Day 63 - Charleston: Dock Street Theater

Today at 1 pm, we had a walking tour, but at the last minute a large group cancelled, so our guide said that there were not enough people. He was nice to take us around to a couple of famous sites anyways. He told us about the Dock Street Theater, started in 1809 as an hotel and turn into a theater in 1935 after extensive restoration. Tonight the play is "Steel Magnolia", the perfect subject for the location. We bought tickets and they were the best. We later found out from our theater neighbors that a couple had cancelled.

Our seats front row on the balcony. So lucky!

Before going home to change for the evening, we went to visit the Old Slave Mart Museum.
This was suggested by our guide Scott. The building is the last standing slave market existing today.
In 1808 with the abolition of the international slave trade by the US colonies, the inter-state slave trade became a substitute to supply free labor. Between the rectification of the Constitution and the start of the Civil War, more than a million American-born enslaved people were sold to plantations owners in the South. Charleston contributed to 40% of this trade. Behind the Old Exchange Building was the main location. Now there is a commemorative plaque.

Old Exchange Building

This was the city main building, where they would have balls a la Jane Austen...

Square behind the Old Exchange Building

As you read from the plaque, in 1859 the city banned public auctions The slave traders had to move indoor. So several indoor 'market' of human beings came to exist in the bad part of town, Queen, State, and Chalmers street, where only people interested in acquiring would come around.
One of the main one was owned by slave trader, Thomas Ryan, an alderman and former sheriff.
In the museum, we read many stories and facts about the trade of enslaved people, and it was quite disheartening. Upstairs, we attended to a lecture given by a local historian to a group of girls from Greenville. He told us more about a four floor building that had demolished through the years, that contained the jail rooms, a kitchen and a morgue.

We came back in the evening for the play...

Patricia Colbert Robinson, aunt of Steven Colbert!
She was married to Emmett Robinson, long time director of the theater.
She was an author, poet, playwright and actress.

The play was great. The director and actresses did an amazing job, adapting the movie to this play. But somehow we were not completely up to it. I wished we were in a different mood. Maybe I was still missing Savannah, maybe the mart... I could not buy into the story.