Gadsden’s Wharf complex was the largest in North America, featuring an 840-foot river wharf that berthed six ships at once and the capacity to hold up to 1,000 slaves on land.īetween 17, the height of the international slave trade, an estimated 100,000 West Africans landed here. The wharf complex was built in the 1760s and 1770s by Christopher Gadsden, a prosperous merchant a Revolutionary War leader known today for having designed the Don’t Tread on Me flag known as Gadsden’s Banner. ![]() Most of those slaves disembarked here, at Gadsden’s Wharf, located on the Cooper River in Charleston, between today’s Calhoun and Laurens Streets and from the harbor to East Bay Street. As many as 260,000 enslaved Africans entered South Carolina from 1670 to 1808. Next week we will continue to explore Charleston history through her places and people.During the African slave trade, South Carolina received more slaves than any other mainland colony. Fortunately, the City of Charleston purchased the building, and over the ensuing years the museum has become an important resource in the continual unfolding of the history of the enslaved African Americans in Charleston, the Lowcountry and the deeper South. After Wilson died in 1959, two Charleston sisters, Louise Wragg Graves and Judith Wragg Chase took over and ran the museum until it closed in 1987. In 1938, Miriam Wilson, daughter of a Union soldier, purchased the two-story building and created the Old Slave Mart Museum, featuring the art and history of enslaved African Americans. The entrance led to a one-story shed where Oakes conducted his slave auctions.Īfter the Civil War, a second story was added and 6 Chalmers was used as a tenement the other buildings of the complex were eventually demolished and the lots separated from what is presently the Chalmers Street property. In 1859, the property was sold to another slave auctioneer, Ziba Oakes, who built the entrance on Chalmers Street as we see it today with the unusual octagonal pillars and gated arch. Other structures around the courtyard included a kitchen and a morgue the structures in the complex were built before 1859 for Thomas Ryan. This building also had rooms set aside for auctions. The museum is housed in the remaining portion of Ryan’s Mart, a complex comprised of several structures on Chalmers Street connected by a passageway that opened up into a courtyard and a large building, which fronted on Queen Street, that served primarily as a jail to hold the enslaved until auction. As a result, auction “rooms” or “marts” sprang up, especially around Chalmers Street and the surrounding area. In the 19th century, Charleston passed a law that prohibited slave auctions from being conducted in public outdoor areas. After the Old Exchange was built as the Customs House in 1771, many of the auctions occurred on property directly to the north of the building. ![]() Built in 1859, this structure is the only surviving example of a slave auction house or gallery in South Carolina, and it has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.Įnslaved African Americans were originally auctioned off outdoors, many times right off the docks. The best place to begin to unpack the institution of slavery in Charleston is the Old Slave Mart Museum at 6 Chalmers Street, open Monday-Saturday, 9:00 a.m. ![]() The history of the enslaved African Americans brought against their will to the port of Charleston in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries is similar to peeling back the layers of an onion – there’s always another layer to discover. 6 Chalmers Street - Old Slave Mart MuseumĢ0 August 2019 Posted in Diary of a Charleston Tour Guide
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