Samantha Brown's Places to Love

-I'm in a city that's known for its carriage rides and cobblestone charm.

-They used to put expectant mothers on a horse and carriage and zoom up and down here to -- -To induce labor?

-Right.

Yeah.

Right.

-It possesses a beauty that makes it a rare jewel, not just in the United States, but the world.

This city's uniqueness comes from its physical beauty, as well as its people, like the Gullah, a people with their own arts, language, and song, a historic city where cocktails are enjoyed outdoors and barbecue under a disco ball.

-I like my ribs with a little tug.

-Oh, my gosh.

-I'm in Charleston, South Carolina.

I'm Samantha Brown, and I've traveled all over this world.

And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal of making sure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-To travel is to live, and at AAA, we've been passionate about travel for over 100 years.

That's why we created AAA Vacations, member travel experiences around the world.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.

-I'm on a nice walk with my friend John LaVerne, who's been showing people around the city he loves for 25 years.

In Charleston, I could walk for days.

Like, this is the definitive walkable city.

-There's all these neat alleyways and cobblestone streets and, like, little hidden, I don't know, pockets of Charleston history and charm, and that's what you get to experience.

If you walk two blocks away for here is where the Constitution was ratified, and it's hard to walk the streets without feeling like you're stepping in the footprints of American history.

-It's literally hard to walk the streets.

This, to me, is more a riverbed, not really cobblestones.

-Little tricky.

The, uh -- A lot of the old-timers in town, they'll still -- They'll refer to this as Labor Lane, because they used to put expectant mothers on a horse and carriage and zoom up and down here to help speed up the whole process.

-To induce labor?

-Right.

Yeah.

Right.

Labor Lane.

Makes sense.

-One building in Charleston that should not be overlooked is one of its smallest, and yet, it had the biggest effect, not only on a city, but the entire history of the United States.

-More slaves were sold here than any other place in our country, and they originally were sold right on the docks, as the ships arrived from Africa.

But it was a very unsettling experience.

So, they passed an ordinance that the selling of enslaved Africans had to be done indoors, and there were five slave marts in town.

One of the buildings remain, and it's this one here.

It's Ryan's Slave Mart.

And this is the Charleston Slave Museum.

And they have some of the original artifacts of when this was an operating slave mart.

-Christine King Mitchell is the docent here at the slave mart.

Her passion is telling about her ancestors and their often overlooked contributions.

-By the 1850s, the system of slavery had grown by leaps and bounds.

People were making so much money off of selling human beings, but also off the products that they were producing, such as rice and cotton and tobacco and so forth.

So, basically, it's just a strip of land between two old buildings.

It's an alleyway where people were bought and sold.

So, if it wasn't for what happened in here, none of these beautiful houses would be out there, built off the backs of free labor, the money made off of them, and the literal hands that touched and built.

-Yeah, this is certainly a huge part of our history here, and I think everybody needs to come here and see what this is all about.

-Charleston is a city that's facing its past head-on, not only in the slave market, but also in the building of the International African American Museum, slated to open in 2020.

John and I continued our walk around a city that has so many stories to tell, even from people who can no longer tell them.

-The graveyard we're in now, this is one of the -- it's the oldest downtown.

And there's tombs dating back to the 17th century here.

And tombstones are a great way to learn about a city.

You can, you know, read where the people are from, you can read what wars were fought here, what tragedies occurred, and you can learn a lot about anyplace by going to the graveyards and the cemeteries.

Oldest oak tree in Downtown Charleston right here, 600 years old.

-I don't think there's one thing that I haven't pointed to that you haven't said, "That's the oldest building, that is the oldest tree, that's the oldest trash can in Charleston."

Like, this city is so old.

-We've got a lot of old here, yeah.

Absolutely.

It's true.

This is the Circular Congregational Church.

And it's the third church built on this site.

This one here dates back to the 1880s.

-And this is sort of your baby, when it comes to why you do what you do.

-Between this building here, the Old Exchange and also the Old City Jail, we've raised close to $4 million in 17 years, so it's a nice model of sustainable tourism, which I'm proud of.

These old historical buildings, they need constant work of, you know, maintaining the graves, the ironwork, the stained-glass windows, everything.

And one of the projects they have going on now is the restoration of the gates around the church here, and it's all been spearheaded by the American College of the Building Arts, which is absolutely one of my favorite institutions ever.

-I'm Christina Butler.

I'm a professor at American College of the Building Arts, where I teach historic preservation, architectural history, and senior capstone.

I've wanted to work with historic buildings since I was 3, when I saw my first episode of "This Old House."

And I was hooked, and I've never wanted to do anything since.

-I met Christina just outside of the school in a park that pays tribute to a man who had a lot to do with the idea for a building arts school, as well as the enduring beauty of Charleston.

-Philip Simmons is really a trade-work and artisan's hero.

He was born on a rural island here in South Carolina, Daniel Island, in 1912.

So, at that time, vocational schools existed, but they were few and far between, and he was African-American, so he wouldn't have had as many school options or educational choices.

So, at age 12, he was apprenticed to an ironworker.

And so, he learned the traditional way.

It would've been a four-to-six-year semi-formal apprenticeship.

And he was doing traditional ironwork into his 90s.

-It was Philip Simmons who understood how important it was to keep the fading traditional skills alive.

His passion became the seed that founded the School of the Building Arts.

-What ACBA's trying to do is, our tagline is "educated artisans," people who can use both the old and the new.

And the thing that we kind of go with, the first time I learned this was from my father, actually.

I learned from him that a man can use both his mind and his hands at the same time.

And then I ended up coming to this school, which has the exact same mentality.

You can make something like this, but we also learn the design aspect, that I can take a concept from my own head and then put it into steel and really bring that which is not into that which is.

-Why blacksmith?

-I was 11, and I wanted a sword.

Once you can have a mastery of the hammer and you have an anvil and you understand your fire, you can make any tool you need as a blacksmith.

All of these things on the desk right here I made myself.

-You made the hammers?

-Yes, I did.

That was the first two weeks of class.

-Okay.

-Yeah.

-You passed?

Good job.

-Thank you.

-Learning to be a blacksmith is even harder than it looks.

-It is very intimidating, you've got to -- you've got to admit, right?

-Yeah.

-Being this close to this much fire, you can feel the heat.

-So, there are a lot of new techniques in blacksmithing, but you have to know the basics first.

-Feeling a little nervous about this.

-Take the hammer, I'll take the tongs out of your way.

But you just want to hit right there, and you're going to start spreading it out, so... -Ready?

-Yeah, go ahead.

-And apparently, I can't even aim a hammer.

-Pretty good.

-Whoo!

What was that?

-Okay, when you hit the face of the anvil, both of those are hardened steel, and all of that energy that was coming down went back up into your hammer, and it bounces.

-All right.

Well, what's the most important quality as a blacksmith you need to have?

-Patience, coordination, and design skill.

Oh.

-We're in trouble.

[ Hammering ] And now, for the heat of an oven I can handle.

When I arrived in Charleston, I'm not ashamed to say it, I bee-lined for barbecue.

But not just any barbecue.

-I'm Rodney Scott.

I'm third-generation pitmaster, and I've been cooking whole hog barbecue for 30 years.

-This is the whole hog right here?

-This is the whole hog.

-Okay.

[ Chuckles ] That is fantastic.

-In 2018, I won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast.

-So, Rodney, I feel like this is the very first barbecue place I've been to that has a disco ball.

Is that your touch?

-It is my touch.

And I do plan to hang that in every spot that I open.

-Why is that?

-I like to party, and, you know, 12 hours of cooking hog, you listen to a lot of music, and it just kind of reflects the era that I grew up in, the '70s.

-You do whole hog barbecue.

How unique and rare is that?

-A lot of people told me they stopped doing whole hogs, complained that it was, you know, labor-intensive, and they just kind of got away from it and did shoulders or butts.

-The difference is, other barbecue pitmasters are taking pieces of the hog and putting them into a smoker and doing it separately.

So, when I bite into this rib, it is from a whole hog.

-It's part of a whole hog, yes.

-Oh, my gosh.

-I like my ribs with a little tug.

You know, when you bite into 'em, you don't want it to fall completely off the bone.

-I like that.

-Have a little bite so you can pull it away and see what you got.

-You have to work for it.

-Yeah.

-Where you started was your typical, sort of barbecue stand on the side of a highway.

-Yes.

Very, very much so.

-How did you transfer that to a place like this?

-Oh, man.

A lot of praying.

Um... -Barbecue was the very first food that people traveled for.

It sort of predates the word "foodie," right?

I mean, people would travel long distances to go to that barbecue joint.

Is coming here to Charleston sort of your way of bringing barbecue to the people?

-That's my exact thought, was to bring it here to Charleston, a city known for fine cuisine.

We figured it would be the perfect blend of that person looking for some comfort food.

-I love that.

And now you are a James Beard Award winner.

-Yes.

-And you must totally understand that changes people's lives, right?

-It did change my life.

-Do you feel like barbecue finally got the attention and the respect that it deserves as an American cuisine, early American cuisine?

-I do feel like it's been finally recognized.

I felt like it opened a lot of doors to a lot of pitmasters who felt like their talents are only recognized in the backyard.

Now they see that what we do is finally recognized.

-Mm-hmm.

I'd like to recognize this right now.

-Recognize it.

-That is fantastic.

The Charleston City Market has been open for 214 years.

Its emphasis on 100% locally-made goods makes it a one-stop shop.

It's also where you can find one of the city's most sought-after works of art, the sweetgrass basket.

Cory Alston is a fifth-generation sweetgrass basket maker, and by his side is the sixth generation, his daughter Yasmine.

So, how old is this tradition?

-We have documents that states that this art is about 1,000 years older than American enslavement.

Here in the States, been around the coastal area a little bit over 300 years.

-Since the beginning of enslavement here.

-Correct, correct.

-And so, how long have you been doing it?

-I've been weaving now for about 17 years.

-Okay.

-You know, and it's an everyday part of my life.

I'm here in the City Market about -- about five, six days a week.

-And you're passing it down to your daughter Yasmine.

-Yes, yes.

-How long have you been practicing this art?

-Well, I learned when I was about 5, so about 11 years.

-5?

-Yes, ma'am.

-Oh, my goodness.

Do you have any of your baskets here yet, or you're still sort of in training?

-Yeah, I actually do have work on the table.

-Really?

This right here?

-Yes, ma'am.

-Lovely.

Whoa.

Good job.

-Thank you.

-That loop looks really hard to do.

-Yeah, it actually hurts after awhile, but I -- -Hurts what?

Your fingers?

-Yeah, my fingers.

But I've learned to get used to it more.

-Yasmine is on her way.

But what makes Cory's work so exceptional is not just the designs of the weave, but a tightness to it, as well, that gives the baskets their weight and strength.

They're also known as Gullah baskets.

Is there something that is unique about these baskets that make you see right away this is a Gullah basket?

-I would say it's a type of weave known as a coiled weaving, starting in the center of every basket.

And the person that are looking at the baskets can tell they are Gullah baskets based on our four different materials.

What you have in your hand, that dark brown around the walls right there, that's bulrush.

Red coloring on the inside of both of these is gonna be coming from the longleaf pine needle.

And then we use the state tree, it's going to be known as your palmetto.

And the palmetto's going to be the threading that holds everything together.

But we're not just Gullah because we're making baskets.

You have ways of speaking, you have ways of cooking, preparing food, harvesting food, hunting, our religion.

You know, all that's a big part of our culture.

It's not about the sale.

It's about you understanding what makes this culture so unique and understanding the history of us, is what makes the baskets such a rare, you know, treat to take home with you, 'cause you understand where it's coming from.

-No matter on the ground or up on the rooftop, Charleston is one of the most enjoyable cities to be in, with an exceptional climate that makes this nighttime scene common almost all year long.

- I wish I was in Charleston or some other seaport town I'd put my foot on a steamboat and sailed the ocean 'round -But I've noticed something about this city that doesn't get mentioned a lot.

Charleston has three types of citizens -- those who are very much alive, those who are very much dead, and then... the undead.

-My name is Randy Johnson.

I am a paranormal curator and hunter of spirits.

The building behind me is the Charleston Old City Jail.

It is regarded as the most haunted building, not only in the city, but in the entire state of South Carolina.

-Randy, the last time I was here seven years ago, I did the ghost tour of the City Jail at night, and it literally scared the bejesus out of me.

So, of course, I had to do it again, during the day.

[ Both laugh ] But we're doing something a little differently than a tour.

What are we doing?

-We're gonna do an investigation.

And we have some equipment, and it's called a K2 meter.

And it's used to detect the presence of a spirit.

It measures electromagnetic field.

When a spirit comes close to you, it will light up, and the closer it is to you, the brighter the colors.

So if it hangs -- -If it's red, he's right next to me.

-If it's in the red, it's right on you.

So, if we encounter a ghost and we know something's in the room -- and you'll feel it, so you'll feel pockets of cold air blow by you -- that's a strong indication that a spirit is checking you out.

But the most effective piece of the equipment is the one in your gut.

-And the one in my gut makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and they're all connected.

Over 14,000 people died right here during the time this jail was operating.

It was a death sentence, no matter what.

-Escapes were very common.

-Yeah, and everyone in here would want to kill you.

-In 1819 -- 1818, 1819 -- a young woman wound up in here with her husband.

Her name was Lavinia Fisher.

And she is regarded as America's first female serial killer.

-I began my ghost investigation with a few simple "yes" or "no" questions.

Lavinia, are you here?

Are you behind me?

No.

Will you sign a release saying we could use your non-image in the production of "Places to Love"?

-Says she will.

-Ooh!

Thank you.

-There are thousands of spirits moving through these hallways at any given time, and sometimes they will set off the meters, and sometimes you'll see several different flickers, and that could mean more than one spirit is following you.

And sometimes when you stand in the hallways, especially, you can actually feel them moving through you.

-Randy has a lot of historic affection for this jail and, surprisingly, its past inhabitants.

In a room once used as a waiting area for those about to be flogged, he introduces me to his friend Jacque.

-There was a pirate in here, and his name is Jacque Tardy.

Jacque spent about two years in this jail, and Jacque Tardy is not a spirit you want to mess with.

-Oh, okay.

Are you Jacque Tardy?

Are you a pirate?

-Yes.

It's Jacque.

-Oh, my gosh.

-Yeah.

-Wow.

-Whoa, look at that.

-Yeah.

-They like you, Samantha.

-I don't know if I want pirates to like me.

There's a reason why I'm not doing this at night.

Randy's photos during past investigations show crowded rooms when there was no one there.

-This is a very haunted spot in the jail.

-The jail is evidence of a much harsher time.

Even children were often locked up.

As Randy was telling me about how a wheelchair was the only toy for an incarcerated 10-year-old boy who still haunts this area, we heard a noise.

So, he didn't need it.

-He didn't need it.

-It would've been used for other people.

-To him, it was a toy.

-But it was a toy.

Wow.

[ Clanking ] What was that?

[ Footsteps ] -I just heard someone taking steps.

Did you hear that?

-This is me slowly coming to terms with the fact that every living person in the jail is in front of me.

-We're never alone.

-Okay, I think we're done here.

-[ Speaking Gullah ] How y'all are doing?

My name is Gloria Barr Ford.

And I is a Gullah ooman.

And "ooman" in Gullah mean woman.

So, and I just want to [speaking Gullah ] for the Boone Hall Plantation and hope enjoy the whole thing.

Gullah is the mother tongue of the African people.

It is a mixture of the various African dialects and the English language.

When the slaves came over from Africa, they came from various tribes, and they all had different dialects or languages, like Fondago, Mende, Yoruba, Gullah.

They couldn't understand one another.

And when they got to plantations such as Boone Hall, which has the massas, or the owners that spoke English, that was another problem again.

-So, the language itself is just an amalgam of many different villages from Africa to coming here?

-That's right.

Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, he was a linguist.

And he researched the language, and he traced it all the way back to the Angola tribe in West Africa.

-Okay.

-So, hence the name Gullah, we think.

-Uh-huh.

-And so, he wrote a book about it called "Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect."

-Established over 370 years ago, the Boone Plantation is one of the oldest in the United States.

Nine slave cabins remain, each telling an important story in the lives of the people who lived here.

-There was a place called Sierra Leone, West Africa.

And it was compatible to how we live here in the Lowcountry.

The reason that they were chosen to come here is because they grew the rice, they knew how to do it, they knew how to do the work, and that's what the Europeans were looking for.

They were looking for people that had the -- the technology and the skills and that could make them some money.

-So, you were chosen specifically... -Yeah.

-...here, because you could grow rice and maintain it at a time where they had no idea they could -- how to grow this and keep it going.

-That's right.

-I've never thought of that.

I always thought that, terms of slavery, it was labor.

But the idea that people were enslaved for their knowledge and their skills, like you said, their technology, that's a -- that's another level of, um... Wow.

Yeah.

-Now, people are conflicted about coming to a plantation, many of them are.

But once they get here, something happens, and they learn to appreciate the place.

Whenever I get done doing my show, there's always a gathering around me to thank me for teaching them something that they did not know.

-So, you have not only the language, but you have a sense of community and family.

-Yeah.

-Do you know your ancestors?

-I knew my great-grandmother.

-Uh-huh.

-She's -- she was very feisty.

She lived to be 117 years old.

-What?

-Mm-hmm.

-117 years old?

-As a Gullah ooman, she wore the long dresses, she always wore some type of a headdress, she wore aprons.

All of her aprons had little brown holes all over them.

The reason those aprons had those little brown holes all over them, my great-grandmother smoked a corn-cob pipe that she made herself.

She made it from dried corn cobs, she put a hole in it, got the reeds from the river, and stick it in there.

And I guess they smoked just the natural tobacco, I don't really know.

She came from a place, and her great-grandparents came over, and they came from a place called Timbuktu.

-The plantation and its economy are a thing of the past, yet the Gullah culture lives on.

- Oh, Lord I done done what you told me to do Told me to sing, and I done that, too Oh, Lord Oh, Lord, I done done what you told me to do Oh, Lord I done done what you told me to do Told me to pray, and I done that, too Told me to sing, and I done that, too Oh, Lord Oh, Lord, I done done what you told me to do Oh, Lord, I done done what you told me to do Told me to preach, and I done that, too Told me to pray, and I done that, too -Charleston's an amazing place to visit.

When you come and you do a walking tour and experience our beautiful architecture, it's important to remember it's not a theme park, it is a real, living city.

I hope you'll take the time to consider the hundreds of thousands of man hours that went into creating these buildings and the skilled workers that keep these buildings alive.

- Oh, Lord, I done done what you told me to do -Charleston is the best city on the East Coast.

Charleston is a city known for Southern hospitality, fine cuisine, barbecue, as well, and great people.

- I done done what you told me to do -I believe if you come, you'll get a greater understanding about South Carolina, about slavery, about living in the South, and about loving one another.

We have to love one another.

- I done done what you told me to do -When a destination allows you to experience not just a city's history, but an entire nation's, when we are reminded that one of America's most unique cultures can be held and listened to, when even ghosts exude Southern charm, that is when we share a love of travel... Ooh, that feels good!

...and that's why Charleston, South Carolina, is a place to love.

-That's the final word.

-For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.

"Samantha Brown's Places to Love" was made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal of making sure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-To travel is to live, and at AAA, we've been passionate about travel for over 100 years.

That's why we created AAA Vacations, member travel experiences around the world.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.