History Can be Spooky Too! A Trip to the Old City Jail

Facade of the Old City Jail

Last week my class and I had the opportunity to take a journey through time and visit one of the most historical structures of Charleston, The Old City Jail. When I first laid eyes on the building, I immediately felt chills all over my body from how thrilling the facade was. Soon after we arrived, we met our guide Randy, who was eager to take us inside eager to share some amazing facts about the people who once spent time in this jail. 

Randy 

Randy told us that the jail ran from 1802 to 1939, and housed many different people who committed all different types of crimes, some of whome were completely innocent. 

The first room we entered was a small round room with ropes hanging in the middle. Randy told us that the ropes were used to keep a prisoner in place while he or she was getting slashed with a whip that was made out of "Cat's tails" 

The second room was much larger with replicas of the actual cages where prisoners were kept. I was surpirsed by how small they were. The jail held many notorious criminals. Two of them were Lavinia Fisher and her husband. Randy explained that the room we were standing in, was the one she stayed in when she was an inmate. Lavinia and her husband were convicted of a highway robbery and a bunch of other crimes. On September 13th the couple made plans to escape however, their plans did not fall through. As a result of this, they were brought to the gallows and hanged together. 

Window from Inside the Jail

Woth each room that Randy took us to, the stories seemed to get scarier and more vivid. I felt like I was a prisoner myself! The rooms we visited were: the torture room, a typical cell room, the morgue, a cell room designated for highly dangerous criminals, and the final terror. 

The last room on the tour was a space thst was by far the worst. Randy advised us to keep all lights off in order to respect the spirits and ghosts that haunt the room. He also mentioned that one of the ghosts that haunt that were is a little boy who was nicknamed "animal" because he runs on his hands and feet and has a tendency to brush against the back of visitors legs!  

back wall of a cell room

overall, it was great to learn about some of the dark sides of our history. Unfortunately Randy and Bulldog Tours may not have that much time left to open the doors of the jail, due to the fact that its future is unclear. Some say that the building will be made into office rooms or apartments. The incredible amount of human suffering that happened here is part of Charleston’s history, even if it is a side that is darker and more hidden. It makes me see this as a coty of the dead!

Old Charlestonian

Introducing John Bennett! 

John Bennett

John Bennett was born on May 14, 1865 and died December 28, 1956. He was an whose career is best known for his children's books. John was very talented and even illustrated these books himself! This was because at a young age, he learned to draw and became skilled at cutting silhouettes. During the years of his early teens, he struggled and ended up dropping out of high school. His next path was working for a newspaper and by then was established as a freelance author and illustrator. with some mental health and drug addiction factors holding him back, he made a strong recovery and his career started to bloom. 

By the date 1895, he had written and published a few books. Mainly intended for children. One of his best known books is called Master Skylark and is considered a classic for children's literature. One of his illustrations from the book is below:

Master Skylark illustration

As Bennett aged, he began to experience more health problems so he was advised to move down to Charleston SC in the year of 1898. There, he met his wife Susan Smythe who was born into a well known Charleston family. His goal while in South Carolina was to promote culture in the city, he started to incorporate black folk tales into his literature and combined these with the Gullah language  publishing books with these new concepts and ideas was definitely a risk Bennett was willing to take.  The Charleston upper class began to ostracize him due to their opposite opinions of black culture. His  addiction to drugs resurfaced and he ended up taken a break from his writing for a while. 

During the time of the two World Wars, Bennett partnered with some other authors and founded the Poetry Society of South Carolina. Overall, he had a very successful career with some bumps along the road which is to be expected with any writer. 

As I was walking around Magnolia Cemetery, I came across on a ordinary headstone and thought that there might be a bigger story behind it. Fortunately there was and I got to learn and research all about the life of John Bennett. 

John Bennett's headstone