Powder Magazine searching for diverse colonial-era stories

In a historical first, the Powder Magazine Museum on Cumberland Street next year will present detailed stories of people other than literate White men who lived in the Charleston area during the American Revolution.

The stories will lead to a broader understanding of the city’s history during the revolution era that began in 1773 with the Charleston Tea Party protest and ended with the 1783 Treaty of Paris that halted the war, said the museum’s director Katherine Pemberton.

The work will primarily focus on what daily life was like from 1780 to 1782 during the British occupation for free people of color, enslaved people, patriot sympathizers, loyalists, the British military and Native Americans, she said.

“The intent is to capture as many stories as we can in a short period of time. We will probably end up with more research that needs to be done,” she said with a laugh.

It is the first-ever research to reveal what happened after people who lived here when Charleston fell to the British. Hundreds of people, Blacks and Whites, were evacuated to New York and later Nova Scotia, Canada. Among them were the Black Loyalists who fought on the British side.

Pemberton said an American online archive includes the story of 12-year-old Charles Morris, who was enslaved in Charleston and was among the people in April 1783 who made it to Halifax.
The exodus story, however, does not include Harry, an enslaved man who spied for the British. Harry was sent to gather intelligence near Moncks Corner in November 1782, but he was captured, then beheaded.

Butler Preservation has been hired to scour American and British archives for “the positive and negative aspects of the occupation [to] provide vignettes of the experiences of diverse residents,” Pemberton said.

Christina Rae Butler, chair of general education at the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, is doing the research. Butler said her husband, Dr. Nic Butler, historian of the Charleston County Library, is searching records in the United Kingdom.

“Where possible, the discussion will include reference to faith,” Christina Butler said. “However, few people when referencing their war experience mentioned their religious belief. They were more focused on trying to get their property back or being compensated for war loss.”

Pemberton said when the report is completed, it will be placed on the museum’s website, become part of a lecture series and be used to create traveling exhibits. “We want to make it widely available,” she added.

In 2026, the nation will observe the 250th observance of the American Revolution.
The research in Charleston began earlier this year after the museum and the National Society of the Colonial Dames in The State of South Carolina (NSCDA-SC) received a $20,000 grant from the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission (SC250).

The NSCDA-SC owns the Powder Magazine, constructed in 1713. It is the oldest public building in South Carolina.