Episode 181: Planning Charleston’s First “Fortress,” 1695–1696

Charleston Time Machine - A podcast by Nic Butler, Ph.D. - Fridays

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The earliest surviving legislative discussion of fortifications in urban Charleston took place in 1695–96, motivated by an ongoing war with France and a persistent fear of marauding pirates. The provincial government’s plan to build an expensive brick fortress, flanked by men “arrayd for battle,” forms a significant chapter in the physical evolution of South Carolina’s colonial capital.