#12: Nikola Tesla's influence on Anderson, SC, the founding of Hilton Head Island, and the legacy of The Black Panther
For South Carolina history lovers far and wide! Enjoy weekly SC history and upcoming SC historical events
Dear reader,
Welcome to Newsletter #13 of The South Carolina History Newsletter! I’m so happy you’re here.
I hope you enjoy today’s newsletter, and as always, please feel free to reply to this email with your ideas and suggestions on South Carolina history you’d like to learn more about. I’m only a click away.
Additionally, please join us & keep the conversation going by becoming a member of our SC History Newsletter Facebook Community here! I can’t wait to meet you.
And now, let’s learn some South Carolina history!
Yours truly,
Kate
(Writing from Greenville, SC)
3 ➳ Upcoming SC History Events
To celebrate Black History Month, each newsletter in February highlights one Black History focused event. The Black History events will be listed first below.
While I have curated the following 3 events below to feature in today’s newsletter, please click here to visit my SC History Events Calendar that organizes all the events I have featured in the newsletter to date, as well as others I have discovered. Please let me know if you’d like to add an event to the list! Reply to this email or send me a note at schistorynewsletter@gmail.com.
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH HIGHLIGHT: Today, February 22nd, 6:30 - 8:00 pm | “Historic Brattonsville Lecture: By way of the Back Door” | Winthrop University | Free & open to the public
“By Way of the Back Door: Their Voices, Their Stories tonight at Winthrop University! Meet some of the Brattonsville descendants and hear about their roles in the Civil Rights Era fighting for racial and social injustices locally and nationally. Event is free and open to the public!”
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Sunday, February 25th at 1:00 pm | “Historic Women of Charleston Guided Walking Tour” | Charleston, SC | Tickets: Children ($19.95) and Adults ($33.95)
“Join this special walking tour and learn about the amazing women that have played an enormous role in Charleston’s history. You’ll walk by the city’s important landmarks including St. Philip's Church, the Pink House Gallery, the Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon, Rainbow Row, and Nathaniel Russell House. With the help of a licensed tour guide, this is an incredible learning experience for you and your family. Get your tickets for the Historic Women of Charleston Guided Walking Tour!”
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Wednesday, March 13th from 2:30 - 3:30 pm | “Captain William Hilton & The Founding of Hilton Head Island” | Coastal Discovery Museum | Hilton Head, SC | Tickets: $7 per person
“Save the date for a captivating journey through time! Join us on March 13, 2024, from 2:30-3:30 PM to uncover the fascinating history behind Hilton Head Island. Dive into the tales of Captain William Hilton, a mariner from England, who played a pivotal role in the early exploration of our nation. In 1663, he led an expedition commissioned by a group in Barbados to discover new lands. Explore the Port Royal Sound area, where Hilton named Hilton Head Island, leaving a navigational legacy for future sailors. Beyond the pristine beaches, learn about the island's sparsely populated beginnings on the fringe of English settlement. Author Dwayne W. Pickett will guide us through Hilton's exploration of the Carolina coast and the founding of this iconic island, once known as Trench's Island.”
2 ➳ SC History Fun Facts
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Did you know that Anderson, SC has a connection to Nikola Tesla?
It starts with electricity - zing! Did you know that Anderson, SC was the first city in the US to have a continuous supply of electric power and the first in the world to create a cotton gin operated by electricity? This is why they call Anderson “Electric City.” And the man responsible for these feats is William C. Whitner, born in Anderson in 1864. Whitner studied civil engineering at the University of South Carolina, and the early work of his career centered around railroad engineering. When Whitner was 26 years old, the city of Anderson approached him about building a water works system and electric plant for the city. He conceived “the idea of generating alterative current electrically using turbulent river water.” To learn more and to ask for advice, he went to New York to interview none other than Nikola Tesla, the famed Serbian scientist, who had perfected the alternating current motor.
After his trip to see Tesla, Whitner returned to Anderson in 1894 and leased a plant, in McFalls grist and flour mill at High Shoals on the Rocky River, 6 miles east of town — for the newly formed Anderson Water, Light, and Power Company. At the plant “he installed an experimental 5,000 volt alternative current generator to attempt to generate and transmit electric power to the water system pumps at Anderson’s Tribble Street power and water yard.” It worked! The plant supplied enough power to light the city and also to operate several small industries in Anderson. The Charleston News and Courier thereafter quickly dubbed Anderson “The Electric City.”
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Did you know that Chadwick Boseman, who played The Black Panther, is from Anderson, SC?
Indeed, Chadwick Boseman was born in Anderson in 1976 and graduated from T.L. Hanna High School in 1995. As a child, Boseman studied martial arts and it was a passion of his into adulthood. He played basketball as well but eventually turned his attentions to the arts, when he wrote a play Crossroads and staged it at his high school after a classmate had been shot and killed. He competed in Speech & Debate in the National Speech and Debate Associate, and he placed 8th in Original Oratory at the 1995 National Tournament. He later attended Howard University where he received a BFA in directing. While in college, Boseman had the opportunity to study at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England where he gained a deeper appreciation of the works of William Shakespeare. He also had the opportunity in college to work in Ghana with his professor Mike Malone “to preserve and celebrate rituals with performances on a proscenium stage” — he later said it was “one of the most significant learning experiences of his life.”
Boseman started his career in Brooklyn, NY and “rose to prominence as a playwright and stage actor in 2002.” He was a member of the National Shakespeare Company of New York, and even played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Although he continued to build his reputation as a playwright and actor in New York, in 2008, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his film and acting career. His breakthrough role came in 2013 with the film 42, where he portrayed the lead role of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. To replicate Robbinso’s mannerisms, “Boseman trained for 5 months with professional baseball coaches who would tape his practices…and they would basically split screen Boseman’s technique with Robinson’s to allow him to compare.”
Boseman’s star continued to climb until he reached the zenith of his career starring as T’Challa (The Black Panther) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Panther (2018) was directly by Ryan Coogler and was a cinematic and cultural phenomenon, grossing $1.3 billion in the box office. That year, Boseman secured a spot on the Time 100 as one of the world’s most influential people.
Privately from 2016 to 2020, Boseman struggled with colon cancer, and eventually succumbed to the illness on August 28th, 2020. On August 28, 2020, a Change.org petition was started, seeking to replace a Confederate monument in his hometown of Anderson with a statue of Boseman; it collected more than 50,000 signatures in less than a week, surpassing its original goal of 15,000 signatures. Henry McMaster, the Governor of South Carolina, ordered the Statehouse flags be lowered to half-staff on August 30 in honor of Boseman. A public memorial service was held on September 4th, 2020 in Anderson, SC.
Culture writer Steve Rose, in The Guardian, said that Boseman's career was revolutionary and he "leaves behind a game changing legacy,” attributing this to the actor's careful planning and selection of roles. Eulogizing him, Rose wrote:
Chadwick Boseman began his career playing African American icons and pioneers; he ends it as one himself. His [...] achievements, as an actor and as a cultural force, will surely prove to be as heroic as those of the characters he portrayed. At the very least, he leaves the film-making landscape looking very different to how it was when he entered it.
Ending on a positive note, please enjoy this video of Chadwick Boseman teaching Sienna Miller some “South Carolina Slang”!
1 ➳ Quote from an SC historical figure
Inspired by the Hilton Head history event above at the Coastal Discovery Museum, I found this quote for us today…
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“The Lands are laden with large tall Oaks, Walnut and Bayes, except facing on the Sea, it is most Pines tall and good: The Land generally, except where the Pines grow, is a good Soyl, covered with black Mold, in some places a foot, in some places half a foot, and in other places lesse, with Clay underneath mixed with Sand; and we think may produce anything as well as most part of the Indies that we have seen…The Land we suppose is healthful; for the English that were cast away on that Coast in July last, were there most part of that time of year that is sickly in Virginia; and notwithstanding hard usage, and lying on the ground naked, yet had their perfect healths all the time. The Natives are very healthful; we saw many very Aged amongst them. The Ayr is clear and sweet, the Countrey very pleasant and delightful: And we could wish, that all they that want a happy settlement, of our English Nation, were well transported thither.”
—Captain William Hilton (1617-1675), from his account of the Carolina Coast in 1662
Sources used in today’s newsletter:
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