The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon

Image courtesy of flickr user Lance and Erin.

The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon in Charleston was completed in 1771 and has been called the “Independence Hall of South Carolina.” Explore the dungeon and find out who was jailed there during the Revolutionary War.

• Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon
• History of the Old Exchange

Explorers

• Juan Pardo
  Juan Pardo was a Spanish explorer who built missions and forts in the Southeast in 1566 and 1567.
• DeSoto’s Carolina Trails
  Find out where Hernando de Soto explored in South Carolina and what he said about the Native Americans he met.
  • DeSoto’s Route
• South Carolina Explorers
  This map shows the routes of 5 explorers that first came to South Carolina.
• Francisco Gordillo and Pedro de Quejo
  Gordillo and de Quejo were Spanish explorers who came to the New World in the early 1520s.

Colonial Life

• Dress Me Up
  Help the colonist from 1628 get dressed in appropriate clothing.
• Everyday Life in Colonial South Carolina
  Find out more about how the elite, middle class, working class, and slaves lived in South Carolina.
• Letter from Henry Woodward to Sir John Yeamans, 1670
  Read this letter from 1670 where Carolina is describes as a “second Paradize.” How is this letter written differently from a letter you might write today?

African-Americans

• What is Gullah?
  Learn more about the Gullah culture and language that flourished along the coast by slaves from Africa.
• Slavery Timeline
  Find out about African slavery in America from the earliest slaves sold in Virginia in 1619 to free blacks that fight in the Revolutionary War.

People of the Colonial Era

• Pinckney, Eliza Lucas
  Eliza Lucas Pinckney is best known for her experiments with creating blue die from indigo plants.
• Lord Proprietors
  Can you name all eight of the original Lord Proprietors?
• Matthew Singleton and the Settling of Sumter
  Meet Matthew and Mary Singleton as they migrate from Virginia to Sumter. Would you make the same choices they make?

Pirates

• Queen Anne’s Revenge
  Explore Blackbeard’s flagship, which underwater archaeologists have explored for artifacts and history of pirates in the Carolinas.
  • QAR Artifacts
• South Carolina Pirates
  Meet Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Calico Jack, and other pirates that came to South Carolina’s ports.
• Beware the Buccaneers!
  Learn more about the pirates that flourished in Charles Town and terrorized the coast.

Maps

Flooded rice fields at Middleton Place Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. Rice has been grown in South Carolina since 1680. Image courtesy of flickr user Aquistbe.

• Map of Charleston, 1704
  See what a map of eight blocks of Charleston looked like in 1704.
• Colonial Maps
  Choose from a wide variety of maps that show what South Carolina looked like as a colony and where people lived.
• Degrees of Latitude: Mapping Colonial America
  Learn more about how maps were made and used in Colonial America.