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Charleston, the center of early colonial life in the Carolinas, became the focus for some of the most climactic events in American history. Here, in December 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede – we offer an early broadside print of its Ordinance of Secession. Four months later, on April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter, the island garrison in Charleston harbor, the first shots of the Civil War. Our inventory includes documents pertaining to the Southern defense of Fort Sumter, and to the ceremonial re-raising of the American flag at the end of the war, just hours before Lincoln’s assassination. We also offer unique documents from the South Carolina Nullification Crisis of the 1830s, which in many ways foreshadowed the Civil War, including an inspired defense of the constitutional powers of the federal government from President Andrew Jackson.
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