LibraryAware Episode 131: Hampstead Village: The Historic Heart of Charleston’s East Side

This Week in the Charleston Time Machine...

Hampstead Village:
The Historic Heart of Charleston's East Side

Hampstead Village is a downtown neighborhood better known today as the heart of Charleston’s “East Side.” Created in 1769, it has endured a series of ups and downs that transformed it into Charleston’s most diverse and densely populated neighborhood. To better understand its challenges and potential, let’s review Hampstead’s history and its long struggle for dignity and survival.

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Questions about the stories featured on the Charleston Time Machine? Ask questions here. However, there may be delays in responses while he maintains a busy programming schedule for library events and the Charleston Time Machine podcast and blog. Some questions may be used as future podcasts.

Charleston Time Machine Is Charleston's Best Podcast

Thanks to everyone who voted for The Charleston Time Machine Podcast this year in Charleston City Paper's Best of Charleston. It's the Time Machine's -- and CCPL's -- first win ever, so it's a great feeling to find out how many people have become fans of our local history podcast!

Upcoming Events

Indigo in the Fabric of Early South Carolina

When: Saturday, October 26th 2019, 12 noon - 1 p.m.

Where: Edgar Allen Poe Library, 1921 I'On Avenue, Sullivan's Island, 29482.

Indigo plants, prized for the vibrant blue dye they yield, formed an important part of South Carolina’s agricultural economy during our colonial era. Many historians point to Eliza Lucas Pinckney as the figure most responsible for introducing indigo to the Lowcountry around 1740, but the efforts of her contemporaries, and the broader economic context of her work, have received far less attention in recent years. John CCPL’s historian, Dr. Nic Butler, for an illustrated overview of the historical context of indigo’s rise and fall in early South Carolina.

The Forgotten Public Cemeteries of Peninsular Charleston

When: Tuesday, October 29th 2019, 6 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Where: Main Library Auditorium, 68 Calhoun Street, 29401

From the 1680s to the 1920s, deceased poor and enslaved people in urban Charleston were routinely interred within a series of publicly-owned cemeteries, the locations of which crept northward up the peninsula over successive generations. As each of these public burying grounds became filled, municipal authorities sold the land to be developed for other uses. Join CCPL's historian, Dr. Nic Butler, for an overview of these forgotten cemeteries and their enduring presence within the landscape of modern Charleston.

A Veteran's Story: Caring for Sgt. William Jasper's Family

When: Tuesday, November 5th 2019, 6 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Where: Main Library Auditorium, 68 Calhoun Street, 29401

Sergeant William Jasper has been lauded as a South Carolina hero of the American Revolution since the 1770s, but the lack of a post-war system of addressing veterans' affairs caused Jasper's family to suffer hardships for many decades after his patriotic sacrifice in 1779. Join CCPL's historian, Dr. Nic Butler, for an review of the aid extended by the City of Charleston and the State of South Carolina to the poor family of Sergeant Jasper, from the 1780s to the 1840s.

Native Americans in the South Carolina Lowcountry:
The Era of First Contact

Two Performances:

Saturday, November 16th 2019, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m., Main Library Auditorium, 68 Calhoun Street, 29401
Wednesday, November 20th 2019, 6 p.m. - 7 p.m., Hurd/St. Andrews Regional Library, 1735 N. Woodmere Drive, 29407

The first Europeans who came to South Carolina encountered a number of distinct and vibrant communities of Native American people living along the coastal plain. Due to a variety of circumstances that transpired after first contact with Europeans in the early 1500s, however, most of this indigenous population had disappeared by the mid-1700s. Join CCPL's historian, Dr. Nic Butler, for an overview of the various tribes that once inhabited the Charleston area and the scanty evidence of their early extinction.

Harleston in 1770: The Birth of a Colonial Suburb

When: Tuesday, November 19th 2019, 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Where: Main Library Auditorium, 68 Calhoun Street, 29401

The Charleston neighborhood known as Harleston Village traces its roots back to the late colonial era, when the Harleston family subdivided a verdant tract called "Coming's Point" along the banks of the Ashley River. Join CCPL's historian, Dr. Nic Butler, for a review of the neighborhood's early landscape, its suburban genesis in 1770, and its connection to the adjacent public green space that became known as Charleston's "Colonial Common."

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