Walter Edgar's Journal

“B” is for Benton, Brook (1931-1988). Musician. In 1950 Benton recorded “It’s Just a Matter of time,” the first of twenty-three Top Forty hits in the next five years.

“B” is for Benton, Brook (1931-1988). Musician. In 1950 Benton recorded “It’s Just a Matter of time,” the first of twenty-three Top Forty hits in the next five years.

“A” is for Atzjar (or achar). A bright ochre mixed pickle, this recipe is one of the world’s oldest, and its path to South Carolina was along the international spice and slave trade routes.

“A” is for Atzjar (or achar). A bright ochre mixed pickle, this recipe is one of the world’s oldest, and its path to South Carolina was along the international spice and slave trade routes.

“T” is for Turner, Henry McNeal (1834-1915). Clergyman, politician.

“T” is for Turner, Henry McNeal (1834-1915). Clergyman, politician.

“S” is for Sawyer, Frederick Adolphus (1822-1891). U. S. senator. After leaving the Senate, Frederick Adolphus Sawyer remained in government for many years, serving in the U.S. Treasury Department, the Coast Survey, and the War Department.

“S” is for Sawyer, Frederick Adolphus (1822-1891). U. S. senator. After leaving the Senate, Frederick Adolphus Sawyer remained in government for many years, serving in the U.S. Treasury Department, the Coast Survey, and the War Department.

Our guest this week, Steve Procko, tells us the true story of nine Union prisoners-of-war who escaped from a Confederate prison in Columbia, South Carolina, in November 1864, and traveled north in brutal winter conditions more than 300 miles with search parties and bloodhounds hot on their trail. On the difficult journey they relied on the help of enslaved men and women, as well as Southerners who sympathized with the North, before finally reaching Union lines in Knoxville, Tennessee, on New Years Day 1865.

In 1722, Mark Catesby stepped ashore in Charles Town in the Carolina colony. Over the next four years, this young naturalist made history as he explored America’s natural wonders, collecting and drawing plants and animals which had never been seen back in the Old World. Nine years later Catesby produced his magnificent and groundbreaking book, The Natural History of Carolina, the first-ever illustrated account of American flora and fauna.In this episode of the Journal we talk with Patrick Dean, author of Nature's Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World (2023, Simon & Schuster). As Dean will tell us, Catesby was a pioneer in many ways, with his careful attention to the knowledge of non-Europeans in America—the enslaved Africans and Native Americans who had their own sources of food and medicine from nature— which set him apart from other Europeans of his time.