We had tickets for the ferry and access to Fort Sumter for noon so we had time to go to the old Slave Mart first. It, like the International African-American Museum had lots and lots and lots of informational placards and few artifacts. So, apologies, this part of the blog is mostly reading. We arrived at the same time as 50 Grade 6 students on a field trip. The museum was two floors so the kids were split up half up and half down, still the space is not that big so we had to do some dodging. They were polite kids with attentive teachers so there was no problem wandering around with them.

Not too far from the Old Slave Mart we had to traverse a bumpy cobblestone section of street.

Below is a horrifing rendition of the lower decks of a slave ship. The trip across the Atlantic could take from one to three months. Thousands died.

What I did not know was that there was a thriving market for American-born slaves.

Slaves, especially young strong ones, or women in child-bearing years were expensive. It was not uncommon to pay half the price at the time of purchase and carry a loan for the other half that was payable in a year. The bar along the left side of the image below shows the price per age beginning with a 1-year old for $100 down to 60-years old for $50. Thr most expensive was a 20-year old. The longer your ‘earning’ potential or the better your skill the higher the price. Since many of these slaves came from the north they had training in many things like carpentry or blacksmithing. The African slaves were prized for the plantations because they knew how to cultivate rice that quickly became a lucrative cash crop for plantation owners.

There were many uprisings and strikes among slaves in factories and on plantations. Nothing changed in their lives – if they survived the punishment – but there was often resistance and attempts to improve their situation.

We left the Slave Mart at 11:15 and had to be at the ferry dock at 11:45. Good thing our Nav system – who we have named Mary Lou – is good at directing us to parking garages. We arrived with enough time to gather in the long line to await permission to board.

It is a fifteen minute ride to Fort Sumter. Along the way a National Park guide noted points of interest along the shore and then gave a succinct short lecture on the significance of Fort Sumter.

This isn’t a very good photo – long lens and glaring sun. The U.S.S Yorktown aircraft carrier and a WWII destroyer and a submarine are moored at Patriot’s Point and can be toured.

The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge that connects Mt. Pleasant with the peninsula on which Charleston is built.

Fort Sumter is a National Park but you can only access it by taking a Fort Sumter Tour that runs the ferry to the island. The fort itself is the island. There is almost no additional land outside the walls. The current walls are about a third of the original height afterthe damage caused by all the shells that were lobbed at it during the Civil War.

It took 15 years for enslaved men to dump 70,000 tons of granite and other rock, sand and shells into the Charleston harbour to create the foundation for the fort. And another 15 years to build it.

The walls were 50′ feet high and 15′ thick. Enslaved men did not build the walls but they did make the approximately 4 million bricks that were needed.

Amazingly no one was killed during those 34 hours.

This huge installation was added to the middle of the fort much later. There were two massive guns on top. By the time WWII came about they were obsolete so were removed and melted down for war material.

We arrived back in Charleston at 2:20. When we purchased our tickets to the Old Slave Mart we were able to buy a double ticket that also lets us into the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. We had thought to do that after we returned from Fort Sumter but my legs and feet were too sore so we headed back to the hotel to rest, sort photos, and make some decisions about our time in Savannah. We plan to go to the Exchange in the morning before we leave Charleston. We will be spending three nights in Savannah.