Historic Charleston is rife with PIRATES
We killed 2 birds with one stone and everyone was happy (fabulous parenting moment for me!). We went on the Charleston Walking Pirate Tour and learned about the cities sordid pirate past as well as got to see and experience much of the historic architect. We managed to do a 2 hour walking tour with no complaints about the walking part… The pirate part was really interesting for all of us, with Hunter being more interested in the shooting, jailing, plundering etc., and it fit in very well with all of our American History work.
The walking tour starts out at the Powder Magazine, Charleston’s oldest public building. It was built in 1713 and used as an arsenal from 1713 to 1748 to defend the colony from the Spanish, French, pirates, slave rebellions and native attacks. It provides you with a great visual overview of the City of Charleston and the founding history.
Historic Charleston has stood for a century as the cultural capital of the south. It was, and still is, an economic centre. It was founded in 1670 and was subject to periodic attacks from French, Spanish and plenty of Pirates. The heart of the city was fortified in 1704, however most of the walls were removed during the 1720’s.
Through our walk we learned all about a number of Pirates, their role in the history of Charleston, the difference between pirates and privateers, the story behind the pirates being offered pardon’s by the British Colonial Government and lots of other juicy tidbits. We also touched lightly on the slave trade. As a compromise between the North and the South, the sale of slaves on the street was made illegal in the 1850’s. This caused the creation of the Old Slave Mart in 1856, where slave auctions were held until the end of the Civil War in 1865.
We had a bit of a rush between the end of our Pirate tour and the afternoon tour we had arranged. As we walked to our afternoon stop, we took a quick detour to check out the downtown Charleston Fire Station.
