History of Charleston

hat by the beginning of the 19th century the city was home to the largest and wealthiest Jewish community in North America—a status it would hold until about 1830. Africans were brought to Charles Towne on the Middle Passage, first as servants, then as slaves, especially Wolof, Yoruba, Fulani, Igbo, Malinke, and other peoples of the Windward Coast. The port of Charles Towne was the main dropping-off point for Africans captured and transported to the American English colonies for sale as slaves.

By the mid-18th century Charles Towne had become a bustling trade center, the hub of the Atlantic trade for the southern colonies. Charles Towne was also the wealthiest and largest city south of Philadelphia. By 1770, it was the fourth largest port in the colonies, after Boston, New York, and Philadelphia; with a population of 11,000—slightly more than half of them slaves.

Charles Towne was a hub of the deerskin trade, which was the basis of Charles Towne's early economy. Trade alliances with the Cherokee and Creek nations insured a steady supply of deer hides. Between 1699 and 1715, an average of 54,000 deer skins was exported annually to Europe through Charles Towne. Between 1739 and 1761, the height of the deerskin trade era, an estimated 500,000 to 1,250,000 deer was slaughtered. During the same period, Charles Towne records show an export of 5,239,350 pounds of deer skins. Deer skins were used in the production of men's fashionable and practical buckskin pantaloons, gloves, and book bindings.

Colonial low country landowners experimented with cash crops ranging from tea to silk. African slaves brought knowledge of rice cultivation, which plantation owners made into a successful business by 1700. With the help of African slaves from the Caribbean, Eliza Lucas, daughter of plantation