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This is one of a series of photos from a collection made by Mrs. I.A. Robertson in 1908. She had long been interested in the Catawba Native Americans and their pottery, and often visited their...
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Quilts made in the African-American tradition are more free in form and in the combinations of colors than the carefully laid out regular patterns of quilts made by women working in European American...
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The African-American nursemaids, in this postcard view of Senate Street around 1910, push their young charges in baby buggies past elegant Victorian mansions of the Columbia well-to-do. The red brick...
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The children from Pollawana Island in this 1910 photograph came to the Penn School by boat. From the Penn School Collection. Permission granted by Penn Center, Inc., St. Helena Island, SC.
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A small fleet of agile boats owned and operated by members of the African-American community in and around Charleston came to be known as the "Mosquito Fleet." They provided a number of essential...
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“B” is for Black Business Districts. Prior to the Civil War, free persons of color in South Carolina owned businesses—generally in the service industry—such as blacksmith and harness shops. These...
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This row of cabins provided housing for slaves on the McLeod Plantation in Charleston County. The photograph was taken in the 1930s. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
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The board and batten siding on this slave cabin on the Arundel Plantation in Georgetown County was promoted as an efficient form of house construction from 1850 onward, and is widely seen in...
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Summerville vicinity, December 1938. This home of a Native American family, built with a mud chimney, was documented by the Farm Security Administration photographer Marion Post. Courtesy of the...
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During slavery, although plantation owners attempted to control the lives and activities of their slave labor, a vital community based on African traditions of family and kin networks aided African...