Charleston

Charleston was founded by the English in 1670 as Charles Town, named after King Charles II, at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River, and moved in 1680 to the tip of the peninsula. It became a primary entry point for enslaved Africans: almost half of the enslaved people imported into the United States arrived here. Planters paid more for captives from the "Rice Coast" of West Africa who knew how to grow rice, and their descendants became the Gullah. By 1770 the city of 11,000, half of them enslaved, was the wealthiest in the Thirteen Colonies.

The British took the city after a siege in 1780. Incorporated in 1783, it lost the state capital to Columbia in 1788 but grew richer on cotton, and it remained the only major American city with a majority-enslaved population. In 1822 members of the African Methodist Episcopal church led by Denmark Vesey planned an uprising; it was betrayed, dozens were hanged, and Black worship was later banned. A fire in 1838 led to the Greek Revival rebuilding still seen today. On 12 April 1861 Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War.

An earthquake in 1886 damaged 2,000 buildings. Tourism grew after the 1920s, Hurricane Hugo struck in 1989, and the naval base closed in 1996. On 17 June 2015 a white supremacist shot dead nine African American worshippers at Emanuel AME Church. In 2018 the city council formally apologised for Charleston's role in the slave trade.

Charleston calls itself the Holy City, and spires rise all over the peninsula. French Huguenot refugees settled here in the early 18th century, and Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, founded in 1749 by Sephardic Jews from London, is one of the oldest Jewish congregations in the country and an important site in the history of Reform Judaism. Mother Emanuel, the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the country, is a symbol of Black Charleston's resilience.

Gullah culture runs through the city. The Gullah creole language developed on the Sea Islands and in the Lowcountry, shaped local speech and is still spoken by some African American residents, though development since 1980 has weakened its hold. Gullah musicians had a strong influence on the early development of jazz, and sweetgrass baskets are sold in the City Market. The old Charleston accent, now fading, turns the city's name into "Chalston".

Preservation is a civic creed, and a 1920s book on the city's architecture set off the tourism that sustains it. The arts year peaks in late spring with Spoleto Festival USA, founded in 1977 by Gian Carlo Menotti, and the local Piccolo Spoleto, while the Dock Street Theatre stands on the site of America's first purpose-built theatre. The RiverDogs play minor league baseball, and a major women's tennis tournament is held on Daniel Island.

About 150,000 people lived in Charleston at the 2020 census, and about 850,000 in the three-county metropolitan area in 2023, which also includes North Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Summerville. The city has spread far beyond the peninsula: West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island, Daniel Island and the Cainhoy peninsula are all inside the city limits, while North Charleston blocks it to the north.

The economy rests on tourism, the port, one of the busiest in the country, aerospace — Boeing builds aircraft in the area — and a technology sector that has earned the nickname "Silicon Harbor". The joint military base north of the city, renamed Joint Base Lindsey Graham in August 2026, serves more than 90,000 service members, civilians, dependants and retirees. After being majority-minority for most of its history, the old city has gentrified since the late 20th century, as many white residents returned to the urban core and prices and rents rose.

Life is shaped by water and weather: tides, marshes and bridges, summer storms and the threat of hurricanes. The peninsula's streets fill with visitors and College of Charleston students, while most residents live in the suburbs and commute by car.

Charleston's cooking is Lowcountry food, shaped by British, French and Gullah influences. Its signature dishes include shrimp and grits; she-crab soup, a creamy soup of blue crab; fried oysters; deviled crab cakes; red rice; and frogmore stew, a boil of shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes. Oysters, blue crab, shrimp, flounder, redfish and black sea bass come from the estuaries and marshes around the city.

Gullah Geechee foodways remain at the heart of the cuisine through staples such as Carolina Gold rice, okra, field peas and benne, or sesame, seeds, all reflecting the agricultural knowledge brought by enslaved West Africans. Rice was the crop that built the colony's wealth, and it is still central to the table.

The downtown peninsula is known for its restaurants, from long-established dining rooms to modern kitchens, while Bowen's Island Restaurant, a James Beard "America's Classic", serves Lowcountry seafood. The City Market, open since the 1790s, now sells souvenirs, jewellery and Gullah sweetgrass baskets.