5 Best Sights in Charleston, South Carolina

In a corridor that tells the gruesome history of American slavery at this strikingly beautiful yet stark new museum, an embroidered sack tells a bitter history. In 1921, Ruth Middleton sewed her grandmother's story into the canvas, recounting how she was sold to another family at age nine, with only the sack containing a tattered dress, a few pecans, and a braid of her mother's hair to take with her. It's easy to see why the museum includes private reflecting rooms with tissues on hand. The IAAM relates a factual, vivid account of the Middle Passage from Africa to Charleston, where 40% of enslaved Africans entered America. But while acknowledging the gruesome past and societal disadvantages African Americans still face, the majority of the museum celebrates their achievements, from politics to music to visual art, including a flexible gallery space. Permanent exhibits include a reconstructed Gullah-Geechee prayer house, an authentic bateau used for fishing and shrimping in the Lowcountry, and an elaborate Mardi Gras Indian costume from New Orleans. Underneath the new waterfront museum is the city's newest and most evocative public space, including a path through a garden of sweetgrass and the Tide Tribute, a sculptural diagram of the floor of a slave ship that fills and empties with the shifting tide in Charleston Harbor.

Part of the College of Charleston, this museum and archive was once a school for African Americans, training students for professional careers from approximately 1865 to 1954. The collections here focus on the civil rights movement, but also include artifacts from the era of chattel slavery, such as badges, manacles, and bills of sale, as well as other materials from throughout African American history.

Although housed in a modern-day brick complex, this institution was founded in 1773 and is the country's oldest museum. The collection is especially strong in South Carolina decorative arts, from silver to snuffboxes. There's also a large gallery devoted to natural history (don't miss the giant polar bear). Children love the permanent Civil War exhibition and the interactive "Kidstory" area, where they can try on reproduction clothing in a miniature historic house. The Historic Textiles Gallery features rotating displays that showcase everything from uniforms and flags to couture gowns, antique quilts, and needlework.

Opened in 2023, the International African American Museum deftly balances reflection on the horrific tragedy of enslavement with celebration of the art and culture created by the people brutalized by it. The museum's scope is vast, but exhibits grounded in the Lowcountry are among the most powerful, including the recreation of a Sea Islands praise house.