Free previewStop 2 of Charleston Walking Tour: Rainbow Row to the Battery
Behind the Arch on Chalmers Street
You're standing on Chalmers Street, one of the few cobblestone streets left in Charleston, in front of a narrow stuccoed building with a tall arch in the middle and an octagonal pillar at each end. Look at that arch, and the iron gate inside it. Just behind that gate, enslaved people were sold.
You've just come from the City Market, and many visitors assume sales happened there. They didn't. For the first half of the 1800s, Charleston auctioned enslaved people in public, on the north side of the Exchange building, a few blocks from here. Then, in 1856, the city banned public slave auctions. The ban didn't end the selling. It moved it out of sight.
That same year, a city councilman and broker named Thomas Ryan opened a private, enclosed market on this block, with his partner James Marsh. Ryan's Mart stretched back toward Queen Street.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 2 of Charleston Walking Tour: Rainbow Row to the Battery (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
