NCW Libraries

From the Lowcountry's first recorded duel to old-fashioned summers at the 'hottest spot in town,' these pages will captivate you with stories of people, events and places that have all but vanished from memory. Find out the real history behind some of Charleston's beloved mansions and learn about the early plantations and their owners. Join the authors as they relate the riots and romance, the preservation and politics- and even a ghost story -from...

A fascinating new look at the infamous story of the Hatfields and the McCoys and their blood feud that began in 1865 with the murder of Harmon McCoy, a Union soldier, by a Confederate Hatfield relative.

During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers' Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country's shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors-many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures-were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck,...

Around two hundred million years ago, geological forces produced an expansive grove of rocky caverns and outcroppings atop Lookout Mountain. It was not until the twentieth century, however, that this awe-inspiring citadel evolved into a nationally recognized tourist attraction when Garnet Carter and his wife, Frieda, developed the natural marvel into the Rock City Gardens we know today, an enchanted tribute to fairytales and a breathtaking homage...

South Carolinians have long desired a route for water navigation from Columbia to Charleston. An early Santee Canal effort ended in failure by 1850, but interest was reignited in the twentieth century. Roosevelt and his New Deal provided the necessary hydroelectric power and a boost to the state s economy through the funding of a navigable route utilizing the Congaree, Santee and Cooper Rivers. This ambitious undertaking would become the largest land-clearing...

. . . there's Humphrey pumping drugs all out & sundae soda cracker pop . . ."This article appears in the Winter 2012 issue of Southern Cultures. The full issue is also available as an ebook.Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.

“Mysteries and Legends of Virginia” explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Virginia's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Virginia history.

In 1884, in the basement of a building on the corner of York and Jefferson Streets, something miraculous was happening. Jewish Russian immigrant Isadore Gottlieb had built a bakery that would soon be renowned in Savannah for every tasty morsel pulled from its busy oven, creating the perfect combination of southern and Jewish delicacies. Goods were delivered to citizens and stores by cart, pulled by a horse that knew every stop along the way, cementing...

'There's no choosing. It isn't choice. Are you the daughter of somebody who was somebody who was somebody? And if you are, and you're not a heroin addict, you are there.'"This article appears in the Winter 2012 issue of Southern Cultures. The full issue is also available as an ebook.Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North...

Every leader needs a trusted confidant. For Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the Civil War's greatest military minds, that man was David Campbell Kelley. Kelley began adulthood in the clergy, serving for two years as a missionary in China and returning home just a year before the Civil War. He then raised a company of cavalry from his family's large congregation that became part of Forrest's original regiment. Kelley quickly became Forrest's second...