“D” is for Dorchester. In 1697 Congregationalists from Massachusetts settled on the north bank of the Ashley River, about twenty miles northwest of Charleston. Dorchester was a small market village, but it played a significant role in the economy and society of the upper Ashley. Local Anglicans completed the parish church of St. George’s Dorchester in the center of the village in 1720 and opened a free school in 1761. During the French and Indian War, the colony erected a tabby fort and brick powder magazine in Dorchester. During the Revolutionary War the town served as an outpost for patriot forces. After the revolution, loss of population, an unhealthy location, and war-time destruction led to the gradual abandonment of the town. Since 1960, the South Carolina state parks service has managed the area’s rich archeological resources as Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site.
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.