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CHARLESTON , one of the finest-looking
cities in the US, today spreads way beyond its original confines
on the tip of a peninsula at the confluence of the Ashley and
Cooper rivers, roughly one hundred miles south of Myrtle Beach
and north of Savannah, Georgia. It's a compelling place to visit,
its historic district lined with tall, narrow houses of peeling,
multicolored stucco, adorned with wooden shutters and ironwork
balconies wrought by slaves from Barbados. The Caribbean feel
is augmented by palm trees, a tropical climate and easygoing atmosphere,
while the town's pretty hidden gardens and leafy patios evoke
New Orleans.
Founded in 1670 by a group of English aristocrats
as a specifically money-making venture, Charles Towne swiftly
boomed as a port serving the rice and cotton
plantations. It became the region's dominant town, a commercial
and cultural center which right from the start had a mixed population,
with immigrants including French, Germans, Jews, Italians and
Irish, as well as the English majority. Nevertheless there was
still slave unrest, culminating in the abortive Veysey slave revolt
of 1823, after which the city built the Citadel armory and later
the military university to control future uprisings.
The Civil War started on Charleston's
very doorstep, at Fort Sumter in the harbor. Fire swept through
the city, destroying large chunks, in 1861; more damage was inflicted
when it was taken by Union troops in February 1865. The decline
of the plantation economy and slump in cotton prices led to an
economic crash after the war, 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 not helped by the devastation
of Hurricane Hugo in 1989 has made tourism Charleston's
main focus. Despite the crowds, however, it has kept its atmosphere,
while maintaining all the energy and life of a real, working town.
The gullah traditions of the sea islands are a tangible presence
here, too: ''basket ladies'' weave their sweetgrass baskets all
around the market and near the post office, and many people black
and white speak the distinctive gullah dialect.
