DIHS is increasingly collaborating with other groups to help share the fascinating stories that make up local history. And one of the prime partnerships we’re developing is with Berkeley250, the local group working to tell the local stories of the American Revolution.
A prime example of that took place Thursday, August 15 when DIHIS, Berkeley250 and Daniel Pointe Retirement Community jointly sponsored author Bill Segars discussing “South Carolina Churches Burned During the Revolutionary War.
Segars started by describing the role the official Anglican Church played in the Carolina Colony in the 17 and early 18 centuries. Other churches were permitted but were known as dissenters. The Anglican clergy contolled the money, property and government of the parish. Dissenting congregations received no government support and weren’t even allowed to call their buildings churches…they were meeting places.
Because churches tended to be the focus of communities, they were also the focus of the English troops when the American Revolution broke out. In several instances even Anglican churches were destroyed when retreating British troops filled them with ammunition they couldn’t take with them. The British then blew up the church to keep the supplies from falling into American hands. In all 13 churches in South Carolina were burned during the Revolutionary war.
