Comprehensive Charleston Tour
Guide Questions with Answers –
Updated!!
What is the Walled City Task Force? - Answer-in 2005, conducted archaeology digs to
discover information about the original walled city
What typically happens to artifacts after they're discovered? - Answer-put on display at
the site where they were found
What is an interdisciplinary study? - Answer-one in which experts from different fields
work together
What is the name of the neighborhood that Catfish Row (in the novel Porgy) is based
on? - Answer-Cabbage Row, on Church Street
What is "the Charleston"? - Answer-a dance popularized by flappers in the 1920s,
considered to be very raunchy
What were the main factors leading to the decline of the phosphate industry? - Answer-
competition from other states and South Carolina governor Benjamin "Pitchfork Ben"
Tillman's policy of pro-agrarian, anti-black, anti-Charleston repression through taxes on
phosphates
What were "blind tigers"? - Answer-earlier Charleston version of speakeasies
What was the economic impact of the 1901-02 World's Fair? - Answer-its investors
suffered financially, but it boosted tourists' attention to Charleston and introduced new
industries such as the cigar factory
What was one of the effects of increased mobility after WWII? - Answer-population
increased but was concentrated off the peninsula, in North Charleston and West Ashley
What were the Reconstruction Acts? - Answer-laws passed following the Civil War
which allowed African Americans to hold office for the first time
What were scalawags and carpetbaggers? - Answer-respectively: southern whites who
supported Reconstruction, and northerners with southern sympathies
What was significant about the State Constitutional Convention in 1868? - Answer-it
was the first official state assembly in the US with a black majority
,What did the 1868 State Constitutional Convention accomplish? - Answer-more rights
for women, greater suffrage, government power balances, greater power to local
government, welfare program, first South Carolina public school system
What was the white reaction to Reconstruction? - Answer-they felt economically
disenfranchised and reacted with violence
How did early colonists impact the environment? - Answer-deforestation, filled in creeks
and marshes
What were characteristics of early colonists' diet? - Answer-beef, pork, chicken, turkey,
geese, turtle: easy access to meat
What was a challenge to water collection in the early colony? - Answer-refuse
contaminated the wells in the crowded urban areas. Cisterns came into use in the
1850s.
What is notable about Stallings Island pottery? - Answer-the earliest kind of pottery as
yet discovered in North America
What were some of the more minor Native American groups? - Answer-Wando, Edisto,
Stono, Sampa
When did the Yemassee arrive in St. Helena? What was their main trade? - Answer-c.
1680, traded in Native slaves captured from Spanish-allied tribes
What was the status of Natives after the Yemassee War? - Answer-many were
banished to Florida, though the Catawba continued to trade with Charleston into the
nineteenth century
What were the two main languages spoken by native tribes? - Answer-Souian
(Catawban, Etiwan, Sewee) and Muskogean (Yemassee, Creek)
What is colonoware? - Answer-type of pottery fusing Native, African, and European
styles
What were the original bounds of Carolina? - Answer-Atlantic to Pacific Oceans and
Virginia to Florida
When did Carolina split into North and South? - Answer-1712 lords proprietors hired a
governor of North Carolina deemed independent from South Carolina. In 1729 after the
region passed into the king's control, it was recognized as two separate colonies.
Who gave the original settlement to the colonists? - Answer-the cacique (leader) of the
Kiawah. Henry Woodward lived with them and learned their ways, which helped the
colony survive the early years of the settlement.
,What is South Carolina's second oldest town after Charleston? - Answer-Beaufort
What are some other early South Carolina towns? - Answer-Williamsburg, Georgetown,
Camden, Orangeburg
What is Charleston's city motto? - Answer-Aedes Mores Juraque Curat; "She guards
her buildings, customs, and laws."
What is the Angel Oak? - Answer-live oak tree located on Johns Island. It is over 65 feet
tall, 25 feet in circumference, and has branches extending as far out as 89 feet. It is
believed to be about 1,450 years old, making it the oldest living thing east of the
Rockies. It is the center of a public park owned by the city.
For each of these historic homes, name the year built, architectural style, and architect
(if known): Heyward-Washington House, Joseph Manigault House, Nathaniel Russell
House, Aiken-Rhett House, Edmonston-Alston House, Calhoun Mansion - Answer-c.
1772, double house, Georgian, by Daniel Heyward; c. 1803, Federal, by Gabriel
Manigault; c. 1808, Federal, architect unknown; c. 1817, originally Federal but later
renovated in Gothic Revival, architect unknown; c. 1825, Greek Revival, unknown
architect; c. 1876, Italianate, by William P. Russell
For each of these historic civic buildings, name the year built, architectural style, and
architect (if known): Charleston County Courthouse, City Hall, Courthouse and Post
Office, US Custom House - Answer-1753, Federal, by James Hoban; c. 1800, Federal,
by Gabriel Manigault; c. 1896, Neorenaissance or Italianate, by John Henry Devereux;
c. 1849, Classical Revival, by Ammi Burnham Young
For each of these historic downtown sites and museums, name the year built,
architectural style, and architect (if known): Old Powder Magazine, Old Exchange &
Provost Dungeon, Old City Jail, Dock Street Theater, City Market and Market Hall, Old
Slave Mart Museum, Confederate Museum, Gibbes Museum of Art - Answer-c. 1713,
Early Colonial, architect unknown; c. 1767, Georgian, by William Rigby Naylor; c. 1802,
N/A, by Robert Mills; c. 1809, Federal, by Albert Simons; c. 1840, Classical Revival,
Edward Brickell White; c. 1859, Gothic Revival, architect unknown; c. 1899, Greek
Revival, by Thomas Sully; c. 1905, 20th century or Beaux Arts, by Frank P. Milburn
What were femme sole traders? - Answer-white women who were single or legally able
to be financially independent from their husbands, who ran businesses such as inns or
shops, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries
When was South Carolina's first slave legislation enacted? - Answer-1696. It was
strongly influenced by Barbadian slave codes
Who made the production of rice, indigo, and cotton that contributed to Charles Town's
enormous wealth? - Answer-the thousands of enslaved people taken from Africa. About
, 40% of the slaves brought to British North America in the eighteenth century came to
Charles Town.
In what year did the population of South Carolina become majority black? - Answer-
1708. By 1730 the colony's population had reached 30,000, more than ⅔ of which were
black slaves.
What is Gullah? - Answer-a creole language derived from English and a variety of West
and Central African languages
Who was Thomas Jeremiah? - Answer-a free black pilot, fisherman, landowner, and
slaveholder. He was accused by two slaves of stirring up a slave insurrection to the
benefit of Britain. He had already openly agreed to assist British ships in navigating the
Charlestown harbor. He was executed in 1775.
What was a major reason why many Europeans came to Charles Town? - Answer-the
promise of religious freedom
What group was the only one excluded from religious freedom in the Fundamental
Constitution? - Answer-Catholics
In the 1704 survey presented in the Crisp map, what churches are depicted and their
denominations? (Hint: They're all Protestant) - Answer-St. Philip's (Anglican, present-
day site of St. Michael's), Anabaptist (Baptist, south end of Church St.), French
(Huguenot, north end of Church St.), Independent Meeting House (Presbyterian, now
known as the Circular or Congregational Church, on Meeting House St.- now Meeting
St.), Quaker Meeting House (outside the walls; now a parking garage on King St.)
When was the Church Act passed and what did it do? - Answer-1706. Established the
Anglican Church in Carolina and allocated public funds to the creation of ten parishes.
Who was the first Jewish settler in Charles Town? - Answer-an unnamed Sephardic
Jewish man from Spain. He arrived in 1695 and served as an interpreter for the
governor.
To what ethnic division did most of the first Jewish settlers to Charles Town belong? -
Answer-Sephardic (Portuguese and Spanish descent), immigrating from all over Europe
and the West Indies. Ashkenazim began arriving by the end of the eighteenth century.
What was the "two-bitt society"? - Answer-A French Huguenot named Elisha Poinsett
owned a tavern in the 1730s, but business was poor. His friends helped out by visiting
the tavern and drumming up business. The group of friends grew and soon they were
donating two bitts (roughly equal to US $0.25) a week to a fund to assist the group's
members. The group was incorporated as the French Society in 1751, then later
changed the name to the South Carolina Society to open itself to non-French members.
