The Wonderful Words of Ruth Miller

This past class we had the wonderful privilege getting to listen to Ruth Miller who is a Charleston Historian. She has written two books named "A Short History of Charleston" and "The Old Dog" and she also has her own website which you may find here!

Ruth Miller was been a tour guide for forty years and it was during one of her tours that she became interested in the grave sights of Charleston. She began to research and learn a lot of the history that went into this important graveyards and cemeteries.

During her time with us, she covered a lot of the history of how Charleston came to be and had an emphasis on the many graveyards and churches here. "We have religious to thank for our churches" stated Miller. If it were not for Charleston's religious freedom, the city would be nothing like it is now. “We have the most 18th century graveyards in North America” she states which is due to the religious freedom.

I learned a lot of new things about Charleston and it was really interesting to learn more about my favorite city. On of the most shocking themes that we discussed was how common it is for burial grounds to be discovered even now. It was not unusual for people to be buried in unmarked graves, especially if they were a minority. Also one must consider that over time many of the burial sites were vandalized and the grave markers were probably destroyed. “The roads from Church street to Market street have bodies under them” states Miller. This makes you wonder how many bodies you are walking over just by trying to get to class.