The Confederate Home......Mary Amarinthia Snowden's Legacy of Sanctuary

The Confederate Home, 62 Broad Street

     Perhaps you have glimpsed this stately Victorian building as you hurried along Broad St. It sits solidly along the street known for law offices and business buildings. Yet, if you simply hurried by, you missed the gift inside -- the sanctuary of retreat, reflection and safety that has marked its history and its story.

       Built in 1800 by Gilbert Chalmers, the building does indeed border Chalmers St. as it fronts Broad St. In the beginning it was the home of Chalmers' daughter and her husband, Gov. John Geddes, and it bore witness to the political entertaining that was an integral part of the office they represented. Many prominent citizens were hosted here, including President James Monroe in 1819. In 1834, the property was sold to Angus Stewart and became the Carolina Hotel. In the years preceding the Civil War, the U.S. District Court was held on the second floor. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, in a pronouncement and action that must have been dramatic at least, Judge Andrew Gordon Magrath closed the courtroom with the words, "The Temple of Justice is now closed".  From 1861 until February of 1865, the Confederate court met here.

     The heart of the story of the Confederate Home begins in 1867 when Mary Amarinthia Snowden and her sister, Isabell, saw a need that they longed to fill. Their goal was to provide a home -  a sanctuary if you will - for mothers, widows and daughters of Confederate soldiers. The old Carolina Hotel on Broad Street was the object of their attention. With seven other like-minded women and one Huguenot minister, they began meeting in earnest at the Snowden home. In the years immediately following the war, Charleston was struggling on every level....from economic impossibilities to physical devastation. Fund-raising was challenging at best. There was only one dollar in the coffers for the Confederate Home and it had been contributed by a Baltimore widow!  The Snowden sisters mortgaged their own home in order to pay the rent on the Carolina Hotel ---and set it on the road to accomplishing the vision that Mary Amarinthia had held. The education of young women was not a high priority in the general public during those lean years; however, for the young women who came to be a part of the Confederate Home, education was a critical means to a better life and a better community. By 1900, The Confederate Home became known as The Confederate College and was chartered by the state. Many instructors, including Dr. Charles Vedder, pastor of the French Huguenot Church, taught the young women at The Confederate College - and did so without benefit of salary.

Courtyard of The Confederate Home

          Today, The Confederate Home fulfills a purpose not far removed from the one Amarinthia Snowden envisioned -- one of sanctuary for women, reflection for artists and education for the greater good - and a promise of a better life. The dormitories have been converted to apartments and fifteen older and economically-challenged women call this place home. In addition, fifteen studios provide space for Charleston's artists and writers to reflect and create. The old courtroom is used for lectures and other events and young couples have said their wedding vows in this place that once gave hope and promise to young women of a different era.
   

Rev. Daniel Jenkins and the Jenkins Orphanage Band

Portrait of Rev. Daniel Jenkins displayed in the City Council Chamber  in Charleston City Hall, 80 Broad St.

         On a cold December day in 1891, Rev. Daniel Jenkins happened to come across four young black boys, all under the age of 12, huddled together in an abandoned warehouse. He discovered that they were all orphans and were left to fend for themselves on the streets. Rev. Jenkins immediately took them home with him and gave them a place to live and a sense of family. Unfortunately, these four boys were simply the tip of a huge iceberg that represented the hundreds of young black orphans in Charleston who had no place to live and no parents to care for them. While there were nine orphanages in South Carolina for white orphans, none existed for black orphans. Rev. Jenkins set about to change the lives of the boys he encountered and the many others they represented......and the Jenkins orphanage was born.
        In January of 1892, Rev. Jenkins petitioned the city for the use of the abandoned Marine Hospital on Franklin Street and received permission for its use and a small stipend. Robert Mills, who designed the Washington Monument, as well as other famous national, state and local buildings, was the architect. The building was built in 1834 and had once served as a hospital, but was badly damaged during the war. It was located right beside the City Jail which was, no doubt, a source of both fear and motivation for the young boys living at the orphanage. 

Site of Jenkins Orphanage, formerly Marine Hospital, 20 Franklin St.

        Rev. Jenkins' primary goal was to teach each of his young charges to become self-sufficient so that as adults they would no longer need to rely on the charity of others. To achieve this goal, he felt that farm land need to be purchased to teach the boys the skills the would need to become self-sufficient. He petitioned the City of Charleston for funds, but was denied. He could barely afford to make the orphanage livable and provide for the basic needs of the children. Funds were not readily available for South Carolina's only black orphanage even though over 360 orphans lived at the orphanage now, instead of on the streets of Charleston. In desperation he searched around for ideas that could help raise the necessary funds.....and the Jenkins Orphanage Band was born.  His plan was based on the military bands of the day. His requests for funds were not very successful; however, a request for instruments yielded more fruitful results. Old instruments were donated, with a large donation of new and used instruments from Siegling Music House on King St. Graduating Citadel cadets donated their old uniforms which became the first uniforms of the Jenkins Orphanage Band. Rev. Jenkins was not a musician himself and so he hired two local musicians to teach the boys: "Hatsie" Logan and Francis Eugene Mikell. They learned not only to play instruments, but music theory and music history, as well.

        Soon the band was playing on street corners all over Charleston to try to raise as much money as possible to keep the orphanage open. Unfortunately, funds were much too meager but, instead of giving up, Rev. Jenkins used his last remaining funds to take the 13 member band on a tour of some northern cities. Their success was less than they had hoped, but, once again, Rev. Jenkins was not ready to give up. With the last bit of money they had, he took the group to London. There they performed on the streets of London....and were promptly arrested for disturbing the peace. The group, which had become a favorite on the streets of London, suddenly received the support of the churches in the area and a favorable support in the newspapers.

          By1896, the band had established regular tour routes up and down the Eastern coast and in Europe. They played in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Vienna and London. In 1905, the band played in President Roosevelt's inaugural parade and President Taft's inaugural parade in 1909. In the 1910s and 20s, the band included the styles and rhythms of the jazz beats sweeping the nation and the Gullah songs and dances of their lowcountry heritage. DuBose Heyward insisted that the band play for the two year run of his play Porgy on Broadway and they performed at each performance. By now, there were five separate bands and two vocal ensembles. 

       Follow this link to a rare audio tape and early pictures of the
Jenkins Orphanage Band

        Some of jazz music's finest players received their musical training in the Jenkins Orphanage Band. Among them, Jabbo Smith (contemporary and rival of Louis Armstrong), Cat Anderson (who was a lead trumpet player in Duke Ellington's Band), Freddie Green (famous jazz rhythm guitarist) and Edmond Thornton Jenkins (famous clarinetist and composer and son of orphanage founder Rev. Daniel Jenkins).  I would encourage you to explore the many video and audio tapes found on the web and particularly on youtube of each of these musicians, remembering their beginnings as members of the Jenkins Orphanage Band.

       In the August 26, 1937 issue of Time Magazine, an article and picture were published honoring Rev. Daniel Jenkins and the Jenkins Orphanage Band.

       Rev. Jenkins' dream continues even today with The Jenkins Institute for Children. Explore their website and see the plans of Rev. Daniel Jenkins still impacting children of the 21st century who need a dream just as much as those who went before them. They are deserving of our support!

The Grimke Sisters, Sarah and Angelina -- and the Remarkable "Rest of the Story"

329 East Bay St., home of the Grimke family

Prominent jurist and Revolutionary political leader, Judge John Grimke and his wife Mary enjoyed their place in the Charleston society scene, as well as their life on their Beaufort plantation. Little did they know that two of their fourteen children would spend their lifetimes rallying others against the very thing that made the Grmikes’ life possible -- slavery. 

Their daughter,Sarah Grimke, was born in 1792 and, even as a young child, could see the inhumanity that slavery brought to her own household. She spoke out against slavery essentially all of her life. All around her she saw the way of life of which she was a part made possible on the backs of the slaves her father owned. Each of the Grimke children (three died in infancy) was assigned a “constant companion” -- a slave child close to them in age who served their every whim. Even as a child, Sarah rebelled against this idea and when her young slave “companion” died at the age of eight as a result of a fever, she grieved greatly and adamantly refused to be assigned another “companion”. Unfortunately, Sarah was alone in her beliefs and her distress over the plight of the slaves and she became an outcast in her own home.

Sarah’s life changed dramatically when she was thirteen years old. The youngest of the Grimke children, Angelina, was born in 1805. Immediately, Sarah took charge of her youngest sister - even begging her parents to name her as Angelina’s godmother, to which they agreed. In the years ahead, the two girls became inseparable. Angelina shared her older sister’s view on the issue of slavery and Sarah was no longer alone in her own home.

Judge Grimke became quite ill and Sarah accompanied him to Philadelphia for medical treatment. The treatment was unsuccessful and after several months, Judge Grimke died in New Jersey in 1819. Sarah, by this time, had enjoyed living in a place where others shared her views on slavery and she decided to leave Charleston behind and relocate to Philadelphia where she became a vocal abolitionist. She left the Episcopal church and became a Quaker. With Sarah’s encouragement, Angelina soon joined her sister. They lived together and became outspoken advocates for ending slavery. As they became more well-known and were invited to address more and more groups, they ran into another sort of prejudice. They were scorned for their activism, not so much because of what they believed, but because they were women. Women who held strong opinions and were willing - even adamant - about expressing them in public forums were the brunt of anger and ridicule. Sarah and Angelina began to see that in order to proclaim their message against slavery, they also had to address the inequities faced by women. Sarah wrote, “All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright on the ground which God intends for us to occupy”.  This short video is an interview with Eric Foner concerning the Grimke sisters:

".........and now for the REST of the story!"

 Sarah and Angelina had a brother named Henry who raised his family in his Charleston townhouse and on their plantation outside of Charleston. When his wife died, Henry raised another family -- with one of his slaves, Nancy Weston. From all indications, it was a marriage of mutual affection and Henry, discovering that Charleston society did not look acceptingly on the idea of an interracial couple living openly in the city, moved his new family to the more private plantation. Henry and Nancy had three sons, Archibald, Francis, and John. When Nancy was pregnant with John, Henry died. Because it was illegal at that time in South Carolina to free your own slaves, Henry willed the family to his oldest son, Montague, with directions that they “be treated as members of the family”. Instead, Nancy and her sons were ignored for several years and, even though they were technically still slaves, they lived in the free black community in Charleston. They received no support from the Grimke family and Nancy was forced to take in laundry and whatever menial work she could do to keep the family fed. Imagine their surprise when Henry’s oldest son summoned them, not to help them, but to treat them as servants in his home! The boys were educated in Charleston and were accepted to Lincoln University. John chose not to go and stayed with his mother. Archibald and Francis went to the University with first year tuition paid by a church committee who saw the promise in the young students. Their room and board was not covered and they struggled to survive, as well as to study.

By chance, Angelina saw the name “Archibald Grimke” in an abolitionist magazine which reported on a speech the young man gave. She wrote to him to see if they might be related and was astonished to find that she had three nephews she had never known! She and Sarah immediately welcomed the young men as family, assumed the cost of their education and became an influential part of their lives.

Archibald Grimke was one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Harvard Law School and soon became a well-respected lawyer, journalist and community leader in the Boston area. He married a white woman from the midwest. Even though the marriage did not survive, the couple had one daughter whom they named after the sister who had found and claimed him - Angelina. (more about young Angelina in a minute!) Archibald was appointed as consul to the Dominican Republic.

Archibald’s brother, Francis Grimke, became a Presbyterian minister and studied at Princeton Theological Seminary. Most of his ministry was at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. He was active in the community and in working for equal rights for African-Americans and helped found the NAACP. He wrote, “Race prejudice can’t be talked down, it must be lived down.” He and his wife, Charlotte, who was a well-known writer herself, had one daughter who died as an infant.

Angelina Weld Grimke, Archibald’s daughter, was sent to live with him at the age of eight when her mother died. When her father was sent as consul to the Dominican Republic, Angelina was sent to live with her uncle and aunt, Francis and Charlotte. Angelina grew up to be a poet and playwright, focusing on the theme of equality for all - carrying forward the ideas and words that were a part of her direct heritage from two little girls who dared to see an injustice and were courageous enough to speak up and to speak out to the world.