History of Moonshine and the Dark Corner

While most may attribute moonshine to places like Kentucky and Tennessee, western South Carolina become a dominant producer of moonshine after the Civil War up through the 20th century.  This presentation not only explains how homemade legal whiskey became illegal moonshine, but also tells the history of the notorious figures involved in its production and … Read more

Henry Hammett and Piedmont Manufacturing

How did South Carolina become the number one producer of textiles in the world by the 20th century?  This presentation highlights textiles’ earliest beginnings in the Palmetto State and Henry Hammett’s contributions that transformed small textile operations that led to South Carolina becoming the textile center of the world in 1962.

College Football History in South Carolina

This presentations focuses on the early decades of the game with its evolving rules along with the origins of the first college game in the state, Furman vs. Wofford. It will then review the founding of football at Clemson and Carolina to Erskine and the College of Charleston, highlighting some of the early stars and … Read more

The World of Dolley Madison

Dolley Payne Todd Madison (1768-1849) was the first wife of a U.S. President to occupy the role of First Lady in the way that we understand it today. This lecture discusses the life, achievements, and impact of one of the most important and interesting First Ladies.

South Carolina History is American History

This lecture shows how the story of South Carolina deeply impacted the story of the United States. Using numerous examples from the 16th century onwards, this lecture demonstrates how the actions of South Carolinians and events in South Carolina contributed to the success of the British colonies in North America, the colonial rebellion and the … Read more

Slavery in the North v. Slavery in the South and the Common Connection

Myra Davis-Branic discusses how slavery was taught in Public Schools based on region. Myra Davis-Branic, a native New Yorker and a product of the Great Migration, was taught in NYC Public Schools that slavery was a “Down South Phenomenon”. When she migrated south and started teaching Black History to at-risk youth to increase self-esteem and … Read more

Legacies of Slavery and the Shared History of the South

Myra Davis-Branic discusses how writing a book about her family’s history led to a chance meeting which grew into a friendship with Frye Gaillard, 6th X Great-grandson of the man who enslaved her family on a South Carolina plantation. The discussion includes a video presentation of our conversations in Mobile Alabama at the University of … Read more

Her Mark: Black Women’s Voices from Union Pension Records

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, hundreds of thousands of African American women applied for US pensions based on the military service of their husbands during the American Civil War. Their incredible first-hand descriptions chronicling their day-to-day lives, financial struggles, family histories, local events, etc. provide a powerful commentary on the history of … Read more

The Honorable Hastings Gantt and Robert Smalls: Servant Leaders of South Carolina

Explore the intertwined legacies of Hastings Gantt and Robert Smalls, two visionary leaders who shaped South Carolina’s political and social landscape. Both men rose from slavery to serve in the South Carolina Legislature, advocating for civil rights, land preservation, and education for African Americans. Discover how Gantt’s dedication made Penn School possible and how Smalls’ … Read more

The Reconstruction Era (1861-1900): Focusing on South Carolina

Delve into the transformative years during and following the American Civil War, focusing on South Carolina’s critical role during the Reconstruction Era. This presentation explores the social, political, and economic changes that shaped the state’s journey toward healing and rebuilding. Learn how African Americans in South Carolina navigated newfound freedoms while fighting for equality and … Read more

Potters Raid 

While Lee was surrendering at Appomattox, the last military campaign in SC was taking place.  Brig. Gen. Edward Potter was leading a force of 2500 men in a march from Georgetown to Manning to Sumter to Camden in search of railroad equipment they had been ordered to destroy. Especially noteworthy is that the African-American regiment, … Read more

The “Lost” Treasure of the Confederacy

For decades fortune hunters have been searching for a large cache of gold and silver coins taken out of Richmond, VA when it was evacuated on April 2, 1865. Tales of the Confederate treasure’s fate has become legendary, with different people searching for it in dozens of places across the United States, including SC. Are … Read more

Fifty Shades of Blue & Gray

The Kardashians have nothing on Amelia Feaster, who was a widow three times before her 35th birthday and was the subject of malicious (and sometimes true) gossip. Her daughter, Marie Boozer, was the subject of tabloid stories throughout the 1800s and two romance novels in the 1950s. This is the only Civil War era story … Read more

The Confederacy’s New Mexico Campaign of 1862

Did you know that the Clint Eastwood western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, was inspired by an actual event? In 1862 a brigade of Confederate soldiers set out from Texas to conquer New Mexico and then go on to California. This is the story of that failed invasion and its aftermath.

The Burning of Columbia, February 17, 1865

For 160 years there has been a raging controversy over who is to blame for the Burning of Columbia. Confederate and Union soldiers blamed each other for the inferno that destroyed a third of the city. Come watch this program and hear about the events leading up to and during the fire and decide for … Read more

Little Known Stories of Reconstruction

For over 150 years, the story of Reconstruction in South Carolina was largely distorted or ignored in history books. Using old newspaper accounts and archival material, this presentation tells of how South Carolina once came close to being a bastion of equality before things went horribly wrong. This story serves not only as an example … Read more

The 1895 Segregation Fight in South Carolina

This story, long buried in old newspaper accounts, tells the forgotten saga of the six brave men who tried to stop the segregation laws from passing in South Carolina.  For three months, six Black leaders of the Reconstruction era argued eloquently at the State Constitutional Convention in the face of vile threats, racial insults, and united opposition, … Read more

Dr. Matilda Evans: South Carolina’s Medical Pioneer 

Born four years after the end of slavery, Matilda Arabella Evans, who grew up on a family farm in eastern Aiken County, South Carolina, was the first African American and first woman in licensed to practice medicine in South Carolina and an advocate for improved health care for African Americans, including children. Matilda’schildhood experiences, educational background, … Read more

Reconsidering James Petigru: Unionist and Civic Reformer in a Radical Age

Few sarcastic quips in all of southern history remain as famous as James Petigru’s reported comment upon receiving the news that South Carolina had seceded from the Union. South Carolina, Petigru mused sarcastically, was “too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.” Petigru died in 1863, a devoted Unionist and southern … Read more

“A Soul of Priceless Value”: The Contested Ideology of Slaveholding in the Lowcountry

This lecture examines white Christianity’s struggle for influence among slaveholders in Charleston and the surrounding South Carolina Lowcountry as the movement delineated both the ideological and the practical mechanisms that it believed necessary to sustain a slaveholding society in the face of increasingly sharp moral and social criticism, chiefly from outside the region. Religious paternalism’s … Read more

The Thompson Family: Untold Stories from the Past (1830 – 1960)

Through the stories of enslaved ancestors and notable relatives, The Thompson Family: Untold Stories from The Past (1830-1960), chronicles the rich history of a prominent African American family from Salley, South Carolina features stories of individuals who were enslaved, a woman served as an enslaved cook during the Civil War, and agricultural life.

Martha Kitchings Seawright Ellison

Martha Kitchings Seawright Ellison was born enslaved on November 20, 1849, in Aiken County, South Carolina. This presentation tells the contextualized story of her life, featuring local history of the antebellum period and Civil War in South Carolina during Martha’s enslavement; a historical account of Martha’s life during the Reconstruction Era; the circumstances that involved … Read more

South Carolina African American Confederate Pensioners

This presentation explores the reasons why South Carolina used African American labor during the war; the diverse roles of African American labor during the war; SC approval of Confederate pensions for African Americans; notable features of the pension application; and notable South Carolina African American Confederate Pensioners.

The Families’ Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice

Counter to the national narrative which championed the patriotic manhood of soldiering from the Civil War through the 1920s, Dr. Pinheiro, Jr.’s research reveals that African American veterans and their families’ military experience were much more fraught. Economic and social instability introduced by military service resonated for years and even generations after soldiers left the … Read more