Born a slave on June 29, 1849 in Charleston, South Carolina, as a child William J. Simmons was given freedom when one of “conflicting parties over a will” sent him, two siblings and his mother to the North. In Bordertown, New Jersey, young Simmons apprenticed as a dentist. Then came the war. When blacks were…
Today the post-war South Carolina constitutional state convention meets at the First Baptist Church of Columbia to form a post-war Provisional Government. The venue is the same as that of the earlier declaration of secession, December 20, 1860. And today’s delegates, all white elites, are just as defiant as were secession delegates in 1860 (many…
In South Carolina’s Low Country, former wealthy plantation owners seek re-possession of the lands and homes they abandoned during the war. Among those trying to regain their property are many of the richest Americans prior to the war, their wealth bound up in hundreds or thousands of slaves and massive land holdings. During the war…