Letters From The South

Charleston, January 1841.

Charleston is situated at the confluence of the Cooper and Ashley rivers. The plain at one extremity of which it stands, being a dead level, unvaried so far as I saw by a single eminence, gives little variety to the city so far as nature is concerned. In the southern part of the city, and along the bank of the river, are many mansions, which, though not possessing much architectural beauty, appeared from their size and antiquity to belong to families whose names were associated with the early history of our country, such as the Laurens, the Pinckneys. I do not remember, to have seen any that looked so much like aristocracy, since I left Summer street, in Boston.

A large portion of the business part of the city was destroyed by the great fire three or four years since. Soon after that disastrous event, the State loaned to the owners of the buildings which were destroyed, about two million dollars, to be applied to the erection of new stores and houses, which amount was to be reimbursed by annual payments. The natural result of this unwise policy ensued; many buildings were erected, far too expensive for the wants of the place; some of which have already been sold, in consequence of the non-payment of the interest and installments, at a very great sacrifice. - Among them the Charleston Hotel cost nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and now is not worth more than one third of that sum. A gentleman from Philadelphia observed in my presence, that he wished that so splendid a building were in his own city; to which it was replied, that the people in Charleston concurred in the wish, for it was too expensive a luxury for them. These fine buildings are surrounded by vacant lots, still retaining the marks of fire, and seemed to me to present a strange mixture of beauty and deformity.

Unlike most of our great cities, Charleston is declining in population, and apparently in prosperity. In the number of its inhabitants, and probably in the extent of its business, it surpasses every city between Baltimore and New Orleans; but Richmond will soon pass it, and Mobile perhaps is not far behind. A very large amount of cotton and rice is shipped is shipped from this port, and merchandize in considerable quantities is sold to the interior. Still every thing tells of the past rather than the future. South Carolina is a poor State, its soil worn out, and its energies depressed; and until there is an active change in the social system, and in the habits of the people, it cannot well be otherwise. But pride and poverty have long been associates, and although South Carolina has not as many white inhabitants as Vermont, its inhabitants talk and feel as if it were the central point around which the whole Union must revolve.

Long before i reached Charleston, I felt the influence of its peculiar institutions. On going board the steamboat at Wilmington, we were summoned to the captain's office, not to "settle our passage," but to report our names, ages, occupation, place of birth, and residence. In inquired the cause of this peculiar requisition, and was told that it was made by order of the city authorities of Charleston. I immediately suggested to one of my companions that he must report himself as an abolitionist. I may be mistaken, but I cannot believe that this regulation would survive the extinction of slavery for one month. In almost every walk through the city, I saw something to remind me that I was not in a free State. On inquiring the name of a large building which I saw, I was told that it was the State arsenal, where, in the preparations for war of nullification, in which South Carolina intended, "solitary and alone," to fight and conquer all the rest of the Union, were stored an abundant supply of arms and ammunition. At the close of the war, it was found on close examination, that the firearms were worthless, and that peas had been provided to load them with instead of lead.

Among the public edifices of Charleston is the guard-house, a large and handsome building near the centre of business. The building is used as a house of detention for all persons arrested by the police; but its inmates are principally blacks, were are found in the street in the evening without a pass. Any slave found in the street after a certain hour, is arrested by the police and is subject to severe punishment.