American history

“C” is for Catholics. In 1716 the South Carolina Assembly banned Catholic and Irish immigration for fear they would collaborate with Spanish Catholics in Florida.

“C” is for Catholics. In 1716 the South Carolina Assembly banned Catholic and Irish immigration for fear they would collaborate with Spanish Catholics in Florida.

The Creek War is one of the most tragic episodes in American history, leading to the greatest loss of Native American life on what is now U.S. soil.Peter Cozzens, author of A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South, tells us the story of the war that shaped the American South, and which would likely not have been won by the fledgling republic without Andrew Jackson’s unbridled ambition, cruelty, and fraught sense of honor and duty.

“G” is for Godbold, Lucile Ellerbe (1900-1981). Olympic athlete, educator. At the Olympics, in Paris, Godbold competed in six events helping the US team to a second place finish.

“G” is for Godbold, Lucile Ellerbe (1900-1981). Olympic athlete, educator. At the Olympics, in Paris, Godbold competed in six events helping the US team to a second place finish.

“E” is for Emancipation Day. The tradition of marking the end of slavery with Emancipation Day celebrations began in South Carolina on January 1, 1863.

“E” is for Emancipation Day. The tradition of marking the end of slavery with Emancipation Day celebrations began in South Carolina on January 1, 1863.

In this episode Ben Zeigler and Stephen Motte from the Florence County Museum in Florence, SC, talk with us about the legend of Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion. The current exhibition at the museum, Legend: Francis Marion in the Pee Dee, examines the early decades of American Independence, when poets and painters turned General Francis Marion into a mythical figure; part fact, part folk legend. Those efforts were so effective that the cultural impact of their words and images lingers today.

Acclaimed civil rights photographer Cecil Williams, founder of the Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum talks with us this this time, along with Jannie Harriot, the museum’s Executive Director. Cecil began photographing the events and people of the Civil Rights era in the early 1950s and continued through the 1970s, eventually amassing nearly a million images.

In his book, Revolutionary Roads: Searching for the War That Made America Independent...and All the Places It Could Have Gone Terribly Wrong (2022, Hachette), retired journalist Bob Thompson takes readers along, walking history-shaping battlefields of the American Revolution, from Georgia to Quebec; and hanging out with passionate lovers of revolutionary.In this episode of Walter Edgar’s Journal, Bob talks about one of his favorite battles in New England (Saratoga) and then explores some of the decisive battles that decided the outcome of the Revolution – battles that took place in the Carolinas. And he spotlights how the outcome a major South Carolina battle may have hinged on a tiny, fraught tipping point – a misunderstood order that could have altered the course of the war.