-Alston House, are among the most photographed residential facades in the South. The harbor views from the Battery show Fort Sumter, Morris Island, James Island, and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. The Battery and Waterfront Park connect to form a 2-mile waterfront promenade that is the social spine of the historic district.
- 5
Sullivan Island and Beach Communities
Sullivan Island, a barrier island connected to the mainland east of Charleston by the Ben Sawyer Bridge, is home to Fort Moultrie, where the colonists defeated a British naval assault in June 1776 in one of the first American victories of the Revolutionary War, and where the fort was rebuilt over successive eras through World War II. Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Fort Moultrie in 1827 and 1828 under an assumed name and set his story The Gold-Bug on Sullivan Island. The beach community on Sullivan Island and the adjacent Isle of Palms is where Charleston residents have summered since the 19th century. Folly Beach on the opposite side of the peninsula is a more casual beach community with a surf culture and music venues. The Sea Islands extending south from Charleston, including Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island, and Edisto Island, offer resort beaches and some of the most pristine coastal landscapes on the Atlantic seaboard.
- 6
Charleston African American History
The African American history of Charleston is the foundational history of the city, as enslaved Africans constituted the majority of the population for most of the city history and their labor built every significant structure and institution. The International African American Museum, opened in 2023 on the site of Gadsden Wharf where over 100,000 enslaved Africans entered the country, is the most significant new museum in the American South in decades and directly confronts the Middle Passage experience. Charleston was the largest port of entry for enslaved Africans in North America, receiving an estimated 40 percent of all Africans brought to what is now the United States. The Denmark Vesey House on Bull Street marks the home of the free Black carpenter who planned a massive slave revolt in 1822, was betrayed, and was hanged along with 34 others. Mother Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street, founded in 1816 and one of the oldest Black churches in the South, was the site of the 2015 mass shooting by a white supremacist that killed nine worshippers.