00:00Hey Far, I'm Tiana Atrade and I'm here in beautiful, sunny Charleston, South Carolina.
00:05Charleston may look postcard perfect, but just beneath the surface there are buried secrets,
00:10century-old legends, and stories you won't find on your average city guy.
00:13From pirate blockades to haunted graveyards and alleys where people once dueled to the death,
00:18here are 10 things you never knew about Charleston, South Carolina.
00:22In the early 1700s, Charleston was a full-blown pirate hotspot.
00:25At the time, more than 2,000 pirates roamed the nearby seas during the golden age of piracy.
00:30This was right as Charleston was becoming one of the richest cities in colonial America
00:33thanks to enslaved labor and exports of rice and indigo.
00:36And that wealth made it a prime target.
00:38In 1718, infamous pirate Blackbeard famously held the city hostage
00:42until local leaders gave in to his demands for supplies.
00:45And his short-lived partner, the so-called gentleman pirate Stead Bonnet,
00:49was eventually captured, jailed, and hanged near the spot that's now home to the old exchange
00:53and the infamous Provost Dungeon.
00:54It was here that prisoners of war, enslaved people, and accused criminals were shackled
00:59and held, and you can still visit to this day.
01:01But Charleston's dungeon isn't the only place with an eerie past.
01:05In fact, this is one of the most haunted cities in the U.S.
01:07I met up with local guide Jack Kelly from Bulldog Tours to explore some of the city's
01:11most chilling ghost stories.
01:13One of the scariest?
01:14According to legend, a woman named Emily Dickerson was accused of witchcraft in the 1700s,
01:18burned at the stake, and had her ashes buried outside town in a sealed cask.
01:22Before she died, she vowed to do to Charleston what Charleston had done to her.
01:26Over a century later, her ghost allegedly appeared in a dream to a soldier working at
01:30the city's powder magazine.
01:31She asked him to dig up her cask and said not to open it until she told him to do so.
01:35Not long after, the soldier opened it early out of curiosity, and as he did,
01:39a fire suddenly tore through the city.
01:41That fire?
01:42Allegedly, the Great Fire of 1861.
01:45There is no official record of any of it, but some say the witch's cask is still buried
01:49at the powder magazine to this day.
01:51Bulldog is also the only tour company in town with after hours access to the circular
01:55congregational church graveyard, one of the oldest in America with headstones carved before
01:59the United States was even technically a country.
02:03The site is full of ghost stories.
02:04Some say a woman in blue robes, covered in dirt, haunts the cemetery to this day,
02:09mourning the loss of her children.
02:10Let's just say that this host did not stick around long enough to find out.
02:14Now, there are two kinds of spirits in this city, the kind that haunt you and the kind
02:18you drink.
02:19In fact, Charleston is home to the oldest liquor store in the United States.
02:23Tavern Wine and Spirits has been operating on Broad Street since 1686, over 300 years.
02:28You can still buy a bottle there today.
02:30While I was in town, I picked up a sample for myself, a special whiskey made of Jimmy Red
02:34Corn and Native American heirloom corn that almost went extinct and was revived by local
02:38seed savers in the early 2000s.
02:40After a dark few centuries, Charleston's reputation needed a facelift by the early 1900s.
02:45To attract tourists, the city came up with the nickname The Holy City, a nod to the dozens
02:49of churches in town and a way to soften its image.
02:51But that's not the city's most famous marketing stunt.
02:54In the 1930s, Susan Pringle Frost, founder of the Preservation Society of Charleston, painted
02:58her house on East Bay Street pink in the style of a Caribbean home.
03:02The rest of the street followed suit, painting their houses in colorful shades, and soon the
03:05entire block was pastel, creating the city's iconic Rainbow Row.
03:09It was National Geographic that gave the row its famous name in the 1980s.
03:13At the time, photos were printed in black and white, so the magazine coined the name
03:16Rainbow Row to describe the vibrant street and get people excited to see it themselves.
03:20And speaking of the Preservation Society, Charleston's zoning laws are famously strict,
03:25meaning the city isn't just old, it's protected like a living museum.
03:28It became home to the first historic preservation district in the United States in 1931, decades
03:33before most cities even thought about protecting their old buildings.
03:36Today, its old and historic district is one of the biggest in the country, with more than
03:391,400 protected landmarks packed into just a few square miles.
03:43While you're walking around, be sure to keep an eye out for these little plaques with pineapples
03:47or shields on them.
03:48They mark buildings that have won awards for how well-preserved they are.
03:51But there's another piece of hidden history hiding on Charleston's buildings, and for that,
03:55we're headed to Trad Street.
03:56This charming little lane once stretched all the way to the harbor and was lined with businesses
04:00catering to people arriving by seat.
04:01If you look closely at some of the older buildings, you'll spot shapes carved into the wooden shutters.
04:06Back then, many people were still unable to read, so buildings used these symbols instead
04:10of signs to tell people what each business offered.
04:13A crescent moon often signified a place to sleep, a tankard meant a tavern, and a heart pointed
04:17to a brothel.
04:18They don't just look cute, they had serious utility.
04:21Just a few blocks away from Trad Street, you'll probably notice this bubblegum pink Gothic church.
04:26It's pretty hard to miss.
04:27This is the French Huguenot Church, first built in the 1840s by French Protestants who
04:31fled Catholic persecution in Europe.
04:33For a long time, it had a white facade.
04:35But during a 2013 restoration, conservators stripped away layers of paint and discovered
04:39that the original color was actually this bright pink.
04:42The color comes in part from traditional Charleston limestone paint, often made with crushed oyster
04:47shells and natural pigments, which give many coastal buildings their signature pastel tones.
04:51Charleston's most interesting streets might be the ones just wide enough to squeeze through,
04:55so don't skip the city's hidden alleys.
04:57Take Philadelphia Alley, once known as Dueler's Alley, where men would meet at dawn to settle
05:02scores and fight to the death.
05:04There's also Longitude Lane, which, despite its name, runs east-west.
05:07It honors John Harrison, the man who figured out how to measure longitude at sea, helping
05:11sailors avoid getting lost.
05:12He won over £20,000 from British Parliament for his discovery, which would be worth roughly
05:17£4 million, or 5.2 million USD today.
05:20And speaking of latitude, look for jasmine and other Asian plants spilling over the walls
05:25around town.
05:26Charleston shares a subtropical latitude with parts of China and India, so similar plants
05:30thrive here.
05:31You've probably sung Kumbaya around a campfire, but did you know that the song actually comes
05:35from the islands just off of Charleston?
05:37The Sea Islands are home to the Gullah Geechee, descendants of West Africans enslaved in the
05:41Low Country, who have preserved their heritage for centuries.
05:44Their dialect blends African languages with English, and while the exact origin of Kumbaya isn't
05:48known, it's believed to have been created by this community as a spiritual plea.
05:52What they're singing, Kumbaya, my lord, is come by here, my lord.
05:56But the Gullah influence on music didn't end there, and in fact, they influenced one of
06:00the great American operas.
06:02In 1925, Charleston-born author DuBose Hayward wrote a novel called Porgy, inspired by the
06:07Gullah community who lived just down the street from his childhood home in a place once known
06:11as Cappage Row.
06:12Ten years later, it debuted on Broadway as George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, considered the first
06:17great American opera.
06:18The opera used Gullah rhythms, dialect, and stories, blending classical music with a uniquely
06:23Southern sound in a way that was controversial but groundbreaking, and it all started here.
06:28Whether you're planning your first trip to Charleston or you've been visiting for years,
06:31there's probably a hidden side of this city you haven't seen quite yet.
06:34Let us know down below which spot on this list surprised you most or if there are any we
06:38missed, and if you like this video, of course, don't forget to subscribe.
06:41Happy travels, and we'll catch you next time.
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