Liberty Square

The land now known as Liberty Square was once a place of arrival for survivors of the largest forced migration in world history. Gadsden's Wharf was the primary wharf for slave ships arriving in Charleston for 25 years, up until the banning of slave imports at the end of 1807.
South Carolina received more slaves than any other mainland colony. From 1670 to 1808 around 260,000 captive Africans arrived in Charleston, equaling 40% of the 645,000 people brought to the United States through the slave trade. Within the last two years of the legal international slave trade, slave ships registered in Charleston did more business than every port in the world except for Liverpool, England. Nearly all of those ships unloaded their human cargo right here at Gadsden's Wharf.
After serving quarantine either at Sullivan's Island or James Island, slave ships sailed through Charleston Harbor and up the Cooper River and docked at Gadsden's Wharf. From 1783 to 1808, the number of Africans held in wharf warehouses awaiting sale ranged from just a few to as many as one thousand.

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Septima Poinsette Clark
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The Liberty Tree
Blake-Grimké House

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