Lowcountry Hurricanes

At once sobering and thrilling, this illustrated history recounts how, for the past three hundred years, hurricanes have altered lives and landscapes along the Georgia-South Carolina seaboard. A prime target for the fierce storms that develop in the Atlantic, the region is especially vulnerable because of its shallow, gradually sloping sea floor and low-lying coastline. With an eye on both natural and built environments, Fraser's narrative ranges from the first documented storm in 1686 to recent times in describing how the lowcountry has endured some of the severest effects of wind and water. This chronology of the most notable lowcountry storms is also a useful primer on the basics of hurricane dynamics. Fraser tells how the 800-ton Rising Sun foundered in open water near Charles Town during the hurricane of 1700. About one hundred persons were aboard. All perished. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, he describes the storm surge of an 1804 hurricane that submerged most of Tybee Island and swept over the fort on nearby Cockspur Island, drowning soldiers and civilians. Readers may have their own memories of Hurricanes Andrew, Opal, and Hugo. Although hurricanes frequently lead to significant loss of life, Fraser recounts numerous gripping instances of survival and rescue at sea and ashore. The author smoothly weaves the lowcountry's long social, political, and economic history with firsthand reports and data accumulated by the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Generously illustrated with contemporary and historical photographs, this is a readable and informative resource on one of nature's most awesome forces.

Thomas D. Wilson’s Charleston and Savannah is the first comprehensive history of Charleston and Savannah in a single volume that weaves together the influences and parallels of their intrinsic stories. As two of the earliest English-speaking cities founded in America, Charleston and Savannah are among the nation’s top historic sites. Their historic characters, which attract millions of visitors each year, are each a rich blend of cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic elements. Yet even with this popularity, both cities now face a challenge in preserving their authentic historic character, natural beauty, and environmental quality. Wilson charts the ebb and flow of the progress and development of the cities using various through lines running within each chapter, constructing an overall character assessment of each. Wilson charts the economic rise of these port cities, beginning with their British foundations and transatlantic trade in the colonies through to their twentieth-century economic declines and resurgences. He examines the cultural and economic aspects of their Lowcountry landscapes and their evolution as progress and industrialization made their mark. Employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in his comparisons of the two cities, he considers their histories, natural landscapes, weather patterns, economies, demographics, culture, architecture, city planning, and infrastructure. While each has its own civic and cultural strengths and weaknesses, both are positioned as historically significant southern cities, even as they assess aspects of their problematic pasts.

On an August night in 1893, the deadliest hurricane in South Carolina history struck the Lowcountry, killing thousands—almost all African American. But the devastating storm is only the beginning of this story. The hurricane's long effects intermingled with ongoing processes of economic downturn, racial oppression, resistance, and environmental change. In the Lowcountry, the political, economic, and social conditions of Jim Crow were inextricable from its environmental dimensions. This narrative history of a monumental disaster and its aftermath uncovers how Black workers and politicians, white landowners and former enslavers, northern interlocutors and humanitarians all met on the flooded ground of the coast and fought to realize very different visions for the region's future. Through a telescoping series of narratives in which no one's actions were ever fully triumphant or utterly futile, Hurricane Jim Crow explores with nuance this painful and contradictory history and shows how environmental change, political repression, and communal traditions of resistance, survival, and care converged.

Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the most storied cities of the American South. Well known for its historic buildings and landscape, its thriving maritime culture, and its role in the beginning of the American Civil War, many consider it the birthplace of historic preservation. In Charleston, Martha Zierden and Elizabeth Reitz—whose archaeological fieldwork in the city spans more than three decades—reveal a vibrant, densely packed city, where people, animals, and colonial activity carried on in close proximity. Examining animal bones and the ruins of taverns, markets, townhouses, and smaller homes, the authors consider the residential, commercial, and public life of the city and the dynamics of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services that linked it with rural neighbors and global markets. From early attempts at settlement and cattle ranching to the Denmark Vesey insurrection and efforts to improve the city’s drinking water, Zierden and Reitz explore the evolution of the urban environment, the intricacies of provisioning such a unique city, and the urban foodways and cuisine that continue to inspire Charleston’s culinary scene even today.

Carole Marsh Longmeyer has been writing about hurricanes ever since she lived on the North Carolina coast and got blown all the way to Colorado by the back-to-back hurricanes Fran and Bertha. A long-time resident of Savannah, the author would shake her head at the comments, "Oh, it can't happen here." But in October 2016, Matthew zipped up the coast to slam-bang the lovely Lowcountry, just getting its autumn colors and cool, fall golfing weather. Paradise was marauded, raided, and plundered by massive Matthew, the eye wall of the storm passing just miles from her home in Palmetto Bluff, after terrorizing Savannah, Tybee Island and the other Georgia barrier islands. Across the Savannah River, Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, Daufuskie Island, and on up the coast, Edisto, Charleston and beyond awaited the onslaught, which came bearing down with a vengeance. This book shares in flabbergasting facts the true history of hurricanes come ashore in the Lowcou

Battling Hurricanes along the South Carolina coast near Myrtle Beach . . . two tales of joy, tragedy, and survival.The Stories:~ Three generations of Flagg family members struggle desperately against a historic hurricane's fury at Huntington Beach in the suspenseful tale, “The Flagg Flood.” ~ A family faces two major Murrells Inlet storms with strength and courage in the charming reminiscence, “Every Sixty Years.”The Series:- The first installment of Lynn Michelsohn's new series, More Tales from Brookgreen: Gardens, Folklore, Ghost Stories, and Gullah Folktales in the South Carolina Lowcountry. - Brookgreen Gardens storytellers share more history and folklore from Murrell Inlet's popular tourist attraction near Myrtle Beach. The Storytellers:Two “sixty-ish” Southern ladies serving as Hostesses at Brookgreen Gardens told these stories of the South Carolina Lowcountry to visitors during the middle of the Twentieth Century. Now, Lynn Michelsohn recounts them to a wider audience.The Setting:Created in the 1930s from four historic Lowcountry rice plantations rich with folklore, Brookgreen Gardens displays American sculpture along ancient pathways through Spanish-moss-draped live oaks. * * * Amazon reviewers praise the first series, Tales from Brookgreen * * * “the perfect mix of history and folklore told in a lovely style”“a vivid picture of the area and the people”“a must read for history buffs, folklore lovers and those that just love to hear old stories”“each of the stories are extremely well-written and make you feel like you're sitting there ... listening to the women speak their tales”“the reader experiences the chapters as oral storytelling told in the voices of the women who passed the stories along”“beautifully written stories by an author obviously familiar with the charm that is the Old South”“I heartily recommend it to everybody!”