St. Philip's Parish was a politically designated area of Charleston, S.C. A St. Philip's Church was noted among the christenings and is assumed to have been (still is?) in Charleston.

St. Philip's Church was commissioned shortly after the Carolina colony was founded in 1670. Because the Church of England was the established church, St. Philip's tried to meet the spiritual needs of the early settlers and also was responsible for oversight of elections, education and social services in everything from healthcare to disaster relief. St. Philip's churchwardens and vestry enforced morality laws and levied taxes. The colony's first state funeral--that of Governor Robert Johnson--took place in the church, as did that of the controversial, one-time vice president, Senator John C. Calhoun. Buried in the churchyard are Founding Fathers, pirate hunters, war heroes, statesmen and even the unfortunate victim of a sensational murder. This book recounts the early years of St. Philip's Church, the people who walked its aisles and some of the early religious conflicts that shook the community. Authors Dorothy Middleton Anderson and Margaret Middleton Rivers Eastman outline the fascinating history of the first church in the new colony.

Charleston is one of the most historically significant cities in the United States. One of the prime attractions of Charleston is the spectacular array of historic buildings spanning a wide variety of architectural styles. From simple pre-Revolutionary–era dwellings to spectacular Italianate, Greek Revival, and Victorian homes, to colonial government buildings, to some of the oldest and most beautiful churches, Charleston’s architectural splendor is unparalleled in the United States.

Intermingling architectural, cultural, and religious history, Louis Nelson reads Anglican architecture and decorative arts as documents of eighteenth-century religious practice and belief. In The Beauty of Holiness, he tells the story of the Church of England in colonial South Carolina, revealing how the colony's Anglicans negotiated the tensions between the persistence of seventeenth-century religious practice and the rising tide of Enlightenment thought and sentimentality. Nelson begins with a careful examination of the buildings, grave markers, and communion silver fashioned and used by early Anglicans. Turning to the religious functions of local churches, he uses these objects and artifacts to explore Anglican belief and practice in South Carolina. Chapters focus on the role of the senses in religious understanding, the practice of the sacraments, and the place of beauty, regularity, and order in eighteenth-century Anglicanism. The final section of the book considers the ways church architecture and material culture reinforced social and political hierarchies. Richly illustrated with more than 250 architectural images and photographs of religious objects, The Beauty of Holiness depends on exhaustive fieldwork to track changes in historical architecture. Nelson imaginatively reconstructs the history of the Church of England in colonial South Carolina and its role in public life, from its early years of ambivalent standing within the colony through the second wave of Anglicanism beginning in the early 1750s.

"Here lyes Buried the Body of MARTHA PERONNEAU...Departed This Life December Ye 14th 1746 Aged 13 Years." Such an inscription was typical of 18th century grave markers in Charleston, South Carolina. Many epitaphs went on to reveal much more about the deceased: personality, religious beliefs, career accomplishments and social position. Attention to social matters was a natural part of life in Charleston, where descendants of the city's 17th century British founders sought to recreate the class-conscious culture of aristocratic England. The merging of this culture with influences from French Huguenots, German Lutherans, Scottish Presbyterians and Spanish Jews led to funeral practices unique in the American colonies. Focusing on pieces created between 1695 and 1802, this volume offers a detailed examination of the tombstones and grave markers from 18th century Charleston. It discusses not only the general trends and the symbolism of the period's gravestone art--such as skulls, portraits, ascending souls and stylized vegetation--but also examines specific instances of these popular motifs. Tombstones from Charleston's oldest and most significant churches, including the Circular Congregational Church, St. Philip's Anglican Church, the French Huguenot Church and the First (Scots) Presbyterian Church, are explored in detail. The work looks at how Charleston gravestones differed from funerary art elsewhere in the American colonies and reveals them to be some of the earliest examples of American sculpture. A guide to colonial gravestone symbols and a glossary of relevant Latin terms are also included.

The newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: this special eBook edition of The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide. Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world. Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love. As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements. Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better. This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved. Please note there is another digital edition available without Oprah’s notes. Go to Oprah.com/bookclub for more OBC 2.0 content

Charleston, South Carolina, famous for its magnolia and azalea gardens, its Battery, its plantations, and its key role in early American history has certainly had its share of ghosts. They stalk the halls of townhouses once famous for gracious living and romance; they inhabit lonely stretches of moss-draped roads; and they roam the deserted garden paths of the old plantations outside the city. Charleston Ghosts brings to life an intriguing group of personalities who act out their fateful roles in true-to-legend style. “Eighteen delightful ghost tales about Charleston and the Lowcountry told as only a native Charlestonian could tell them.”—Charleston News and Courier

Includes ghost stories from the Aiken-Rhett House, the Garden Theater, and the Cooper River Bridge.