Charleston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley, Cooper, and Wando rivers. Charleston had a population of 150,227 at the 2020 census, while the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, has an estimated 870,000 residents. It ranks as the third-most-populous metropolitan area in the state and the 71st-most-populous in the U.S. It is the county seat of Charleston County.
Charleston was founded by the English in 1670 as Charles Town, named in honor of King Charles II. Originally established at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River (now Charles Towne Landing), the settlement was moved in 1680 to its present location, where it quickly grew to become the fifth-largest city in North America by the 1690s. During the colonial period, Charleston remained unincorporated and was governed by a colonial legislature and a royal governor, with administrative districts and social services organized by Anglican parishes.
Although the state capital was relocated to Columbia in 1788, Charleston remained among the top 10 U.S. cities by population through 1840. A significant part of Charleston's history is its central role in the Atlantic slave trade; local merchants, including Joseph Wragg, helped break the monopoly of the Royal African Company, making Charleston a primary entry point for enslaved Africans. Almost one-half of enslaved people imported to the United States arrived in Charleston. In 2018, the city formally apologized for its role in the American slave trade.
The economy of Charleston is anchored by tourism, port and logistics, aerospace, and information technology. The city is home to the Port of Charleston, one of the busiest in the United States, which significantly contributes to regional trade and economic activity. Boeing and other major employers have established a strong aerospace presence, while its growing tech industry has led to the nickname "Silicon Harbor". Culturally, Charleston is renowned for its well-preserved architecture, historic landmarks, and rich Gullah heritage, alongside vibrant culinary, music, and arts scenes. Popular attractions include the historic City Market, Fort Sumter National Monument, and antebellum homes along the Battery and Rainbow Row.
The unified Cusabo people (including sub tribes such as Kiawah) and the Ittiwan people inhabited the area prior to colonial settlement. They were known as "Settlement Indians" by colonists.
King Charles II granted the chartered Province of Carolina to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietors, on March 24, 1663. Later that year, prominent planters from Barbados attempted their first settlement in the Carolinas on the Cape Fear River, building what would become Charles Towne, North Carolina. This settlement was short lived and most returned back to Barbados a few years into the enterprise. In 1670, Governor William Sayle arranged for several shiploads of settlers from Bermuda and Barbados. These settlers established what was then called Charles Town at Albemarle Point, on the west bank of the Ashley River, a few miles northwest of the present-day city center. Charles Town became the first comprehensively planned town in the Thirteen Colonies. Its governance, settlement, and development were to follow a visionary plan known as the Grand Model prepared for the Lord's Proprietors by John Locke. Because the Carolina's Fundamental Constitutions were never ratified, however, Charles Town was never incorporated during the colonial period. Instead, local ordinances were passed by the provincial government, with day-to-day administration handled by the wardens and vestries of St Philip's and St Michael's Anglican parishes.
At the time of European colonization, the area was inhabited by the indigenous Cusabo, on whom the settlers declared war in October 1671. The settlers initially allied with the Westo, a northern indigenous tribe that traded in enslaved Indians. The settlers abandoned their alliance with the Westo in 1679 and allied with the Cusabo instead.
The initial settlement quickly dwindled and disappeared while another village—established by the settlers on Oyster Point at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers around 1672—thrived. In 1680, this second settlement formally replaced the original Charles Town, which today is commemorated as Charles Towne Landing. The second location was more defensible and had access to a fine natural harbor. The new town had become the fifth largest in North America by 1690.
A smallpox outbreak erupted in 1698, followed by an earthquake in February 1699. The latter caused a fire that destroyed about a third of the town. During rebuilding, a yellow fever outbreak killed about 15% of the remaining inhabitants. Charles Town suffered between five and eight significant yellow fever outbreaks over the first half of the 18th century.
It developed a reputation as one of the least healthy locations in the Thirteen Colonies for ethnic Europeans. Malaria was endemic. Although malaria did not have such high mortality as yellow fever, it caused much illness. It was a major health problem throughout most of the city's history before dying out in the 1950s after the use of pesticides cut down on the mosquitoes that transmitted it.
Charles Town was fortified according to a plan developed in 1704 under Governor Nathaniel Johnson. Both Spain and France contested Britain's claims to the region. Various bands of Native Americans and independent pirates also raided it.
On September 5–6, 1713 (O.S.), a violent hurricane passed over Charles Town. The Circular Congregational Church manse was damaged during the storm, and church records were lost. Much of Charles Town was flooded as "the Ashley and Cooper rivers became one." At least seventy people died in the disaster.
From the 1670s, Charleston attracted pirates. The combination of a weak government and corruption made the city popular with pirates, who frequently visited and raided the city. Charles Town was besieged by the pirate Blackbeard for several days in May 1718. Blackbeard released his hostages and left in exchange for a chest of medicine from Governor Robert Johnson.
Around 1719, the town's name began to be generally written as Charlestown and, excepting those fronting the Cooper River, the old walls were largely removed over the next decade. Charlestown was a center for the inland colonization of South Carolina. It remained the southernmost point of the Southern Colonies until the Province of Georgia was established in 1732. As noted, the first settlers primarily came from Europe, Barbados and Bermuda. The Barbadian and Bermudan immigrants were planters who brought enslaved Africans with them, having purchased them in the West Indies.
Early immigrant groups to the city included the Huguenots, Scottish, Irish, and Germans, as well as hundreds of Jews, predominately Sephardi from London and significant cities of the Dutch Republic, where they had been given refuge. As late as 1830, Charleston's Jewish community was the most prominent and wealthiest in North America.
By 1708, most of the colony's population were Black Africans. They had been brought to Charlestown via the Atlantic slave trade, first as indentured servants and then as enslaved people. In the early 1700s, Charleston's largest slave trader, Joseph Wragg, pioneered the settlement's involvement in the slave trade. Of the estimated 400,000 captive Africans transported to North America to be sold into slavery, 40% are thought to have landed at Sullivan's Island off Charlestown. Free people of color also migrated from the West Indies, being descendants of white planters and their Black consorts and unions among the working classes.
In 1767, Gadsden's Wharf was constructed at the city port on the Cooper River; it ultimately extended 840 feet and could accommodate six ships at a time. Many enslaved people were sold from here. Devoted to plantation agriculture that depended on enslaved labor, South Carolina became a slave society: it had a majority-Black population from the colonial period until after the Great Migration of the early 20th century, when many rural Blacks moved to northern and midwestern industrial cities to escape Jim Crow laws.