Readers
The Charleston papers
The city reporting on itself, one paper at a time.
Four Charleston papers survive from these years in quantity. The Mercury had argued for secession and did not survive the war. The older Daily Courier reported it from inside the city, kept printing through the bombardment, and came out as usual two days after the Federals walked in. The Daily News was founded in the ruins in August 1865. And the South Carolina Leader, started that October, reported Reconstruction to the people it was happening to. Each has its own reader below; each is quoted from the original issue and cited to date and page.
Charleston Mercury
The paper that argued South Carolina out of the Union, and then had to report the consequences.
53 items · 1860–1866
Charleston Daily Courier
The older, steadier rival — and the paper that stayed.
30 items · 1860–1865
Charleston Daily News
The paper founded in the ruins, six months after the surrender.
7 items · 1865
South Carolina Leader
Charleston’s Black newspaper, founded in the first autumn after the war.
7 items · 1865