Charleston Currents – S.C. Encyclopedia

S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Early S.C. gardens

S.C. Encyclopedia | Both home and commercial gardening were essential to the survival of colonial settlements in South Carolina. Early commercial growing was limited to fruit and vegetable crops grown near towns, and consisted mostly of small plots surrounded by wattle or split rail “worm” fences. Home gardening included mostly food crops that could be pickled or stored dry, as the winter climate was too warm for root cellars. Few vegetables were eaten raw, and being more fibrous than today’s varieties, were usually overcooked. To this day, the term sallet or sallet greens is applied by some rural South Carolinians to greens grown to be cooked: mustard, turnip, and rape, for example.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/31/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Prisons and penitentiaries

S.C. Encyclopedia | The first significant jail in South Carolina, a twelve-foot square designed to accommodate sixteen prisoners, was built in Charleston in 1769. Additional jails were built following the division of South Carolina into judicial districts. According to one account, “These jails were forbidding structures, reared to prevent escape and make life gloomy for their inmates.”

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/17/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

REVIEW: The Travels of Daniel Ascher

A novel by Déborah Lévy-Bertherat, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter: Don’t let the size of this book fool you—it’s petite but rich in historical scope, emotional depth, and intricately woven story lines. In The Travels of Daniel Ascher, Hélène is a student at the Institute of Archaeology in Paris, occupying a room in her frequently traveling great-uncle’s home.

by Charleston Currents · 08/10/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Gov. Robert. E. McNair

S.C. Encyclopedia | Robert Evander McNair was born on Dec. 14, 1923, at Cades in Williamsburg County, the only child of Daniel Evander McNair and Claudia Crawford. He was raised at the family home in Berkeley County and graduated from Macedonia High School. During World War II, McNair enlisted in the U.S. Navy, attained the rank of lieutenant (jg), and served twenty-two months in the Pacific theater. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his actions in rescuing thirty-five personnel from a destroyed Liberty Boat. McNair married Josephine Robinson of Allendale in San Francisco on May 30, 1944, only days prior to his being shipped overseas. The marriage produced four children.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/10/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: The Rev. Joseph A. DeLaine

S.C. Encyclopedia | Clergyman and civil rights activist Joseph Armstrong DeLaine was born on July 2, 1898, near Manning, one of thirteen children born to Henry Charles DeLaine and Tisbia Gamble. He was raised primarily in the Manning area but spent some time in the nearby Summerton community while his father pastored the Liberty Hill AME Church. After completing high school in Manning, DeLaine attended Allen University in Columbia, earning tuition money by working as a laborer.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/03/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Charleston single house

S.C. Encyclopedia | The single house is the building form most closely associated with eighteenth-century Charleston architecture. It first appeared in the early eighteenth century and emerged as a favored residential form after the fire of 1740. The typical single house stands two or more stories in height and is built on a rectangular plan with its narrow end facing the street. Each floor has two rooms with a central stair-hall in between. Piazzas occupy the long wall facing the inside of the lot, and the chimneys are located on the opposite wall, in the rear of the house.

by Charleston Currents · 07/27/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Marshall Tucker Band

S.C. Encyclopedia | Formed in 1971, the Marshall Tucker Band (MTB) laced its rock and roll with doses of country, blues, and jazz, selling millions of albums in the 1970s and 1980s and influencing acts such as Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Jr., Charlie Daniels, and Kid Rock.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 07/20/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Ku Klux Klan

S.C. Encyclopedia | The Ku Klux Klan was a paramilitary organization formed during Reconstruction to oppose the Republican Party and restore white supremacy in the South.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 07/13/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Gov. David Beasley

S.C. Encyclopedia | David Muldrow Beasley was born in Lamar on February 26, 1957, the son of Richard and Jacqueline Beasley. He graduated from Lamar High School in 1975 and attended Clemson University from 1976 to 1978. He transferred to the University of South Carolina in 1979 after being elected to the S.C. House of Representatives at the age of twenty-two. He received his undergraduate degree in 1979 and his law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1983. He married Mary Wood Payne on June 18, 1988. They have three children.

by Charleston Currents · 06/29/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

"Mother" Emanuel AME Church, Charleston, S.C.

HISTORY: African Methodist Episcopal Church

S.C. Encyclopedia | To escape racial discrimination in Philadelphia’s Methodist Church, Richard Allen, a former slave, organized the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church there in 1787. It is the oldest African American religious denomination and existed mainly in the North before the Civil War.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 06/22/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia