Please excuse any errors for now. Typing in my phone. I'll pretty this up when we return from our trip.
Our first stop of the day was to Angel Oak, the reportedly oldest living tree on this side of the Mississippi. It was beautiful, with its topmost limbs supported by wire cables.
Our next stop was historic Charleston. When I think of this southern city, I tend to think Civil War, Rhett Bulter and Scarlett (O'Hara) Butler and their dramatic love story. However, in this carriage tour, I learned so much more. I was remminded during the tour that the city dates back to the first wave of immigration. King Charles bribed his supporters with claims in the New World. In the 1670's, settlers moved to the northern part of the Carolinas, but by the 1680's, settlers moved into Charleston. John Locke (according to the tour guide and yet to be fact checked) drafted up a charter which included religious freedom on three conditions: #1 You had to believe in God. #2 You had to worship God publicly. #3 You could not be Catholic. (Catholics were later given their guaranteed religious freedom with the ratification on the U.S. Constitution.
I learned that at one time, during the early 1700's, the city was walled against wild animals, native Americans, pirates, the French and the Spanish.
Afterwards, we took a tour of Fort Sumter. We passed Sullivan Island, sometimes referred to as the Ellis Island of African Slaves. Enslaved people were brought through Sullivan Island for a health check and were quarantined if they were not healthy.
The tour of Fort Sumter was amazing. I was so glad I took the tour. Sometimes, it is referred to as the symbol of southerrn resistence and northern determination. I'll add more history later, but suffice it to say, it was a powerful thing to stand on the place where the first shots of the deadliest wa in American history took place. It is ironic to me that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers contracted with slaveowners to build it, and yet it was a stepping stone to their freedon.
On site were some of the renewed fortification put in place after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
What I loved were the remains of the Civil War fort though. The bricks were so beautiful, restored.
The grounds around the fort were also beautiful. There was a storm coming in, so we had a wonderful ocean breeze. It was nice to just sit with the sun on our backs, looking out to the sea from the first line of defense for the beautiful southern city.
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