For my trip I went to the Gibbes Museum of Art on Meeting Street. I’m not a huge fan of art museums, but I was hopeful to actually recognize some material after some of our class discussions. My first picture is of my parents and I because my dad insisted that he should come to help explain things and be included in my blog post. The second photo is one of the pieces on the wall explaining some of the history behind the piece. The one I chose was a massive sculpture of General George Washington made of marble. At first glance it just seemed like a big head, but when I took a closer look I noticed Greek headwear as well as a robe wrapped around his neck. This made me think of other art work we had looked at in class describing Washington to be this God like figure. Interestingly, the sculpture was created based on a painting made in Italy. The sculpture was about the size of five of my heads and easily weighed over 300 pounds. When I saw it, I instantly pictured the full sculpture and it would have had Washington over 12 feet tall if it was all scaled at this size. This was the most interesting to me because nothing outright said that it was made to make Washington appear as a God, but after some of our readings and artwork we looked at I understood where the inspiration came from. As well as the sculpture being super large, it was also set upon a Roman style pillar that was about 4 feet tall. This was cool as well because Charleston had a big revival in Roman architecture around the time that the sculpture was produced. One thing that I did notice outside of this depiction was how often artists had boys (ages ranging from 4-10) in dresses. There were some pieces where they were wearing what I would expect, but the majority had them in longer dresses down to their ankles. Everything that I had ever seen never had them in this type of clothing, and I was wondering if this is what they would have worn. I noticed it only in family portraits, so maybe it would have been a nicer form of dress for special occasions? All in all this museum was really cool to see after learning the history behind them. There was a lot of material upstairs in their vault that I wish I could have seen; especially if it had to do with our time period. Nonetheless it was a really cool experience and I want to hopefully learn more about the things that we hadn’t learned about (such as the common dress for children at the time).

By: Brooke Diemart

My visit to Charleston Museum was very interesting. This was my very first time going to any museum (like ever) in my life. However, just like Elsa (from the Disney movie Frozen 2), I was beckoned into the unknown. I took on the challenge, bringing my three young children with me so they could too, in search of an experience to learn something new. I remember looking at things that we had discussed so many times in class. The very first thing that caught my eye was a bronze cannon (1775) placed exactly in front, manufactured by James Byers, from the War of Independence. Then turning to my right, there was a “charity” statue, resembling the Lady of Liberty. This brought me back to all the pictures we saw of her during class. But just like Elsa (again), I was craving for an item between my time period to “show yourself” (or itself in this case) to me. That’s when we saw the revolutionary period nicely displayed. Just like that, Elsa’s mothers song popped into my head, “When all is lost, then all is found” (Disney Frozen 2). 

The thing that stood out to me the most was remnants of a revolutionary war musket. Why a musket you may ask? I did not exactly know what a musket was, and it piqued my curiosity. I found out that the musket was a firearm that when the trigger was pulled, a piece of rock (flint) would discharge from it. Yes, it is an old time gun! Muskets were the main weapon during the Revolutionary War, specifically the flintlock musket. But it was even more interesting that this musket, in particular, was said to have been carried by a man named “Levy” who was a free person of color serving with the patriot forces during the Battle of Camden. The bio stated that he returned to the battlefield to recover it in 1819. So, I read about the Battle of Camden to find out why go back for a musket, and what happened there?

The Battle of Camden was one of the most devastating defeats suffered by the American army to the British. In August 1780, an American General Horatio Gates charged to Camden, South Carolina, to capture it from British control. When British General Charles Cornwallis learned of this, he marched with British regulars and loyalist to confront the Americans. Gates ended up accidently feeding his men a meal of molasses and cornmeal that gave them diarrhea on August 15 (a day before the battle). Despite this, he still ordered the march toward Camden. Both armies waited until daylight to fight. The troops ended up being placed in a way that British could easily defeat, and Gates and his army ended up losing. Some troop members (American) even ran off from the battle. There were over 1,000 deaths among the Americans and only 324 British wounded or killed. They also lost control over wagons full of their equipment. This left the British in temporary control of the southern colonies. This victory led to the British invasion of North Carolina. I never found out why Levy went back for his musket, or whether he retrieved it or not, sadly. 

However, after learning about the Battle of Camden and the part it played in the Revolutionary war it was obvious that this was preserved and displayed because of this battle. This specific piece tells us about what was going on during the time of the Revolutionary War and particularly, how South Carolina was involved. It also focuses on the British’s fight for control over the south and the resistance in the backcountry. We get a piece of history that may seem like a small little thing but has a huge story behind it. Proving the saying that indeed the small things do matter. 

By: Grace Nichols

The Heyward-Washington House, built in the early 1770s was once lived in by founding fathers, but now is a house museum full of Charleston artifacts. These artifacts, mainly high style furniture from the late 18^th century reflect the material culture of Charleston elite. The tour focused on the patriots and founding fathers who stayed in the house. Thomas Heyward Jr., one of the youngest men to sign the Declaration of Independence lived in the house after his father built it for him. Heyward also participated in the Siege of Charleston against the British and was exiled to St. Augustine for a year afterwards. The house itself was an extra downtown home for Heyward as many rich plantation owners lived on their plantations full time and had another central downtown home for the convince of entertaining and conducting business. With that purpose in mind, many patriots met in the home including George Washington, who stayed there for a small period when visiting Charleston.

The house’s most grand piece of furniture was a library bookcase, considered to be “a masterpiece of its time,” and one of the best examples of early American furniture. This Holmes bookcase was made by Martin Pfeninger using expensive Mahogany and Cyprus wood native to Charleston. With ornate German-esc curvatures and fixtures such as the moveable flowers on top the piece was extremely expensive then and solidified the elite status of the owner. Another piece of furniture that does not “priceless” stature of the bookcase, but caught my attention was a traveling dresser. At first glance, this dresser looks like a normal one, but it breaks off into 3 separate pieces with handles on the sides that turn the dresser into a traveling trunk. For the purposes of traveling back and forth between a plantation house and a downtown home this piece of furniture works perfectly for rich Charlestonians.

One discrepancy I had with the tour relates to our class discussion we had on Thursday. For my discussion post I relayed how important it is to remember history accurately. To educate history properly people and certain events should not be glorified, but rather the context must be laid out in a way that also condemns any wrong doings. The Heyward-Washington House tour failed to properly communicate the immense role Charleston had in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. While they did mention slavery, it was not a point they highlighted very much. They focused more on the material culture and figures important to the house’s history (so Heyward, Washington, and two early feminist daughters in the family). It felt that they were trying to lean away from the darker parts of history and highlight figures that made the houses history more positive.

Conversely, a few weeks ago I went to the Edmondson-Alston House (a house museum in Charleston) for another class, and there they made sure to bring up the role that slave labor played in the house’s history. There, they immediately explained that the house was built using slave labor, something not mentioned at the Heyward Washington house, but I can only assume that slave labor was used to build the house. They also gave some examples of horrible things the slaves had to do there, and really got into Charleston’s role in the slave trade which included how the slave badge system worked in Charleston. At the Edmondson-Alston House they also had a list of all the known names of slaves that worked in the house. This is the right way to do it, explaining the horrible things rather than glossing over so we can remember history accurately and honoring the people who were harmed. Overall, I did enjoy seeing the Heyward-Washington House. It had very beautiful things inside that showed the wealth of some 18^th century people, but I had issues with the lack of talking about the role enslaved people played.

I went to the Old Exchange Building and Provost’s Dungeon this past week to get a better insight into 18th century life for Charlestonians. I chose this location because it is one of the historic landmarks I have not been to in Charleston yet, and I thought it would be a great way to expose myself to something new while also being able to use the historical knowledge I have gained in this class.

My first stop of this 18th-century tour of Charleston was at the Washington square park on Broad St. I walked around, and admired the statues and signage that explained who the person was and why they were important. Of course, the one I stopped at for longer than the others was the George Washington statue. It was incredibly interesting to read about his travels to Charleston, and his impact on the country. Having that statue be the first stop on my trip set it up to be the perfect journey through the experience of the early United States.

Once I arrived at the Old Exchange Building, I was met with two young men dressed in 18th-century garb selling tickets at the front door. It honestly felt as though I was sent back to the 18th century myself, at that moment. Additionally, once I walked in, and could see all of the artifacts from the 18th century, I felt especially drawn back at that time period. Throughout being able to look at the artifacts and their descriptors, I became more conscious of the power these people once had in the early Americas. The most impactful point of the exhibit to me was the part in which they allowed you to “see back in time” through paintings of what you would have been able to see from the Old Exchange Building’s windows during the 18th century. I stood at those murals for a while, pondering the experience of those who actually lived through that time period, and would have been able to see through those windows in the past.

As I walked through the rest of the Old Exchange Building, being able to witness actual artifacts was very helpful in making connections to what we have learned in this course. Seeing familiar names, as well as familiar events was extremely interesting, grabbed my attention– especially after learning about all of this in the class. Some pictures I chose not to include in this blog post, but that were still very important to me, were some descriptions of Benjamin Franklin as well as John Andre. Having had the ability to read the works of these individuals, and then see their “most important” facts listed in a museum added to the experience for me.

I personally found it incredibly beneficial to see descriptions of the people we discuss in class, and some artifacts from that time period. I think this puts students who live in Charleston at an advantage, as not many other colleges have as many historical landmarks and museums about American history as we do.

For my visit to a Charleston museum, I decided to go to the Gibbes for the first time. At the advice of the wonderful women upfront I headed up the stairs to the third floor. Upon entering I was immediately greeted by the work of William Johnson, primarily his Fighters for Freedom series. This series from the mid 1940’s is a tribute to African American scientists, activists, teachers and the like who were working to bring peace to the world. It acknowledges their accomplishments as well as the struggles of racism and violence they faced and overcame on their journey to make our country a better place for everyone regardless of race.

Personally, I found this collection to be overwhelming as it puts illustrations to all of the events and people I have been learning about since I was a child. This resulted in the images being more powerful and me having to sit down and reflect. Not only was the imagery potent, I also found myself learning something about revolutionary America that I had never heard about before which very much surprised me. The aforementioned something new being the story of Crispus Attucks who was a freeman killed during the Boston Massacre.

I also learned that for some reason “the martyrdom of this Black man was largely erased” until his story was published in a book nearly seventy years later. After the stories publication Attuck’s name became a rallying cry during the civil war and his sacrifice & courage were revered. This story honestly left me with more questions that there may not be an answer to. Specifically why was his story forgotten for so long?  And as a follow up, Would his death have been forgotten the same way if he had not been African American or would have been deified like one of our founding fathers?

Overall, I am elated to have been able to experience and illustrated version of the history that I have only ever read about in books. Seeing a visual representation of these figures and events removes them from this almost mythological space in my mind and makes them seem more tangible in a way that isn’t offputtingly brutal. It probably helps that Johnson’s work is more abstract and therefore more appealing to the eye. In other words he is able to present images of horrible things in a manner that does not seem to look particularly horrible without removing the impact.

My visit to the Charleston Museum was significantly more entertaining and informative than I anticipated. It was in fact the first time I had been to a museum with whose focus (i.e., Charleston) I was familiar. I wasn’t raised in a very historic or monumental region… my town had little to no important or at least interesting history. And I for one was entirely disconnected from any sort of local culture.

After living in Charleston for the past three years, I was fascinated by the history of the peninsula. Learning how everything came to be, things like the Ashely and Cooper Rivers, Rutledge Street, the Market, East Bay- it was quite an engaging experience.

I found myself intrigued by the very first exhibit. It was sort of the pre-Charleston history. I don’t know why exactly, but I find native American history really cool. They are indeed a forgotten and underappreciated culture that we do not learn enough about. Natives were living here millennia before Europeans, and we learn significantly less about them than any other culture.

I also found myself very focused on the life of slaves, as the exhibits provided in-depth detail and artifacts from their lives. It may be difficult for a student to comprehend how America was, to some degree, built by slavery, but these exhibits made this process entirely clear. Of course, America would still have been America and may have been able to prosper without slavery, but slavery undoubtedly contributed to the rapid rate of growth of the United States. Would America be as powerful as it is without slavery?

Both the history of slavery and of colonial relations with native Americans makes any reasonable individual question the idea of freedom in America. To contemporary individuals, we see it as hypocritical. Many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century individuals, however, saw no problem with it. They viewed freedom as it pertained to white men.

On the other hand, while the history of freedom in America may seem hypocritical, its philosophy has thus far prevailed. The racist and sexist hypocrisies that once polluted its practice for the most part no longer prevail. And if I could go one step further, I would say we are heading in an even better direction.

What’s interesting, then, is that the idea of freedom, though selective in its origins, has overcome (and is still overcoming) its own shortcomings. So, while our founders may not have been entirely pure in their practice, they understood the ‘goodness’ of freedom. They understood for themselves why it was right, why it is better, and why they deserve it.

Ultimately, this ideology represents the epitome of western society. Of course, it is not practiced perfectly (and may never be), but it has certainly made a lot of people’s lives a lot better (as long as you consider freedom to be better).

The question is, how do we reckon with the sins of our history? Surely, we cannot hold ourselves accountable. But it is our responsibility to understand everything in its context. We must connect ourselves with our pasts so as to not repeat its mistakes and move forward in a better direction.