Excitement is growing as we begin 2026 as this year will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of our nation. America 250 has designated Charleston, along with Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as cities for enhanced celebrations of this auspicious occasion. This year also represent the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, making it particularly meaningful for our area. The Charleston Museum will make a significant contribution to local commemorations of this important anniversary with the presentation of a special exhibition, Ringleaders of Rebellion: Charleston in Revolt, 1775-1783. The exhibit, covering Charleston and the Lowcountry’s role in the American Revolution, will feature objects from the Museum’s collections along with unique pieces from other institutions to tell this story.
The Lowcountry played a key role in the events of the American Revolutionary War. Throughout much of the colonial period, the legislatures of the thirteen colonies had the power of the purse, rather than the mother country. Most of the colonies had Crown-appointed governors, but the ability to raise and expend funds was vested in their elected assemblies. When Parliament began taxing the Americans via such legislation as the Sugar Act (1764) and Stamp Act (1765) to pay for debts incurred during the French and Indian War, colonists quickly took notice. South Carolina was considered as rebellious as the other American colonies, and resistance was centered in Charleston as the Lowcountry’s wealthy planters and merchants had much to lose from the Crown’s interference in economic affairs.
In reaction to British policies, Charleston residents joined in the uproar against this perceived oppression. They protested the Stamp Act with demonstrations, attacked the home of the stamp collector, and paraded a gallows around town with an effigy of a stamp official hanging from it. Later, they sent financial support to John Wilkes, a member of Parliament who criticized King George III. Royal Governor Charles Montagu dissolved the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly in response, leaving South Carolina without an elected body. When tea was shipped to Charleston after the Tea Act, locals prevented it from being landed. Since no one dared pay the duty on the tea under threat of violence, it was seized by the Collector of Customs after 21 days and went unsold.
South Carolina also sent rice and money to Massachusetts when the British government closed the port of Boston after protesters threw imported tea into the harbor during the “Boston Tea Party.” An interesting piece to be displayed in the exhibit, on loan from the City of Charleston and ironically emblematic of the break with royal authority, is an image of the hand of Queen Anne, the only remnant of a full-length portrait of the queen that once hung in the Commons House of Assembly.
The Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts represented the opening shots of the Revolutionary War that would soon affect South Carolina and the other colonies. A cartridge box of the Royal Artillery carried at these battles will be on display in the exhibit, alongside a recently-acquired .75 caliber “Brown Bess” musket. The Brown Bess was the standard infantry firearm for British soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and this new collection object has not been exhibited by the Museum before.
When war came in 1775, South Carolina’s Provincial Congress, replacing the Commons House of Assembly but containing many of the same members, had already become the de facto government of the colony. The Provincial Congress raised men and obtained arms and other supplies to defend South Carolina. The first major threat came in June 1776 when British land and sea forces under General Henry Clinton and Commodore Peter Parker made an attack on an unfinished fort on Sullivan’s Island that defended the harbor entrance.
On June 28, facing stiff resistance, Clinton’s troops were unable to cross Breech Inlet to attack the northern side of the fort, and Royal Navy vessels bombarding the Americans from the harbor sustained severe damage and heavy casualties from patriot artillery fire from the fort. The British assault was a disaster, and the Americans won a significant victory. Just six days later, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, creating the United States of America. British forces sailed away from Charleston in early August, around the time news of the Declaration reached the city. Bolstered by the recent great victory and the withdrawal of the enemy, the news was warmly received. Although the new exhibit opens January 31, there are some pieces that will only be on display for only a few months due to their fragile nature.
Among them are a logbook of the HMS Bristol, the flagship of the Royal Navy during the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, on loan from the Royal Museums of Greenwich and on exhibit from June 15 to September 20, and one of the first broadsides to be printed in Charleston announcing the Declaration of Independence, on loan from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and on display from May 22 to August 30.
After their defeat at Sullivan’s Island, the British would not threaten Charleston again for three years. When France recognized American independence in 1778 and began sending direct military aid to the patriots, it changed the nature of the war for the Crown. Now facing the French in other parts of the world, they could no longer devote the scale of resources to the war in America that they had previously. Convinced by former royal governors that large numbers of loyalists resided in the southern colonies and were ready to assist them, they shifted their strategy south.
British troops under General Augustine Prevost marched to the gates of Charleston in May 1779 but were not strong enough to take the city. The following year, General Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot besieged Charleston, forcing its surrender after six weeks. Among the pieces to be shown in this section of the exhibit include a shell fired during the Siege of Charleston, on loan from the City of Charleston and on exhibit for the first time ever, and weapons from the Museum’s collections related to the siege.
With the fall of Charleston in May 1780, the British began a 31-month occupation of the city. The exhibit will discuss the difficult choices that many patriots had to make when all now seemed lost. Some men continued to resist, despite being prisoners of war on parole, meaning they signed a document agreeing to stay out of the fight until they were part of a prisoner of war exchange. The British discovered, however, that some of these men continued to correspond with enemies of the King. Consequently, in August and November 1780, they arrested dozens of these patriots and exiled them to St. Augustine, Florida. Among the pieces on display are a bracket clock of William Lee, one of the men sent to St. Augustine, and a sword that belonged to Hamilton Ballendine, a loyalist who was hung for spying for the British prior to the siege.
This section of the exhibit will also highlight the role of Lowcountry women during the Revolutionary War, such as Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who, along with other women, made substantial loans to the South Carolina government to fund the patriot war effort. The exhibit will include a rare showing of the silk gown of Eliza Lucas Pinckney from the Museum’s historic textiles collection from May 23 to July 26. This piece was conserved several years ago thanks to fundraising by the Eliza Lucas Pinckney Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, but can only be displayed occasionally due to its fragile nature. Pinckney’s shoes and sash, also conserved due to the efforts of the Eliza Lucas Pinckney Chapter, will be on exhibit throughout the exhibit. Other gowns to be shown on an interim basis will be that of Eliza’s daughter, Harriott Pinckney Horry, and Elizabeth Peronneau Lightwood.
The paradoxical role of enslaved people and free Blacks will also be part of the exhibit. Enslaved people contributed to the war effort by growing crops that fed soldiers, building fortifications and other military facilities, and carrying intelligence. They were deeply involved in a struggle for freedom that was not their own. The exhibit will display Revolutionary War era shot buried under clam shells that was found in an archaeological dig at the John Rutledge House on Broad Street, ostensibly an attempt to hide ammunition, a coverlet made by enslaved people, and pieces of a musket from the Battle of Camden that was carried by Levy, a free Black soldier, who served in the patriot ranks at the Battle of Camden.
After the British captured Charleston, they moved forces into the South Carolina interior, known as the Backcountry, where they faced stiff resistance from militiamen under the command of leaders such as Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion. Although the British won another major victory at the Battle of Camden in August 1780, they ultimately were unable to make significant headway against these partisan fighters. When General Nathanael Greene was appointed commander of the Continental forces in South Carolina, he was able to retake control of South Carolina, working in concert with the state’s militiamen. Among the pieces displayed in this portion of the exhibit will be a sword carried by one of Marion’s men, a waistcoat of Thomas Sumter, and a recently-acquired camp bed from the Revolutionary War era. Archaeological pieces from battlefields around South Carolina including Camden, Ninety Six, Fort Watson, and Fort Motte will also be on exhibit.
Thanks, in part, to the determined resistance of South Carolina’s inhabitants, the British would abandon their quest to subdue the patriots and agree to American independence in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Charleston’s Henry Laurens was one of the peace commissioners who negotiated with the British. The final section of the exhibit covers the close of the war but also the mythic opinion that many Americans held toward George Washington, who led the Continental army during the war and became its first president. Included in this part of the exhibit will be a waistcoat of Henry Laurens, which he wore when imprisoned by the British in the Tower of London, and a neck stock and chair related to Washington.
We are excited to offer this exhibit in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States as well as South Carolina’s role in the winning of independence. There will truly be some remarkable pieces in it, some of which may not be shown again in Charleston for decades, if ever. We hope that you will be able to visit after the exhibit opens and again when objects are on temporary display over the course of the summer.
We could not offer this wonderful mission-focused initiative without the support of our members, donors, and granting agencies who will make it possible. We wish to thank the many people who gave to the Museum’s 2025 annual appeal in support of the exhibit. In addition, the following agencies and foundations have pledged generous grants: SC250, Therblig Foundation, Post and Courier Foundation, and the Henry and Sylvia Yaschik Foundation. We are grateful to all of you for your support of America’s First Museum and our country’s 250th birthday!
Carl P. Borick
Director
–charlestonmuseum.org
