Grady Hendrix and friend.(Courtesy of the author) Today our guest is Mt. Pleasant native Grady Hendrix, author of the horror novel Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (2025, Berkley Books).The novel is set in Florida in 1970 and is about a group of pregnant teenage girls, living in a maternity home for unwed girls, who discover a book on witchcraft. For t…

A ballot box from Sumter County used in the 1876 election joined the tissue ballot and Red Shirt in 2024 on display in the bedroom devoted to domestic violence and election fraud.(Courtesy of Historic Columbia) This week we'll be talking with Dr. Jennifer Whitmer Taylor of Duquesne University about her book, Rebirth: Creating the Museum of the Reco…

(PBS) This week Walter will be talking with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns about the American Revolution, focusing on the routing of the British and their allies by revolutionary Partisans during Cornwallis’ Southern campaign. Ken will also tell us a bit about his upcoming PBS documentary, The American Revolution. The six-part, 12-hour documentary…

Walter Edgar(SCETV) Today we’ll be switching things up a bit. Instead of Walter and me interviewing a guest we will have a guest interviewing Walter. The conversation is part of the Spring 2025 program put on by the University South Caroliniana Society: “E is for Edgar – Conversation and Barbeque with Walter.” Talking with Walter today is Beryl Dak…

(Courtesy of the author) This week we’ll be talking with Dr. Kathleen DuVal about native Americans in Colonial South Carolina. Long before the colonization of North America, Indigenous Americans built diverse civilizations and adapted to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. And, as Kathleen will tell us, North American civilization …

Walter Edgar and Alfred Turner( SCETV) This fall we are celebrating 25 years of Walter Edgar’s Journal! We thought that a good way to start that celebration would be to look back on the launch of our podcast. So, this week we bring you an encore of our final *broadcast* episode of May 2023. Our guest was the Director of SC Public Radio, Sean Birch.…

George Anson (1697–1762), 1st Baron Anson, Admiral of the Fleet(Attributed to Thomas Hudson / Royal Museums Greenwich) This week we’ll be talking with Nic Butler, the historian at the Charleston County Public Library. He has been digging into archives both here and in Britain, researching the life of George Anson. Anson, was an officer in the Briti…

Henry Tisdale with students on the campus of Claflin University(Courtesy of Claflin University) This week we’ll be talking with Dr. Henry N. Tisdale, former president of Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. This Kingstree native has had a long and distinguished academic career, earning his undergraduate degree at Claflin in 1965 and, e…

(This week we are going to be exploring South Carolina from A to Z. That’s the title of our sister podcast from which we will select topics that deserve a longer look that just 60 seconds.This time out we'll discuss the ambitious man whose name adorns a Christmas decoration; the aristocratic Royal Governor who just didn't "get" South…

Ben Beard(Courtesy of the author) This time out we are bringing you an encore from our broadcast archive featuring a conversation with Ben Beard, author of The South Never Plays Itself: A Film Buff’s Journey Through the South on Screen (2020, UGA Press). Beard’s idiosyncratic narrative—part cultural history, part film criticism, part memoir—journey…

General Francis Marion offering to share his meal of sweet potatoes and water with a British officer.(Currier & Ives / Library of Congress) After two decades of research and investigation, the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, in collaboration with the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission (SC250), has unv…

FILE - The men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., lead a crowd of people in prayer outside the Emanuel AME Church on June 19, 2015, after a memorial in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File)(Stephen B. Morton/AP / FR56856 AP) Few people beyond South Carolina’s Lowcountry knew of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston—M…

(GrimDreamArt / DeviantArt ) This week we will be talking Scott Romine, author of The Zombie Memes of Dixie (2024, UGA Press). The book traces the origin and development of several propositions, tropes, types, clichés, and ideas commonly associated with the U.S. South. Approaching these propositions as memes Scott argues that many of them developed…

Mary Chesnut and her husband James( Granger) This week we're going to explore South Carolina from A to Z. Walter and Alfred will take five topics from past episodes of our companion podcast, South Carolina from A to Z, and discuss each at length, giving these people and events from our state's history some room to "breathe." We'll tell you about th…

Author Johnny D. Boggs(Courtesy of the author) This week we'll be talking with Timmonsville native Johnny D. Boggs about his latest novel, Bloody Newton: The Town from Hell (2024, Psicom Publishing), his journey from a childhood in the Pee Dee, his life in Santa Fe, New Mexico,and his career as a celebrated author of Western fiction. Bloody Newton …

Clayton "Peg Leg Bates" statue, Ft Inn, SC(Mike Burton / Flickr) This week we going to explore South Carolina from A to Z. That’s the title of our sister podcast and the title tells you all you need to know about what that podcast does: Letter by letter Walter goes through the South Carolina Encyclopedia, giving you bite-sized takes on the history …

Black voters in front of the Sunshine Laundry and Cleaners wait to cast ballots for the first time in a statewide Democratic primary, Aug. 10, 1948.(From the John Henry McCray Papers / Courtesy South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.) This week author and journalist Carolyn Click joins us to talk about h…

This week we'll be talking with Andrew Waters about his latest book, Backcountry War: The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton, and Thomas Sumter (2024, Westholme Publishing). In it Andrew weaves the history of three key leaders in the American Revolution into in a single narrative, focusing on the events of 1780 in South Carolina that witness…

"Contrabands accompanying the line of Sherman's march through Georgia from a sketch by our special artist." - An illustation in: Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, 1865 March 18, p. 405.(Library of Congress) This week, we’ll be talking with Bennett Parten, author of Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Ema…

( Spartanburg County Library) This week, we’ll be talking with Betsy Teter and Jim Neighbors about their book, North of Main: Spartanburg's Historic Black Neighborhoods of North Dean Street, Gas Bottom, and Back of the College. In this book, co-authors Brenda Lee Pryce, Betsy Teter and Jim Neighbors tell the story of how post-emancipation black dis…

Massacre at Ft. Mims(Boston, L. P. Crown & Co. Philadelphia, J. W. Bradley /

Nathalie Dupree walks the red carpet during the 2015 James Beard Awards at Lyric Opera of Chicago on Monday, May 4, 2015 in Chicago. (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP)(Barry Brecheisen/Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP / Invision) This week we bring you a very special episode of the Journal – we will be remembering our friend and champion of Southe…

Rice field, South Carolina(The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs / Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views, Photography Collection, The New York Public Library) In his new novel, Raptors in the Ricelands, Ron Daise unfolds a story in a twenty-first century fictional community near Georgetown, SC - a story w…

Cleaning and cataloging Nathaniel Russell kitchen house artifacts.( Courtesy of the Historic Charleston Foundation, Nathaniel Russell House) This time out we’ll be talking with Tracey Todd, the Director of Museums for the Historic Charleston Foundation, and Andrew Agha, an archaeologist working on the site of the Nathaniel Russell house, a National…

Bridging divides? The Arthur Ravenel Jr., Bridge in Charleston connects the peninsula with Mt. Pleasant. While the Charleston area Republican electorate varies ideologically, in general, from other parts of the state, it nevertheless is part of what makes the state party so representative of the national party.(David Martin / Unsplash) This we…

Todd Duncan (Porgy) and Anne Brown (Bess), 1935.(Photo courtesy the Ira & Leonore Gershwin Trusts) Dr. Kendra Hamilton’s book, Romancing the Gullah in the Age of Porgy and Bess, is a literary and cultural history of a place: the Gullah Geechee Coast, a four-state area that’s one of only a handful of places that can truly be said to be the “crad…

Abraham Lincoln, February 9, 1864(Anthony Berger / Library of Congress) This week, we offer you an encore of an episode from our broadcast archive: A fascinating conversation with Dr. Vernon Burton, the Judge Matthe w J. Perry Jr. Distinguished Professor of History at Clemson University, and Dr. Peter Eisenstadt, affiliate scholar in the Department…

"Where the Shrimp Pickers Live," 1940, oil on canvas.(Dusti Bongé (1903-93) / Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS. Gift of Dusti Bongé Art; Foundation, Inc. 1999.012 ) This week we will be talking with Jonathan Stuhlman and Martha Severens about their book, Southern/Modern: Rediscovering Southern Art from the First Half of the Twentieth Century …

Photomontage of members of the first South Carolina legislature following the Civil War.( Library of Congress) In their book, Reconstruction beyond 150: Reassessing the New Birth of Freedom, Vernon Burton and Brent Morris have brought together the best new scholarship, synthesizing social, political, economic, and cultural approaches to understandi…

(Timothy J / Flickr ) This week, we will be talking with Dr. Judith Bainbridge about her book, A Short History of Greenville (2024, USC Press). The book is a concise and engaging history that traces Greenville, SC's development from backcountry settlement to one of America's best small cities In our conversation with Judith we will concentrate the …

Dizzy Gillespie, New York, N.Y., ca. May 1947(Ky / Flickr) In his new book, The Miraculous Art of Jazz, Benjamin Franklin V, Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus, at the University of South Carolina, has gathered reviews of hundreds of recordings written over his 40-year career as a jazz writer. In our conversation his love for jazz …

J. Drew Lanham, Ornithologist, Naturalist, and Writer, 2022 MacArthur Fellow, Clemson, SC( John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation) This week, we will be talking with J. Drew Lanham, about his new book, Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves (2024, Hub City Press). The book is a sensuous collection of Drew's signature mix of poetry and p…

"Death of Major Ferguson at King's Mountain." (The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library / The New York Public Library Digital Collections) This week on the Journal we will be talking with Alan Pell Crawford about his book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's R…

One of the Davis brothers who operated the Davis Battery Electric company in Greenville, 1930. (Courtesy of Bobbie Jean Rovner, Greenville) This week we will be talking with Diane Vecchio about her book, Peddlers, Merchants, and Manufacturers: How Jewish Entrepreneurs Built Economy and Community in Upcountry South Carolina (2024, USC…

Cover illustration from Payne-ful Business: Charleston’s Journey to Truth (2024, Evening Post Books)(Painting by John W. Jones) Margaret Seidler thought she knew her family’s history. Then, a genealogical search on-line led her to connect with a cousin who, unlike Margaret, was Black. Determined to find as much as she could about her lineage…

In 1976, the Cowpens, SC, Bicentennial Committee decided that the next town festival would be called the Mighty Moo Festival in honor of former crewmen of the USS Cowpens WWII aircraft carrier. Over the years since, many veterans who served on the ship during the war have attended the festival along with their families. Today, the town continues to…

Two of four slave cabins restored at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston. May 17, 2023(Victoria Hansen / South Carolina Public Radio) This week we're talking with Joseph McGill and Herb Frazier, authors of Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery. Since founding the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010, Joseph McGil…

Bombardment of Fort Sumter(Artist unknown / From the collections of Fort Sumter Fort Moultrie National Historical Park) This week we'll be talking with Richard Hatcher, author of the book, Thunder in the Harbor: Fort Sumter and the Civil War. Construction of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor began after British forces captured and occupied Washingto…

The 1768 Charleston lighthouse( Courtesy of Kevin Duffus) This week, we'll be talking with author Kevin Duffus about his book, The 1768 Charleston Lighthouse : Finding the Light in the Fog of History. Charleston’s first lighthouse was established on Middle Bay Island in 1768. The history of the lighthouse, however, has been lost in a fog of misinfo…

Casper George Garrett and Anna Marie Garrett, who are known in the book as Papa and Mama, are seen with four of their children, circa 1897. (Courtesy David Nicholson) In his book, The Garretts of Columbia: A Black South Carolina Family from Slavery to the Dawn of Integration, David Nicholson tells the story of his great-grandparents, Casper George …

Boston Tea Party, State House Mural, Boston, Mass.(Detroit Publishing Company postcards / NY Public Library) On the Journal this week we will be talking with Robert James Fichter about his book, Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773–1776. Fitcher says that despite the so-called Boston Tea Party in 1773, two large shipments of tea from th…

This week we talk with Claudia Smith Brinson about her new book, Injustice in Focus: The Civil Rights Photography of Cecil Williams (2023, USC Press). Claudia's rich research, interviews, and prose, offer a firsthand account of South Carolina's fight for civil rights and tells the story of Cecil Williams's life behind the camera. The book also feat…

A statue of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the founder of St. Augustine, stands outside the Lightner Museum.(Joe Shlabotnik / Flickr) In this episode, we'll talk with Prof. Kevin Kokomoor about his book, La Florida: Catholics, Conquistadores, and Other American Origin Stories. Spanish sailors discovering the edges of a new continent, greedy, viol…

George Singleton This week we have a fun conversation with author George Singleton about his new book Asides: Occasional Essays on Dogs, Food, Restaurants, Bars, Hangovers, Jobs, Music, Family Trees, Robbery, Relationships, Being Brought Up Questionably, Et Cetera. It's a collection of fascinating and curious essays, in which Singleton explains how…

Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim synagogue( www.kkbe.org) Founded in 1749, Charleston, South Carolina's (KKBE) is one of the oldest congregations in America, and is known as the birthplace of American Reform Judaism. Their sanctuary is the oldest in continuous use for Jewish worship in America. The congregation's president, Naomi Gorstein, and Harlan Green…

"Law enforcement officers stand beside a captured moonshine still"(National Park Service) This week we'll be talking with Kathryn Smith, author of Methodists & Moonshiners: Another Prohibition Expedition Through the South…with Cocktail Recipes (2023, Evening Post Books). In her follow-up to 2021's Baptists and Bootleggers, Kathryn once again hit th…

Photo illustration from a postcard, Camp Sevier, Greenville, SC; World War I(Special Collections and University Archives, Furman University) Greenville, South Carolina, has become an attractive destination, frequently included in lists of the "Best Small Cities" in America. But, the city's growth and renewal started over 100 years ago, during a rem…

Mules on Church Street, Charleston, SC( Library of Congress) This episode we'll be talking with Christina Rae Butler about Charleston, SC: an equine-powered city - from colonial times to the 20th century - in which horses and mules pervaded all aspects of urban life. And we’ll learn about the people who made their living with these animals—from dri…

Kosher collards and kugel.(Forrest Clonts) On this edition of The Journal, Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey tell some of the stories and recipes from their book, Kugels & Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina (2023, USC Press). In the book, Lyssa and Rachel celebrate the unique and diverse food hist…

The international African American Museum at Gadsden's Wharf in Charleston is scheduled to open June 27, 2023.(IAAM / Provided) This week we will talk with Dr. Bernard Powers about the establishment of the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC. Bernie powers is professor emeritus of history at the College of Charleston and is dire…