Charleston and the “Unholy Alliance”
Charleston is a unique city that shares many diverse cultural backgrounds—English Caribbean bluebloods, French Protestants, free Africans and slaves—all of which can be found reflected in her styles, colors and tastes. Language, art and architecture blend all of these into a Lowcountry palette that is as different as it is beautiful from other American cities, even in the grand Old South. The wealth that would make Charleston one of the richest and most powerful Southern cities in the years preceding the Civil War was reaped by the few, yet built upon by the labor of many. While the focus of this timeless settlement is often on its gilt and glory, the true richness of Charleston was its people, black and white, that laid the foundation for its ascent, and descent, into history.
Colonization was established in large part by Barbadian planting families eager to expand their territory and wealth along the Carolina coast. In the West Indian colonies like Barbados, Bermuda and Jamaica, the extensive use of African slaves was already established, and slavery was considered to be an important factor in establishing cash crop plantations in the Lowcountry. What became known as the “unholy alliance” (the bartering between English traders and native African kings) produced more than ten million—and perhaps twenty million—slaves to work the crops in colonial America. Rice, cotton and indigo made the aristocratic families vastly wealthy. In the mid 1700s, one planter wrote:
The slaves from the River Gambia are preferr’d to all others with us [in South Carolina] save the Gold Coast… next to Them the Windward Coast, and then those from Angola.
The region mentioned is present-day Senegambia and Ghana. These slaves were desirable based on their skill and familiarity with rice planting and resistance to marsh disease. Most of these slaves were unknown to the people who sold them. At the time, Africans did not identify on racial or national lines, but rather on local family or lineages. The kings did not “sell their own,” nor did Europeans “sell their own;” in those times, slavery was an acceptable fate for enemies, prisoners and outsiders in Africa as well as the rest of the world. They did not see “blacks” sold to “whites;” it was a business transaction. The issue of race was almost nonexistent. In fact, the English word slave is derived from the Medieval Latin word sclavus, in reference to Slavic people of Central and Eastern Europe. The Slavs were the last ethnic group to be enslaved there; and for thousands of years a “slave” was defined as a prisoner of war.
White indentured servants from Europe were also used in large numbers, even in the field work of plantations. English records show that many indentures were sent to the Caribbean and also to Carolina. In March 1655, the Council of State ordered the Governor of Tynemouth Castle to certify the number of prisoners at Dunbar and ready them for shipment to Barbados. The following August, the Council ordered transport to Barbados “all prisoners lately committed to the Marshalsea, who were taken in the Brest man-o-war.” In a famous Charleston legend, indentured servant Affra Harleston was on the original ship’s voyage from England in 1670, aboard the vessel Carolina and bound for the new colony, when she fell in love with ship’s first mate John Coming. The two pursued their courtship despite their differences; and John Coming waited for her indentured service to expire. He married her, and she became fabulously wealthy, later donating lands to the church that later became part of the College of Charleston campus. Coming Street is named for her, as is Glebe Street (glebe means “pertaining to the church”).
Slavery and indentured life was often limiting and harsh, yet there are plentiful stories of people who overcame their bounds to make their mark on history’s pages. Adam Bennett, slave foreman for the Drayton family at Magnolia Plantation, was captured by Union troops in league with General Sherman’s wrecking crews. The plantation house was burned, and Mr. Bennett strung up from a tree as the “bummers” ransacked the property looking for valuables to loot. Apparently impressed by Bennett’s staunch serenity in the face of death, the Union soldiers set him free; Adam Bennett then walked 250 miles on foot to the Drayton hideaway in Flat Rock, North Carolina, to bring word of the plantation’s fate. After the war, Bennett and his wife, Hannah, remained at Magnolia Plantation to assist in rebuilding. Like many former slaves, a true and warm relationship was retained by the Bennetts for the Draytons despite the bondage that had brought the families together. Reverend Drayton was known for calling his slaves prior to the Civil War “my black roses.”
Today, Magnolia Plantation provides a focus tour entitled “From Slavery to Freedom: The Magnolia Cabin Project.” The tour includes five restored authentic slave cabins that date from the 1850s, and each cabin progresses through the years to highlight African-American lives into the turn of the 20th century. Tram rides are available through the old rice fields.
Visitors to Middleton Place can participate in daily African-American Focus Tours. Beginning at Eliza’s House, an 1870’s freedmen’s dwelling, guests will learn about African- American slaves and freedmen that lived and worked at Middleton Place and their contributions to the Low Country culture.
Boone Hall Plantation also provides a black history scope, shown in advancing years through the authentic “slave street.” Eight cabins have been restored and are in use detailing the lives of African-Americans. Photographs, authentic memorabilia and audiovisual presentations bring the past to life.
Drayton Hall, another plantation along the Ashley River that was once owned by the same family as Magnolia and has been held in National Trust since 1974, today provides “Connections: from Africa to America,” an interactive program. Through “Connections,” visitors can see Charles Drayton’s task lists for slaves, try using fanner baskets and rice pounders and hear stories from knowledgeable, unscripted guides. An African-American cemetery also lies on the property, kept natural (without landscaping or decorative shrubs) by the wishes of former National Trust gatekeeper Richmond Bowens, who was a 7th generation descendant of slaves at Drayton Hall; he also recorded the detailed oral history of plantation life from the 19th and 20th centuries.
We welcome you to Charleston, where living history abounds. A tour of one of these sites is an experience you will not soon forget.