Black Charleston History Walk and the South Carolina Aquarium

 

Tuesday, Oct 17, 2023

We awoke to yet another beautiful morning here in Charleston, South Carolina.  This is a good thing because we are going to start the day with a Black History walking tour, aptly named Frankly Charleston because the guide's name is Frank, this morning at 10 am. Rico, Mari, and Amara are joining us once again.  Kathi has been over the moon at this time that she has had to spend with all of them, particularly Amara since this is the first time that she has actually met her.

After having our morning cup of coffee, showering and dressing, we headed out and walked to the visitor's center where we were to meet our tour guide as well as Rico and family. It was a bit chilly still, so we tried to stay on the sunny side of the street when possible.  Once everyone taking the tour arrived, Frank began his talk about the history of Charleston from the perspective of a Black American. The untold story.  The story of how Charleston was built by black slaves transported across the ocean to a life of servitude. How the land that Charleston is built upon was originally all marshland filled with alligators and leeches and mosquitos.  The slaves were tasked with filling this watery land with fill dirt and crushed oyster shells many feet deep in order to create a land base that would become viable real estate. Many slaves can also be credited with building the many beautiful homes and buildings in Charleston.  They worked as sawyers, cabinet makers, carpenters, iron workers, plasterers, stone masons, and brick masons.  Through the years the focus has always been on the beauty of the plantations, the plantation homes, and the government buildings with no credit given to those who created all this beauty through their forced labor.  It's time that part of the story be revealed, be discussed, be made part of our history books.  This is the story that Frank tells as we walk around a few blocks of Charleston. One of the first examples that Frank showed us was a gate that was made by black artisan and blacksmith, Philip Simmons. Commonly called the Peacock Gate, it is filled with African symbolism and is should more appropriately be called the Gateway to Charleston, the name that Philip Simmons gave it.  He created many beautiful ironworks throughout the city of Charleston.

Frank also spoke of how ALL of Charleston is basically a cemetery full of the bones of the enslaved.  Nearly any time digging for foundations is done in the city, bones are found.

The main area that we walked around for this tour was The Wragg Mall.  An area named after Joseph Wragg, who was a politician and the predominant slave trader in South Carolina.   Many of the homes in this area include his own home and the homes of his children.  The streets in this area are all named after Wragg's children.  Elizabeth Street, Mary Street, Ann Street, Charlotte Street, Henrietta Street, Judith Street, and finally, John Street.  This area was close to the wharf where they slave ships came into port. Upon arrival, the black who survived the voyage were quarantined for ten days where it was determined who was healthy enough to be auctioned off.  Anyone not deemed healthy enough was left to die.  Frank showed us one of the concrete blocks used as an auction block upon which the person for sale would stand while the enslavers made bids.  Frank told us that this part of town is where most slaves were purchased rather than at the slave mart in downtown Charleston.   The buyers here were the wealthy whites, while those who purchased the slaves downtown, while needing slave labor, were not able to spend as much money upon their purchases.

While the information that Frank provided us with was interesting and showed us glimpses of the whole story of Charleston, I found his presentation to be somewhat random, off-the-cuff, nonlinear and at times difficult to follow. He was obviously very passionate about his topic, but, for me, I would have preferred a more structured presentation.  The tour was to last 90 minutes and we built this into our schedule for the day, having purchased tickets for a 1pm entrance to the Charleston Aquarium. At noon, Frank was still talking, we were hungry, and we had a 15 minute walk to the aquarium so we were forced to leave the tour before it was over in order to eat and make it to the aquarium on time.

Upon arrival at the aquarium, we headed straight for the bathrooms and the cafe. Once our hunger was satiated and our bladders emptied, we began our exploration of the aquarium. 

The aquarium is divided into different sections that focus on the different environments found in South Carolina: mountain forest, coastal plain, saltmarsh, coast and, ocean.  In addition there are touch tanks and a Sea Turtle recovery area, where injured sea turtles are treated with the idea of releasing them back into the wild once recovered. In between the exhibits are play areas and these areas seemed to be what Amara enjoyed the most. We happened to be at the right place and time to watch the horseshoe crabs get fed.  Since Kathi and I and seen a couple of these creatures when looking over the water outside the International African American Museum a couple of days before, we found this particularly interesting. Kathi even got to feed one!  We were also fortunate enough to watch the bald eagle they have there receive her meal. The bald eagle, Liberty, is there because she had to have part of a wing amputated as a result (it is believed) of an interaction with a live power line, thus making it impossible for her to survive on her own in the wild. 

Kathi and Amara spent some time playing the play area which was fun to watch and I know made Kathi very happy!

Rico and family needed to leave at 3 so that they could check out of their hotel room and make the nearly 3 hour journey back to their home in York, South Carolina.  Kathi and I decided to stay for the 3pm diver's show in the big tank. The diver had no interaction with any of the animals in the tank for the show. Instead the show mainly consisted of a dialogue between the diver and the educator who was outside of the tank.  We learned that the divers are all volunteers and their duties include preparing food for all the animals in the tank as well as scrubbing the algae away from the tank windows and the fake reefs inside the tank.

Once the show was over, we left the aquarium to return to the condo.  We had one more look, however, at creatures that live in this area when we looked over the side of the railing of the ramp heading out of the aquarium when we saw something moving in the sand.  Turned out to be Fiddler crabs!! Funny-looking creatures but fascinating to watch.

We made our way back to the condo with a stop at Carmella's Cafe and Dessert Bar for some iced drinks, which were delicious by the way! We watched a couple of episodes of "The Morning Show", then Kathi broke out the game she was inspired to purchase after our visit to the Birds of Prey, called Wingspan.  It is a game she had played before with some friends on a trip to Florida. It is fairly complicated and has a steep learning curve in order to play it and we were just getting into it when Eric asked Kathi about her flight arrival.  Well, thank goodness he asked because, long story made short, American Airlines CANCELLED Kathi's reservation and no notice was given to Orbitz (where she booked her round trip ticket for this trip) or to Kathi.  She, of course, immediately got on the phone to find out what the heck was going on and to remedy the situation and was on the phone for the next 2 1/2 hours with both American Airlines and Orbitz and basically got no answers.  She ended up booking another flight home to be sure she can GET home, while Orbitz escalates the matter and tries to resolve the matter on their end. This situation brought an end to our game.

Once Kathi finally got off the phone, it was 11:30 and we were off to bed!