CHARLESTON RACONTEURS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Architect
- Artist Unknown, Oil on Canvas, 1630, National Portrait Gallery
As author Robert Rosen has noted, perhaps no other city has ever been more aptly named than Charles Town for King Charles II, 1 the Merry Monarch who in the mid-1600s, ushered in the English Restoration. To understand Charleston, its people and history, one must first understand the nature and personality of King Charles himself, born at St. James's Palace on May 29, 1630, under the auspices of the planet Venus, goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and wealth - all concepts central to the establishment of the Carolina colony.
By the time Charles was 14 the prince found himself fighting alongside his father against Puritan rebels in the English Civil War. As King Charles I realized his chances of victory were becoming smaller, he sent his son into exile at the court of his young French cousin King Louis XIV.
King Charles I lost the war and was beheaded. The Puritans dismantled the monarchy and began transforming England into a rather somber place. The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word "puritan" as the belief that pleasure is wrong - or as early 20th century author H.L. Menken termed it: "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." 2
Clinton, Catherine, editor. Honoring Fallen Soldiers: America's First Memorial Day. May 1, 1865, Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston, 2002.
Gen. Robert E. Lee stayed here for three nights in April 1870 as he returned to Virginia from a visit to his father, Gen. "Light Horse" Harry Lee in Georgia. More than 3,000 Charlestonians greeted Gen. Lee at a ball given in his honor on April 27. Lee gave a great speech on that occasion, a copy of which is in the house. It was one of Lee's last public speeches; he died six months later.
Hampton Park is a 60-acre site operated by the City of Charleston and located west of The Citadel along the Ashley River near the northwest corner of the peninsular city. Today cyclists, joggers and dog-walkers enjoy taking laps around the roughly one-mile paved loop that encircles the garden.
Yet the history behind this idylllic site is filled not only with beauty and family sojourns, but also with war, death and destruction. It has served as a pleasure garden, a farm, a siege camp, a racetrack, the center of Charleston's antebellum social life, a horrific POW camp, the site of one of America's first Memorial Day celebrations, a magical Ivory City of hope and economic prosperity, and a failed zoo.
Job Titles:
- Member of England 's Parliament
Septima P. Clark died on Dec. 15, 1987, and is buried at Old Bethel Methodist Church on Calhoun Street. One of Charleston's most prominent thoroughfares, the Septima P. Clark Parkway (commonly referred to as the Crosstown) was named in her honor, as was Septima P. Clark Academy on James Island.
Septima Poinsette was born May 3, 1898, to Peter and Victoria Warren Anderson Poinsette. Peter had been born a slave on Joel Poinsette's farm near Georgetown on the Waccamaw River. A house slave, Peter's principal responsibility was getting the children to and from school.
Upon emancipation, Peter took a job working on ships in Charleston Harbor. During one of his travels to Haiti, he met Victoria, who had been born a free person of color in Charleston, but moved to Haiti as a young child to be raised by her brother. Peter and Victoria returned to Charleston and Victoria took a job as a laundress, declaring proudly that she had never been, nor would ever be, anyone's servant.
Victoria was a strict mother, particularly on her daughters, and was determined that they would grow up to be ladies. They were allowed to play with friends just one day a week, with the other six being devoted to their lessons and their chores. They were admonished to never go out without their gloves, to never yell or scream, and to never eat standing on the street rather than seated properly at a table. Septima's father, however, was more lenient and she recalled being disciplined by him only once: when she tried to skip school one day.
Septima began school in 1904 when she was six, attending the Mary Street School. Her parents, however, felt that she was not learning much and enrolled her with a private teacher who lived across the street from the school. Because her parents were too poor to pay for her education, Septima babysat for the tutor's children in lieu of tuition.
When Septima graduated from sixth grade, there was no public high school for black children in Charleston. Nevertheless, she passed an exam that allowed her to begin attending 9th grade at Avery Academy, a high school founded by missionaries from Massachusetts. Initially all of her teachers were white women whom she admired and sought to emulate. In 1914, two years before Septima's graduation, the first black teachers were hired at Avery, and this undoubtedly nurtured her desire to teach.
There was no money for Septima to continue her studies once she graduated from Avery. Thus at 18, she passed an exam that qualified her to teach in the rural community of Johns Island. After three years in this position, she returned to teach at Avery, where she used her earnings to attend Benedict College in Columbia part time. She eventually went on to earn her master's degree at Hampton Institute in Virginia.
During this time she married a man from out of state, Nerie David Clark. Her mother never forgave her for marrying a man she deemed to be "a stranger." Mr. Clark did not live long after their marriage, during which the couple had two children, only one of which survived.
Gen. Robert E. Lee stayed here for three nights in April 1870 as he returned to Virginia from a visit to his father, Gen. "Light Horse" Harry Lee in Georgia. More than 3,000 Charlestonians greeted Gen. Lee at a ball given in his honor on April 27. Lee gave a great speech on that occasion, a copy of which is in the house. It was one of Lee's last public speeches; he died six months later.
William Ravenel passed away two years later, though his family continued to live in the house until the 1930s. In 1959, Hurricane Gracie uprooted a large tree in the yard, and to everyone's surprise uncovered one of the grand capitals that had spent decades buried underneath. Today, throngs of tourists pass by the Ravenel House daily as they stroll along High Battery. Instinctively, even to an architectural novice, many of us sense that something seems amiss or off-kilter as they pass by the mansion, though few understand what exactly. Those who look carefully may see the rediscovered capital in the property's garden, now not only a decorative element, but also a testament to the catastrophic damage caused by the largest earthquake to ever strike the east coast.