#104: History of staying cool in SC, The Battle of Huck’s Defeat, and The Slave Dwelling Project
For South Carolina history lovers far and wide! Published weekly on Monday mornings. Enjoy weekly SC history articles and upcoming SC historical events.
Dear reader,
Welcome to SC History Newsletter #104!
I’m back from breezy Nova Scotia, Canada! It was a wonderful vacation with cherished family and friends and I was grateful to beat the heat of South Carolina for a little while. In fact, coming back to the summer heat of SC inspired me to research and write today’s SC History article on ways South Carolinians stayed cool before air conditioning and other modern cooling amenities. I hope you enjoy. :)
As always, I’d like to welcome the following new subscribers to our community. Thank you for your interest in South Carolina history!
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And now, let’s learn some South Carolina history!
Yours truly,
Kate
(Writing from Greenville, SC)
➳ Featured SC History Events
Please enjoy our featured SC History Event below, and click here to visit my SC History Events Calendar that organizes all the upcoming SC history events I have discovered.
Please let me know if you’d like to add an event to the calendar! Reply to this email, send me a note at schistorynewsletter@gmail.com, or use the button below to send me your events.
Event Recommendation of the Week:
Saturday, July 13th from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm | “The Battle of Huck’s Defeat” | Historic Brattonsville | McConnells, SC | $8 Adult General Admission, $5 Youth
“Step back in time to the sights and sounds of the American Revolution! Watch the annual Battle of Huck’s Defeat unfold over 240 years later as you see the Carolina Piedmont’s role in the Southern Campaign, the fight for freedom, and how this battle was a crucial victory and turning point in the war!
Tickets on sale now!
Saturday, July 13: https://chmuseums.org/event/hucks-1/
Sunday, July 14: https://chmuseums.org/event/hucks-2/
On-Going Activities:
• Reenactor Camps and 18th Century Military Interpretation
• 18th Century Cooking
• 18th Century Barbeque (Saturday only)
• Laundry Demonstration
• Blacksmithing
• Children’s Activities: Toys and Games & Rolling Sugar Cartridges
Timed Activities:
• Sons of the American Revolution Wreath-laying Ceremony (Saturday 10:30 a.m.)
• 18th Century Church Service (Sunday 10:30 a.m.)
• Cavalry Demonstration (11 a.m.)
• Artillery Demonstration (11:30 a.m.)
• Carin Bloom’s Presentation: “A Black Loyalist’s Liberty: How Lucy Banbury Took Back Her Freedom.” (Noon)
• Battlefield Tours (1 p.m. & 3 p.m.)
• Historic Brattonsville Site Tours (1 p.m. & 3 p.m.)
• Children’s Militia Drill (1:30 p.m. & 3:30 p.m.)
• Battle Reenactments:
– Battle of Huck’s Defeat (Saturday at 2 p.m.)
– Battle of Blackstock’s Plantation (Sunday at 2 p.m.)
We are a part of Culture & Heritage Museums and members get in for free! Purchase a membership now and reserve free online tickets. Membership benefits include free General Admission to all Culture & Heritage Museums sites for one year from date of purchase. Membership information at: https://sales.chmuseums.org/membership.aspx”
➳ SC History Book & Article Recommendations
Do you have a book or article on South Carolina history that has caught your attention? Reply to this email or submit here! We would love to highlight.
I am currently reading “Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery” by Joseph McGill Jr. and Herb Frazier. In my research for historical SC events, I have often seen Joseph McGill Jr.’s name pop up, and then when I started to see his book at giftshops at Charleston-area plantations, I knew I had to read it!
This is moving and compelling personal narrative that charts Joseph McGill Jr.’s pioneering project of sleeping overnight in former slave dwellings across the country. McGill is a historic preservationist, Civil War reenactor, and founder of The Slave Dwelling Project. He first conceived of this endeavor as a personal project, but it quickly gained momentum by bringing local and national media attention to these often-overlooked historic structures and most importantly, to the history of the formerly enslaved people who used to live within their walls.
McGill has slept overnight in former slave dwellings across the country — not just in the South, but also in the North and West, where many people are surprised to discover such structures exist. It is haunting to read of McGill’s nights spent in these structures, which are located in both in rural environments (mosquitos, hornets, and more!) and in urban environments, where the slave dwellings are hidden within plain sight. Along the way, McGill connects with local historians, students, modern-day landowners, and perhaps most poignantly, he connects with the descendants of formerly enslaved people who lived and worked on the plantations and properties that he visits.
Together, McGill and coauthor Herb Frazier offer readers a profound and unexpected immersion into the history of slavery through the lens of slave dwellings.
Note: The Slave Dwelling Project has grown to now offer a yearly academic conference. This year, the conference will be in Philadelphia (October 3-5, 2024) — here is the link if you are interested.
➳ SC History Topic of the Week
Before air conditioning, how did South Carolinians stay cool in the hot summer months?
In antebellum South Carolina, economic status significantly influenced one's comfort during the summer months. The wealthier you were, the cooler you could stay.
Affluent Southerners often left crowded cities for country homes or traveled to cooler destinations. Some went to Europe, while others frequented popular East Coast resorts like Saratoga Springs, New York.
For those who preferred to remain in the South, summer homes were built along waterfronts or on hilltops, believed to offer "good air" away from yellow fever outbreaks. These homes often featured design elements aimed at maximizing coolness, such as elevated structures, large shady trees, verandas, high ceilings, and wide halls for cross ventilation. Sleeping porches were common, typically located on the second floor for privacy, while drapes were kept closed during the day to block out the sun's heat.
Many plantation homes also had kitchens separate from the main house to avoid heat and fire risks.
Seasonal changes were reflected in the interiors of summer homes, with practices like "Summer Dress," where white canvas slipcovers protected furniture, sheer window treatments replaced heavy draperies, and durable fiber rugs took over from wool carpets. Chandeliers, picture frames, and mirrors were wrapped in netting to keep insects and dirt at bay, and mosquito nets draped beds.
Flycatchers baited with sugar water were used to trap bugs that came through open windows.
Caned and woven wicker furniture gained popularity for allowing better airflow than upholstered pieces.
Some homes had punkahs or “shoo-flies,” which were large swinging fans operated by enslaved workers, that usually hung above dining tables. The fans were used to keep diners cool and to keep the bugs at bay.
After the Civil War, freed slaves recounted their experiences with “fanning duty” through autobiographies and historian interviews. In his 1901 memoir, Booker T. Washington recounted how he learned about "the subject of freedom and the war" in the 1860s by eavesdropping while operating his owners' punkahs as an enslaved child in Virginia.
Henry Coleman, born into slavery on a South Carolina plantation, was tasked with running the dining room’s fanning mechanism from an overhead swing (!) In the 1930s, he shared with an interviewer that his master would wake him if he fell asleep, and the dinner guests would mock him for being “so lazy.”
Southern dress also adapted to the heat, with thin linens and cottons becoming the fabrics of choice. Men wore light-colored suits, and women opted for loose-fitting garments, often depicted in contemporary paintings in elegant "chemise" attire.
In Nic Butler’s article Charleston’s First Ice Age: Importing Frozen Water, he talks about the early history of the arrival of ice (and ice cream!) in South Carolina. I will summarize some of his main points below:
Northern European settlers brought the concept of ice houses to North America. In New England, ice was cut from ponds in winter and stored in ice houses.
While Northerners enjoyed the benefits of early ice refrigeration, the warmer climate of South Carolina made the creation of ice houses impossible, and ice was an unobtainable commodity until…
In 1797, a cooling “revolution” of sorts occurred. A man named Jeremiah Jessop built the first icehouse in Charleston. In February 1798, the Charleston City Gazette reported the arrival of 60 tons of ice from New York, marking the beginning of Charleston's ice importation era.
We can also thank Jessop for introducing "ice cream” to South Carolina. Ice cream was so novel to the subtropical Charleston clientele that they had to be convinced it was safe to eat. The fear was that cold substances in warm weather might be harmful to the body. “To relieve them of such apprehensions,” wrote Mr. Jessop in early June, “he assures them they [the iced creams] may be taken with safety in the greatest state of perspiration; for it is only the rawness of any cold substance which is injurious; and as the creams are composed wholly of nourishing substances, and those boiled before they are frozen, they are the most pleasant and nourishing refreshment that can be taken in a warm climate.”
Jeremiah Jessop sold ice cream by the bowl at his shop on Broad Street and by the pound for family consumption at home. He also sold raw ice at five pounds for a dollar, “for cooling butter in the morning, or other purposes in the course of the day.”
Another enterprising entrepreneur named Frederick Tudor, a Boston native, envisioned a business venture to ship large quantities of New England ice to the Caribbean.
After the War of 1812, Tudor traveled from Boston down the Atlantic coast to cities like Charleston, Savannah, and various Caribbean islands, seeking investors for his ice shipping venture.
When in Charleston in 1816, Tudor partnered with Samuel Davenport and William Lindsay to build a wooden facility on Christopher Fitzsimons’s wharf on the Cooper River waterfront (present-day U.S. Customs House location).
The Charleston “Ice House” was set to open as soon as the stock of ice arrived from the North.
The Tudor Ice Company thrived in Charleston and other cities by adopting a four-prong marketing strategy:
Selling ice to individuals and families for domestic use.
Offering insulated ice chests called “refrigerators” or “little ice houses” for home storage (first “refrigerator” patented by Thomas Moore in 1802).
Providing bulk ice to restaurants, saloons, and ice-creameries for the emerging food-and-beverage industry.
Selling access to cold storage within their corporate ice houses across the country.
Starting in the spring of 1817, Charleston customers could buy ice for a few pennies per pound, enjoy iced beverages, ice cream, or store expensive foods like beef tenderloin.
Restaurants could use local ice houses to prevent food waste and spoilage, a novel and refreshing practice in antebellum Charleston.
However, the outbreak of the Civil War in spring 1861 halted the regular shipment of “Yankee ice” into Charleston.
From Dr. Nic Butler:
Charleston’s first “ice age,” 1798 to 1861, was an era in which the importation of natural ice from New England transformed the culture and the flavors of our community. The year-round availability of ice facilitated the emergence and growth of what we now call “the food-and-beverage industry,” a business sector that now caters to millions of customers in the Charleston metro region every year. The next time you’re enjoying an ice cream cone on the Battery, sipping a chilled mint julep at a Market Street saloon, or tucking into a plate of imported seafood on the waterfront, remember the extraordinary efforts that made these luxuries possible, and the novelty of their first appearance. In 1798, Jeremiah Jessop assured Charlestonians that it was safe to eat ice cream while perspiring in June. More than two hundred years later, I think we’re all very comfortable with that practice today.
➳ SC History Quote of the Week
"It makes me groan in spirit to think of wearing this heavy stuff as underclothing all the hot summer, but as Aunt Jane eagerly observes, "it is better than nothing". Indeed Cousin Ada and I agreed we would willingly wear sackcloth and even ashes if necessary, rather than give up to the Yankees. With all the ports closed we will be obliged to give up every foreign luxury, which are even now by their high prices beyond the reach of all but speculators."
—From the diary of Emma LeConte, age 17. LeConte was the daughter of a professor at South Carolina College and is known in particular for her accounts of the burning of Columbia, SC during the Civil War.
➳ “Keeping Cool in South Carolina” Article Sources
Burch, Maggie. “What Is a Sleeping Porch?” Southern Living, 9 Jan. 2019, https://www.southernliving.com/sleeping-porch-6531708#:~:text=This%20is%20why%20many%20Victorian,as%20much%20cross%2Dbreeze%20possible. Accessed 7 July 2024.
Butler, Nic. “Charleston’s First Ice Age: Importing Frozen Water.” Charleston County Public Library, 19 Jan. 2018, https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/charlestons-first-ice-age. Accessed 7 July 2024.
Eleanor, Rose. “Keeping Cool in the Antebellum South.” Civil War Talk, 26 Nov. 2016, https://civilwartalk.com/threads/keeping-cool-in-the-antebellum-south.146407/. Accessed 7 July 2024.
Kahn, Eve. “How Ceiling Fans Allowed Slaves to Eavesdrop on Plantation Owners.” Atlas Obscura, 14 May 2018, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/punkah-project-fans-antebellum-south. Accessed 7 July 2024.
Leung, Tisha. “These 10 Southern Porches Are Perfect for Graceful Lounging | Architectural Digest.” Architectural Digest, 27 Aug. 2016, https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/southern-porches-inspire-your-next-renovation. Accessed 7 July 2024.
“The Punka Project – Professor Dana Byrd.” Bowdoin College Research, https://research.bowdoin.edu/punka-project/. Accessed 7 July 2024.
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Missed an opportunity to talk about the hundreds of wealthy families that migrated each summer to the upstate and Smoky Mountains….particularly Brevard area. Multigenerational homes remain in the area and during July even today, Cashiers, Highlands, Brevard and further north to Blowing Rock still witness a high concentration of SC families following footsteps of prior generations!
I'm sure people had many "Ice cream emergencies!" in those days :) Great Stuff :)