How Holy is the history of The Holy City?

Ever wondered why Charleston SC is famously known as "The Holy City?" I did too, until last Monday when all of my questions were answered by our special guest speaker, Ruth Miller.

 Ruth Miller is a well-known historian and tour guide for the city of Charleston, who is also known for her pieces of work on graveyards around this area. How she became infatuated with graveyards is very iconic actually, one day while she was giving a tour to a group of morticians, she realized that they had disappeared, which she then found them touring around a graveyard on their own. She quickly realized how interesting graveyards were. 

Taken by Patrick Harwood

Ruth claimed "Graveyards can actually be pictures of history," then started writing about Charlestons well known cemeteries. 

She then taught us about the actual religious history behind the nickname of the city in which we live in.

The College of Charleston was actually founded because Englishmen didn't want to send their songs back to England to get an education because of the differences in religion, which was very surprising to me. 

I also found out that two of the most famous rivers in Charleston were named after Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper, who was a noble selected by the King of England to rule this territory. He then went against the King and established his own set of rules (and religion) in the area of which he controlled. 

She then educated us on the history of some famous churches and how they were founded, most having to do with breaking away from England which led to war. 

Ruth then stated "When you win a war, your write your own version of history" which is the complete truth. Every war has more than one story, which is important because significant attributions of the foundation of Charleston was a result of war on another country.

Overall, I learned a great amount about the history of my favorite city in the world, from the religious background to the history of our cemeteries.