The city grows rich

in the nineteenth century

from rice and cotton.

During the 1800s, Charleston expanded its territory down the peninsula towards the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. The marshy land was filled in and built upon, creating notable features of the peninsula today such as White Point Gardens and the waterfront promenade, referred to as “the Battery”. A seawall was also constructed along the Battery to protect the land and the newly built mansions along the waterfront, which belonged to wealthy merchants or acted as second homes to plantation owners in the surrounding region. The reclaimed land along the waterfront also became the sites for several rice mills and shipyards (Preservation Society of Charleston 2008).  

The city grows rich

in the nineteenth century

from slaves and nature.

Acting as a major battle site during the Civil War, Charleston was devastated in the 1860s. According to the Charleston Preservation Plan historical summary of the reconstruction era, “cotton production revived after the war, but rice production, only profitable with slave labor, fell into a steady decline” (Preservation Society of Charleston 2008, 222). As the population grew in the late 19th century, Charleston also expanded along the upper neck of the peninsula. Despite the attempts to recover the economy through new industries such as phosphate, lumber, and cotton, the city continued to endure problems due to natural disasters, especially from the Great Earthquake of 1886 where “damage was particularly heavy in areas where the ground was ‘made’ – i.e., filled creeks and marshes” along the southern and western sections of the peninsula (Preservation Society of Charleston 2008, 227). The subtext revealed here is that without the exploitation of slave labor and of nature, the city cannot sustain itself. By the 20th century, Charleston would have to seek new economic options to survive—the development of a naval base and a tourism industry, both of which would require further development upon, and exploitation of, the natural wetlands.