SOUTH CAROLINA: A Charleston museum debuts SC-centric Revolutionary War exhibit
CHARLESTON — A new Revolutionary War exhibit in the Holy City is one of several museum displays anticipated to go live this year ahead of the American conflict’s 250th anniversary.
The South Carolina Historical Society Museum will kick off the celebration early when it debuts “Voices of the Revolution in South Carolina” on Sept. 5. The exhibit will highlight new Revolutionary War stories from Charleston and other areas across the state, documenting various groups during their fight for independence from Britain and the founding of the country.
It will be on display inside the Meeting Street museum until the summer of 2027.
CEO Elizabeth Chew described the new exhibit as a tribute to the significant impact of the American Revolution on South Carolina residents.
“People often think of the Revolution as having begun in Massachusetts with Paul Revere or the battles of Lexington and Concord,” Chew said. “But that sentiment was already here. Some of the earliest rebellions and push-backs to British rule happened here. These events impacted the turnout of the war.”
The exhibit tells interwoven stories of battles, women’s actions, the complexities of Loyalism, and the impact of the war on enslaved people and Indigenous tribes who found themselves forced to choose sides as a means of survival or freedom.
There are first-hand accounts documented by Revolutionary War soldiers and women in occupied Charleston, maps and papers detailing major battles including the most well-known one on Sullivan’s Island, as well as portraits, weapons and personal artifacts from different groups. A children’s area offers a flag-making activity.
The exhibit also shares stories like those of Boston King, an enslaved man on a plantation in Dorchester County who gained freedom by siding with the British. He was one of hundreds of formerly enslaved people during the American Revolution who fought alongside the British in exchange for freedom.
King was taken from the Colonies to Canada by the British after the war. He started a new life, became a Methodist minister and wrote a memoir. A drawing on display from an archive in Canada shows a formerly enslaved man doing woodwork in the Nova Scotia town where Boston King lived.
“More skirmishes are fought here than anywhere else in the colonies,” Chew said of the South Carolina struggle. “The reason is because of the large Loyalist community here that did not want to rebel from the British Crown. Many of these battles were not between British and rebel soldiers on a field, but rather neighbors fighting neighbors over these ideals and sides. That wasn’t happening to the same extent in other colonies. And that’s why many consider the Revolutionary War South Carolina’s first civil war.”
A 4th SC Regiment order book that describes the Battle of Sullivan’s Island and day-to-day military life. It is on display as part of a new exhibit at the South Carolina Historical Society Museum.
While at the S.C. museum, visitors can also view artifacts like a 4th Regiment order book. These were kept by the secretary of the regiment, who recorded day-to-day movements, orders and battles. The local militia served with the Continental Army from June 18, 1776 through January 1781.
“It’s almost like a diary of what was happening in the regiment — from routine things, like soldiers being disciplined for playing cards to detailed descriptions of battles that they’re in,” Chew said.
The museum and society headquarters are located within the Fireproof Building on Meeting Street, designed by Robert Mills in the 1820s. Last year, the society’s museum inside the historic downtown structure lowered its admission to $1 as a way to make it more accessible to the public.
The South Carolina Historical Society is working on another project, funded by the SC250 Commission. It will be a traveling exhibition in partnership with the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia that will be sent around to small towns throughout the state.
Artifacts on display are from the historical society’s archives and others loaned from collections at The Gibbes Museum of Art, South Carolina State Museum, the Charleston Museum and others.
Director of the Charleston Museum Carl Borick said he welcomes the opportunity to assist colleague institutions in the area, such as the South Carolina Historical Society, with their special exhibition.
“The objects loaned by The Charleston Museum for the exhibit are from our extensive archaeology and history collections, which are particularly rich in 18th-century material,” Borick said. “Both collections reveal a wealth of information concerning the city’s residents, both Black and White, during the Revolutionary era. We hope they will contribute to the excellent interpretation that the Historical Society will provide in this exhibit.”
–postandcourier.com
