The Walled City of Charles Town

This historical documentary details the foundation and colonial history of South Carolina through the city of Charles Town, or present-day Charleston. Much emphasis has been placed on the Puritan foundation of New England, but little is taught in history textbooks of the English settlements of the south. Important issues of early racial relations have their beginning in and around the port of Charles Town, the only fully walled English city in North America. The brick curtain wall facing the sea stood for a century overlooking the emergence of free ideas as well as human suffering, only to disappear beneath the streets along with the memories of their forbearers. The Walled City of Charles Town tells the story through the words of leading experts on the topic of historical Charleston. The story is outlined into five participant groups: the English, the Natives, the Africans, the Pirates, and the Americans. Cutaway footage uses paintings, engravings, and maps, many of which are stored in archives in the city and are photographed by the film crew. Images of modern day Charleston are incorporated, also collected by the crew. Its companion piece, Diggin’ History in South Carolina, contains interviews with leading experts in the field of colonial South Carolina. They explain their archaeological and anthropological work discovering the almost-forgotten foundations of this powerful British colony