So we're back on the trail of Jane's ancestry again. Our major focus thus far has been her great-grandmother, Valeria Thorne Howard Ralston Wilcoxson. Although the federal census sheets had told us she was born in the state of South Carolina, it wasn't until we got a copy of her death certificate that we discovered that she had been born in the city of Charleston, and that her parents were Robert Howard and Rebecca Thorne.
Here's a look at this piece of Jane's family tree again:
That's Jane's mother Audrey, highlighted in blue. Her birth name appears to have been "Rebecca Audrey" but she seemed to go by "Audrey Rebecca" for most of her life.
Jane's missing grandmother's branch of the family tree is quite literally out of this picture, but it would extend downwards. We'll get to her some time later. Jane's granddad, George Ralston, is on the line above her mother. Granddad George was also born in South Carolina, most likely in his mother Valeria's hometown of Charleston. Granddad George's father's name was also George Ralston; the elder George is the one who is buried somewhere in an unmarked grave in Laurel Grove South, Savannah, GA. We don't yet know who the elder George's parents were.
And there is Valeria, just below the middle, and to the right, her parents, Robert and Rebecca (Thorne) Howard, Jr. So who are these people of color, the Howards and the Thornes of Charleston? Answering these questions will take some time because the answers are large and rich. Let's start with Charleston itself.
The title of this post is "The Holy City" because that's one nickname for Charleston. But we shouldn't overstate the matter: Charleston is called "The Holy City" simply because the skyline is dominated by church steeples, and not because the residents are particularly pious, much less holy. Many would say that indeed the opposite is the case.
And so it is with Charleston: as quickly as you find one true thing about it, you often find that the one true thing's shadow also turns out to be true. Take the example of Sullivan's Island (at the mouth of Charleston Harbor) that Robert Rosen uses in the prologue to his A Short History of Charleston (U of SC Press: 1997). On the one hand, Sullivan's Island is the slightly exotic setting for Edgar Allan Poe's wonderful short story, The Gold Bug. On the other hand, around 40% of the Africans brought to the U.S. as slaves made their first landing at Sullivan's Island. Rosen also points up the old Exchange Building, where the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony, right next to the spot where slaves were bought and sold at open public auction until 1856. And of course, Charleston is where the first shots in the Civil War were fired, with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861.
More from Rosen, citing an article in Venture magazine by Maggie Davis in which she suggested that Charleston's history is difficult to explain because Charleston "'...has never had the kind of history we like to boast about in our textbooks....[Charleston's history] is not only bloodstained and wicked but continuingly unrepentant.'"
So yes, you can visit Charleston and take in the surface of her beauty in a few days. You won't be disappointed because she is charming and beautiful and has lots of great food to boot. But there is so much more to Charleston than what a visitor can see in a short trip. Like every great character, she has a history that has made her what she is.
....
"Charleston is where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet to form the Atlantic Ocean."
(A Charleston saying.)
....
Scarlett: "Rhett! Rhett, where are you going?"
Rhett Butler: "I'm going back to Charleston, back where I belong."
....
"South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."
(South Carolina Attorney General James L. Petigru on the occasion of South Carolina's
secession from the Union in 1860. As Wiki notes, the quote is still used to describe South
Carolina politics. How could Charleston be different?)
....
John C. Calhoun was the South Carolina politician who attempted to reframe the early 19th century argument about slavery from that of a "necessary evil" to that of a "positive good." There is a statue of him atop a 60 ft. plinth in Marion Square in central Charleston. Alphonso Brown, our Gullah Tourmaster, tells us that some African-Americans pronounce Calhoun's name as "Kill-hoon." Alphonso goes on to say that some people presume that the reason African-Americans might pronounce it that way is because they don't know how to pronounce it properly. With a wicked glint in his eye, Alphonso says "We can pronounce it perfectly well..." and does so. He then tells us a bit more about that statue of "Kill-hoon" in Marion Square, and how when it was first erected, it was on a much lower plinth. The wicked glint in his eye returns as he tells us that the first and lower version of Calhoun's statue was repeatedly and "mysteriously" defaced, whereupon the town fathers decided it needed to be raised up out of reach of anyone who might for some reason want to throw stones at it or do other things to it. So it's now up at 60 ft off the ground. Of course, that's not the official story of why it was raised, but Alphonso didn't seem like the kind of guy who would lie to us....
Charleston, as the cultural capital of the Old South, is full of double- and triple-edged stories like these, among them being some of the stories of Jane's ancestors.
"The Holy City"
 |
| "The Holy City" from just off and above the Battery. Photo credit: charleston.com |
And so it is with Charleston: as quickly as you find one true thing about it, you often find that the one true thing's shadow also turns out to be true. Take the example of Sullivan's Island (at the mouth of Charleston Harbor) that Robert Rosen uses in the prologue to his A Short History of Charleston (U of SC Press: 1997). On the one hand, Sullivan's Island is the slightly exotic setting for Edgar Allan Poe's wonderful short story, The Gold Bug. On the other hand, around 40% of the Africans brought to the U.S. as slaves made their first landing at Sullivan's Island. Rosen also points up the old Exchange Building, where the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony, right next to the spot where slaves were bought and sold at open public auction until 1856. And of course, Charleston is where the first shots in the Civil War were fired, with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861.
More from Rosen, citing an article in Venture magazine by Maggie Davis in which she suggested that Charleston's history is difficult to explain because Charleston "'...has never had the kind of history we like to boast about in our textbooks....[Charleston's history] is not only bloodstained and wicked but continuingly unrepentant.'"
So yes, you can visit Charleston and take in the surface of her beauty in a few days. You won't be disappointed because she is charming and beautiful and has lots of great food to boot. But there is so much more to Charleston than what a visitor can see in a short trip. Like every great character, she has a history that has made her what she is.
....
"Charleston is where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet to form the Atlantic Ocean."
(A Charleston saying.)
....
Scarlett: "Rhett! Rhett, where are you going?"
Rhett Butler: "I'm going back to Charleston, back where I belong."
....
"I carry the delicate porcelain beauty of Charleston like the hinged shell of some soft-tissued mollusk. My soul is peninsula-shaped and sun-hardened and river-swollen. The high tides of the city flood my consciousness each day, subject to the whims and harmonies of full moons rising out of the Atlantic. I grow calm when I see the ranks of palmetto trees pulling guard duty on the banks of Colonial Lake or hear the bells of St. Michael's calling cadence in the cicada-filled trees along Meeting Street. Deep in my bones, I knew early that I was one of those incorrigible creatures known as Charlestonians...." (Pat Conroy, South of Broad. Prologue. Dial Press Trade paperback edition: 2010)....
"South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."
(South Carolina Attorney General James L. Petigru on the occasion of South Carolina's
secession from the Union in 1860. As Wiki notes, the quote is still used to describe South
Carolina politics. How could Charleston be different?)
....
John C. Calhoun was the South Carolina politician who attempted to reframe the early 19th century argument about slavery from that of a "necessary evil" to that of a "positive good." There is a statue of him atop a 60 ft. plinth in Marion Square in central Charleston. Alphonso Brown, our Gullah Tourmaster, tells us that some African-Americans pronounce Calhoun's name as "Kill-hoon." Alphonso goes on to say that some people presume that the reason African-Americans might pronounce it that way is because they don't know how to pronounce it properly. With a wicked glint in his eye, Alphonso says "We can pronounce it perfectly well..." and does so. He then tells us a bit more about that statue of "Kill-hoon" in Marion Square, and how when it was first erected, it was on a much lower plinth. The wicked glint in his eye returns as he tells us that the first and lower version of Calhoun's statue was repeatedly and "mysteriously" defaced, whereupon the town fathers decided it needed to be raised up out of reach of anyone who might for some reason want to throw stones at it or do other things to it. So it's now up at 60 ft off the ground. Of course, that's not the official story of why it was raised, but Alphonso didn't seem like the kind of guy who would lie to us....
Charleston, as the cultural capital of the Old South, is full of double- and triple-edged stories like these, among them being some of the stories of Jane's ancestors.
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