Charleston Time Machine

Nic Butler, Ph.D.
  • 4.7 (164)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Dr. Nic Butler, historian at the Charleston County Public Library, explores the less familiar corners of local history with stories that invite audiences to reflect on the enduring presence of the past in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

  1. Episode 315: Lord William Campbell, Sarah Izard, and their Carolina Connection, Part 2

    5D AGO

    Episode 315: Lord William Campbell, Sarah Izard, and their Carolina Connection, Part 2

    The newlyweds, Lord and Lady William Campbell, settled in England after their 1763 marriage in Charleston, but the young couple actively nurtured familial connections to South Carolina over the course of the ensuing decade. Political, financial, and naval alliances made during the 1760s, followed by a tour of the colonies and a relaxing sojourn in Charleston in 1772, fortified their bonds to His Majesty’s most profitable colony in North America.

    23 min
  2. Episode 314: Lord William Campbell, Sarah Izard, and their Carolina Connection, Part 1

    JAN 23

    Episode 314: Lord William Campbell, Sarah Izard, and their Carolina Connection, Part 1

    In the late winter of 1763, a young British officer sailed into Charleston Harbor aboard a warship assigned to protect the trade of a flourishing colony. Weeks later, Captain Lord William Campbell married a local heiress, Sarah Izard, and became invested in the slave-owning community. Their hasty union marked the beginning of a longer saga that culminated, twelve years later, with the unraveling of British authority in the province of South Carolina.

    32 min
  3. Episode 313: The 1775 Debut of the South Carolina Flag

    12/19/2025

    Episode 313: The 1775 Debut of the South Carolina Flag

    In the autumn of 1775, rebellious South Carolinians raised a distinctive new flag over a waterfront fort just seized from British hands. Their commanding officer later described the creation of the state’s enduring banner in his memoir, but did not recall the date of its unveiling. Across Charleston Harbor, however, two British naval officers witnessed the flag’s debut and recorded a surprising detail regarding its appearance.

    26 min
  4. Episode 312: The Demise of Butcher Town and the Charleston Abattoir

    12/05/2025

    Episode 312: The Demise of Butcher Town and the Charleston Abattoir

    The enclave known as Butcher Town flourished around Cannon’s millpond until 1850, when the expansion of Charleston’s city limits propelled the slaughtering business northward. The migration of butchers’ pens across the Neck then triggered a decades-long battle between private enterprise and public efforts to regulate the industry. Following a suite of political and technological developments in the early twentieth century, a modern municipal abattoir ultimately scrubbed the ancient blood-soaked industry from the local landscape.

    32 min
  5. Episode 311: The Path to Butcher Town, Charleston's Slaughtering Suburb

    11/07/2025

    Episode 311: The Path to Butcher Town, Charleston's Slaughtering Suburb

    The residents of early Charleston lived cheek-by-jowl with the animals they consumed, and routinely witnessed cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats trotting through urban streets to meet the butcher’s blade. Efforts to push this bloody business out of the city center commenced in the late 1690s and evolved over the following century, during which local officials gradually pushed the slaughtering trade northward to a tidewater suburb that became known as Butcher Town.

    31 min
  6. Episode 310: Charleston's Centre Market, Established 1807

    10/23/2025

    Episode 310: Charleston's Centre Market, Established 1807

    In the spring of 1807, nineteen years after the initial creation of Market Street, Charleston’s municipal government faced a looming deadline to complete the proposed but long-delayed public marketplace. To avoid a second forfeiture of the extensive property donated by generous neighbors, City Council launched a rapid series of construction projects and drafted a landmark ordinance, the text of which defined the culture of urban food sales for the ensuing century.

    27 min
  7. Episode 309: The Restoration of Market Street, 1804–1807

    10/03/2025

    Episode 309: The Restoration of Market Street, 1804–1807

    Amidst another influx of French-speaking refugees in the spring of 1804, Charleston’s municipal authorities negotiated with property owners to resuscitate the Market Street plan scuttled more than a decade earlier. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the project’s principal donor, dictated new terms to city officials and set a three-year deadline, triggering a flurry of site work and legal negotiations that eventually secured the permanent establishment of the present historic marketplace.

    30 min
  8. Episode 308: Meandering Marketplaces in Urban Charleston, 1794–1805

    09/19/2025

    Episode 308: Meandering Marketplaces in Urban Charleston, 1794–1805

    Following the conversion of the city’s new Beef Market into a dormitory in the autumn of 1793, the business of vending fresh provisions in Charleston meandered across the urban landscape for more than a decade. The older marketplaces in Tradd and Queen Streets absorbed most of the central-city commerce, while residents of peripheral neighborhoods briefly patronized forgotten smaller markets on South Bay and the east end of Calhoun Street.

    26 min
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4.7
out of 5
164 Ratings

About

Dr. Nic Butler, historian at the Charleston County Public Library, explores the less familiar corners of local history with stories that invite audiences to reflect on the enduring presence of the past in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

Information

  • Creator
    Nic Butler, Ph.D.
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    315
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Charleston Time Machine

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