Another crock of revisionist history... Can anyone tell the truth from fiction anymore?
Charles Towne was named after King Charles and Barbados traders were only a SMALL part of their heritage. But, what is to be expected by someone who would label the conservative folks of Charles Towne... blue belly liberals or in the authors terms 'Fox News Gobbling Zombies'.
It is hard to believe that this reputable News Paper would place such a distortion of history on your front page. So much, for journalistic integrity. History, is not so easily distorted... for those with a real education. Sorry, this story is just one more reason News Papers are dying... a slow death.
Here is a short but accurate synopsis of the real Charles Towne, History for those who care about accuracy and truth:
Brief History of Charleston (Charles Towne / Landing), South Carolina
Colonial period: 1670-1776
After King Charles II (1630–1685) was restored to the British throne following Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, he granted the chartered Carolina territory to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietors, in 1663. It took seven years before the Lords could arrange for settlement, the first being that of Charles Town. The community was established by English settlers in 1670 on the west bank of the Ashley River, a few miles northwest of the present city. It was soon chosen by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, one of the Lords Proprietors, to become a "great port towne", a destiny which the city fulfilled.
The settlement was often subject to attack from sea and from land. Periodic assaults from Spain and France, who still contested England's claims to the region, were combined with resistance from Native Americans, as well as pirate raids. While the earliest settlers primarily came from England, colonial Charleston was also home to a mixture of ethnic and religious groups. French, Scottish, Irish, and Germans migrated to the developing seacoast town, representing numerous Protestant denominations, as well as Roman Catholicism and Judaism. Sephardic Jews migrated to the city in such numbers that Charleston eventually was home to, by the beginning of the 19th century and until about 1830, the largest and wealthiest Jewish community in North America. Africans were brought to Charleston on the Middle Passage, first as servants, then as slaves, especially Wolof, Yoruba, Fulani, Igbo, Malinke, and other peoples of the the Windward Coast.
By the mid-18th century Charleston had become a bustling trade center, the hub of the Atlantic trade for the southern colonies, and the wealthiest and largest city south of Philadelphia. By 1770 it was the fourth largest port in the colonies, after only Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, with a population of 11,000, slightly more than half of that slaves.
Charleston was the hub of the deerskin trade. In fact, deerskin trade was the basis of Charleston's early economy. Trade alliances with the Cherokee and Creek insured a steady supply of deer hides. Between 1699 and 1715, an average of 54,000 deer skins were exported annually to Europe through Charleston. Between 1739 and 1761, the height of the deerskin trade era, an estimated 500,000 to 1,250,000 deer were slaughtered. During the same period, Charleston records show an export of 5,239,350 pounds of deer skins. Deer skins were used in the production of men's fashionable and practical buckskin pantaloons for riding, gloves, and book bindings.
Colonial low-country landowners experimented with cash crops ranging from tea to silk. African slaves brought knowledge of Rice cultivation, which plantation owners made into a successful business by 1700. With the help of African slaves from the Caribbean, Eliza Lucas, daughter of plantation owner George Lucas, learned how to raise and use indigo in the Low-Country in 1747. Supported with subsidies from England, indigo was a leading export by 1750. Those and naval stores were exported in an extremely profitable shipping industry.
As Charleston grew, so did the community's cultural and social opportunities, especially for the elite merchants and planters. The first theater building in America was built in Charleston in 1736. Benevolent societies were formed by several different ethnic groups. The Charleston Library Society was established in 1748 by some wealthy Charlestonians who wished to keep up with the scientific and philosophical issues of the day. This group also helped establish the College of Charleston in 1770, the oldest college in South Carolina and the 13th oldest in the United States.
American Revolution Period: 1776-1785
As the relationship between the colonists and England deteriorated, Charleston became a focal point in the ensuing American Revolution. It was twice the target of British attacks. At every stage the British strategy assumed a large base of Loyalist supporters who would rally to the King given some military support. On June 28, 1776 General Henry Clinton with 2000 men and a naval squadron tried to seize Charleston, hoping for a simultaneous Loyalist uprising in South Carolina. When the fleet fired cannonballs, the explosives failed to penetrate Fort Moultrie's unfinished, yet thick palmetto log walls. Additionally, no local Loyalists attacked the town from behind as the British had hoped.
Clinton returned in 1780 with 14,000 soldiers. American General Benjamin Lincoln was trapped and surrendered his entire 5400 men force after a long fight, and the Siege of Charleston was the greatest American defeat of the war (see Henry Clinton "Commander in Chief" section for more). Several Americans escaped the carnage, and joined up with several militias, including those of Francis Marion, the 'Swampfox,' and Andrew Pickens. The British retained control of the city until December 1782. After the British left the city's name was officially changed to Charleston in 1783, naming it after King Charles II of England.
Antebellum Period: 1785-1861
Old Slave Mart Museum Although the city would lose the status of state capital to Columbia, Charleston became even more prosperous in the plantation-dominated economy of the post-Revolutionary years. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 revolutionized this crop's production, and it quickly became South Carolina's major export. Cotton plantations relied heavily on slave labor. Slaves were also the primary labor force within the city, working as domestics, artisans, market workers or laborers. By 1820 Charleston's population had grown to 23,000, with a black majority. When a massive slave revolt planned by Denmark Vesey, a free black, was discovered in 1822, such hysteria ensued amidst white Charlestonians and Carolinians that the activities of free blacks and slaves were severely restricted.
As Charleston's government, society and industry grew, commercial institutions were established to support the community's aspirations. The Bank of South Carolina, the second oldest building constructed as a bank in the nation, was established here in 1798. Branches of the First and Second Bank of the United States were also located in Charleston in 1800 and 1817. By 1840, the Market Hall and Sheds, where fresh meat and produce were brought daily, became the commercial hub of the city. The slave trade also depended on the port of Charleston, where ships could be unloaded and the slaves sold at markets.
In the first half of the 19th century, South Carolinians became more devoted to the idea that state's rights were superior to the Federal government's authority. In 1832 South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification, a procedure in which a state could in effect repeal a Federal law, directed against the most recent tariff acts. Soon Federal soldiers were dispensed to Charleston's forts and began to collect tariffs by force. A compromise was reached by which the tariffs would be gradually reduced, but the underlying argument over state's rights would continue to escalate in the coming decades.
Besides if Barbados was such a great innovative source and power in the early days of the America's WHAT HAPPENED? So much, for the authors credibility. If Charleston City Paper has any editorial decency they will run a retratction... our children need to know the truth of our history not some REVISIONIST socialist view... George Orwell once said, "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." Lets get the past right so our future can be based on the Truth...
States need not nullify their status in the Union... only demand their Constitutional rights be honored irrespective of the Federal Courts or the Congress.
As a sovereign... each state may demand its residence and employers to remit all taxes directly to their respective capitals... there to be held until the Federal Government renews its respect for the Constitution and the several states rights. Such action by the several states would put Washington on notice that they have gone to far in their wild interpretation of their Constitutional authority.
The Federal Courts and police agencies including the IRS could be nullified in their power to enforce their mandates by each states legislature, Administration and Courts standing in opposition at the local level. Putting these agencies on notice that their unconstitutional usurpation of States rights under the 9th and 10th Amendments… and their abuse of the 1st thru 8th Amendments placed upon their local citizens will no longer be tolerated.
When a Federal court or the administration acts to impose its unconstitutional mandates on the people of the several states… the local authority should rise up, to restrain their power as one of the checks and balances of our federal system... The several states may use the State militia, local sheriff/law enforcement agencies, and magistrates to restrain federal officials, from imposing their unconstitutional mandates on the citizens and government of their sovereign state.
It is doubtful that the military and its membership comprised of citizen officers and soldiers would support any order to engage the several states... especially, if the states reserved their power to restraining federal judges, and enforcement agents etc.
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