White visitors arriving in Charleston in the mid-nineteenth century found themselves alternately fascinated, shocked, perplexed, and repulsed. As they disembarked onto docks teeming with black men hauling cargo, and pushed their way past dozens of black female vendors like Mary Purvis, selling everything from fresh fruit and oysters to clothing and homemade crafts, they wondered where all the white people were.¹ Somewhat disoriented, but continuing on, newcomers soon found themselves on Meeting Street, one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Heading up Meeting, away from the water and toward the center of town, they walked by prostitutes of all colors who...

In 1814, Sophia Mauncaut, a resident of Charleston, was accused by authorities of being an illegally freed black woman. With the threat of reenslavement hanging over her head, Sophia escaped the auction block by acquiring affidavits from four white Charlestonians, all of whom vouched that she was legally free. Philippe Barreyre, a local merchant, swore that Sophia came to Charleston in 1804 with her mistress, Josephine Catreuille, recently deceased. Joseph Dupont stated that he had known Josephine well and had advised her, when her financial situation was bleak, to sell Sophia. Josephine, however, informed Joseph that Sophia and her children...

In the spring of 1835, Charlestonian Dye Mathews lost her husband of many years. A free man of color and an artisan, George Mathews left an estate that included his carpentry tools, a lot with several buildings on it located on Friend Street, and five enslaved persons. It is not surprising that George bequeathed his five grandchildren equal shares of his estate. His widow, however, received only her basic dower rights. George wrote that Dye “requires no provision as she is capable of maintaining herself and I know she will continue her kindness and protection to our grandchildren. She has...

In 1857, Eliza Seymour Lee initiated a lawsuit against fellow Charlestonian Henry Gourdin. A respected businesswoman, Eliza and her husband, John, had owned the city’s two most illustrious hotels for decades, lodgings that catered to prominent whites from across the nation and around the world. By the 1850s, Eliza was a wealthy widow with ties to Charleston’s white elites, and she oversaw her business affairs with the help of Henry Gourdin, whom she hired to help manage her finances. A prominent attorney, Henry appeared happy to take Eliza on as a client. Their relationship soured, however, when Eliza discovered certain...

In 1831, Cecille Langlois Cogdell left her husband, Richard Walpole Cogdell, and moved out of the home they rented together on Broad Street. A middleclass matron and mother of five whose respectability had been demonstrated through her marriage, her church attendance, her ownership of enslaved laborers, and her social activities, Cecille had always appeared to adhere to the rules that governed the raced and gendered roles that South Carolina society afforded to her. As a result, she was rewarded by the church, the state, and her peers by being accorded all the rights and privileges of virtuous, middle-class, feminine whiteness....

In 1842, Barbara Tunno Barquet became ensnared in the legal battles of a wealthy South Carolina couple. That year, Elizabeth Heyward Hamilton, a member of a powerful planter family, sued her husband, James, for violating their marriage contract.¹ Elizabeth brought an estate worth $100,000 into her marriage, and she and her husband agreed to place this property in a trust estate for Elizabeth’s “sole and separate use.” By law, James could not use the entrusted property to guarantee or pay his own debts. But he did just that. A land speculator and gambler, James, who had himself appointed guardian of...