Charleston is a whizz of a town. This is my third visit for the annual Spoleto Festival. I stay in the old French Quarter, a delightful mishmash of narrow, rickety streets with uneven sidewalks. At night gas lamps flicker. Each crowding house is different, many with stories to tell, dating back to the city’s founding in 1679.
It played a pivotal part in the Revolutionary War. South Carolina was the first state to secede in December 1860, provoking the Civil War. The attack on Union-held Fort Sumter in the Bay was the first military clash. There are churches of all denominations spattered about, reflecting the complex social system of the South.
Slavery is not swept under the carpet. The former slave market has not been airbrushed from history. Nor has the support for the Confederacy. The Daughters of the Confederacy can still be found in their City Market HQ.
