Charleston

After figuring out how to deal with the parking issue (see earlier post) we did enjoy the town...albeit in 2-3 hour time slots. From the central market area we took a Carriage Tour through the narrow streets and admired the beautiful mansions and gardens.  The houses tend to be relatively narrow and extremely long in order to catch the breezes in the summer; contrary to popular belief most Plantation owners did not have big country mansions. Rather, they had ordinary small farm houses in the country where they farmed cotton, rice and indigo (with slaves) and the mansions in town.  The swampy rural areas of the low country had mosquitos that carried yellow fever and malaria, so the rich plantation owners and family built gorgeous mansions in town especially for the hot summers. We toured several museums one in the Old Slave Market and the other was the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon.  The Slave Market was used in the mid-1800s through which 40% of all arriving slaves were processed, traded and sold...this made Charleston very very rich in the process.  The 1768 Exchange building is one of the last formal structures built by the British Colonial Government in the American colonies and it is where imported goods were traded and tariffs paid. An interesting point was that Charleston used to be called Charles Town, named after King Charles II.
Tomorrow we are heading south to try to get to Florida fast via the interstate ....the weather is still cool here.