In 1770, the founders of the College of Charleston realized their dream of establishing an institution built upon the goal of instructing young minds with a traditional liberal arts education. As the oldest institution of higher learning in South Carolina, the College of Charleston has played an integral role in the development of a variety of young men and women from the Palmetto State and beyond. Numbering in the hundreds of thousands, this group of studentscurrent and formerhas enjoyed a unique college experience that they have chronicled and shared in letters to family and friends, diaries, student newspapers, journals and, more recently, e-mails. These personal accounts reveal the effect that the College of Charleston has had on its students for generations, and the ways in which those students have shaped the colleges long history. This engaging book features a collection of correspondences written by College of Charleston students, from the schools earliest years to the present day. Individually, these writings offer a candid glimpse into students daily lives during several periods throughout the colleges history. Considered together, the thoughts, concerns and opinions found within paint a fascinating picture of the past at the College of Charleston.

WWII veteran Rollins Edwards sat before the Federal Board of Veterans Appeals wearing a long overcoat, black beret, and dark glasses. It wasn't a fashion statement but a necessity for protecting his hypersensitive skin from the cool air conditioning. The previous night, his skin had begun deteriorating'literally falling off his body into small piles on the hotel carpet. Blood. Rotten skin. The smell. Army officials had threatened him with prison if he ever discussed what happened to him at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. The secret experiments. The chemicals. The torture. But enough was enough. He couldn't remain silent any longer. He was finally ready to tell his story'one that most people hadn't heard; a story he once vowed never to discuss until now...

"Following the 2017 Charleston Conference, the Charleston Conference editorial team reached out to presenters and asked them to expand their presentations into a chapter for inclusion in the first volume of Charleston Voices. The authors contributing to Charleston Voices represent library, publisher, vendor, technology, and professional association perspectives. The chapters in Charleston Voices fall into three broad subjects: the changing nature of library collections and services, standards, and assessment."--Page 1.

Discover the contributions notable Black South Carolinians gave to bring encouragement and inspiration to their communities. Did you know that eighty-eight years before Rosa Parks's historic protest, a courageous black woman in Charleston kept her seat on a segregated streetcar? What about Robert Smalls, who steered a Confederate warship into Union waters, freeing himself and some of his family, and later served in the South Carolina state legislature? In this inspiring collection, historian Damon L. Fordham relates story after story of notable black South Carolinians, many of whose contributions to the state's history have not been brought to light until now. From the letters of black soldiers during the Civil War to the impassioned pleas by students of "Munro's School" for their right to an education, these are the voices of protest and dissent, the voices of hope and encouragement and the voices of progress.

A new vision of the Irish diaspora within the Atlantic context from the eighteenth century to the present. The Irish in the Atlantic World presents a transnational and comparative view of the Irish historical and cultural experiences as phenomena transcending traditional chronological, topical, and ethnic paradigms. Edited by David T. Gleeson, this collection of essays offers a robust new vision of the global nature of the Irish diaspora within the Atlantic context from the eighteenth century to the present and makes original inroads for new research in Irish studies. These essays from an international cast of scholars vary in their subject matter from investigations into links between Irish popular music and the United States—including the popularity of American blues music in Belfast during the 1960s and the influences of Celtic balladry on contemporary singer Van Morrison—to a discussion of the migration of Protestant Orangemen to America and the transplanting of their distinctive non-Catholic organizations. Other chapters explore the influence of American politics on the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922, manifestations of nineteenth-century temperance and abolition movements in Irish communities, links between slavery and Irish nationalism in the formation of Irish identity in the American South, the impact of yellow fever on Irish and black labor competition on Charleston's waterfront, the fate of the Irish community at Saint Croix in the Danish West Indies, and other topics. These multidisciplinary essays offer fruitful explanations of how ideas and experiences from around the Atlantic influenced the politics, economics, and culture of Ireland, the Irish people, and the societies where Irish people settled. Taken collectively, these pieces map the web of connectivity between Irish communities at home and abroad as sites of ongoing negotiation in the development of a transatlantic Irish identity.

“[A] vivid and engrossing study of slavery in and around one of its trading hubs, Charleston, SC . . . an important contribution to Southern antebellum history.” —Library Journal In America’s Longest Siege, historian Joseph Kelly captures the toxic mix of nationalism, paternalism, and wealth that made Charleston the center of the nationwide debate over slavery and the tragic act of secession that doomed both the city and the South. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable, America’s Longest Siege offers a new take on the Civil War and the culture that made it inevitable. “Lays bare the decades-long campaign of rationalization and intimidation that revivified and reinforced the institution of slavery and dragged the United States into disunion and civil war . . . this masterful study is a timely and important reminder of the consequences that result when ideological extremists succeed in drowning out the voices of reason.” —Peter Quinn, author of Hour of the Cat

James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters. Initially, ex-slaves attempted to create an educational system that would support and extend their emancipation, but their children were pushed into a system of industrial education that presupposed black political and economic subordination. This conception of education and social order--supported by northern industrial philanthropists, some black educators, and most southern school officials--conflicted with the aspirations of ex-slaves and their descendants, resulting at the turn of the century in a bitter national debate over the purposes of black education. Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elites were able to control the structure and content of black elementary, secondary, normal, and college education during the first third of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, blacks persisted in their struggle to develop an educational system in accordance with their own needs and desires.