Hunter’s Volunteers
Inscription
(Front) This site once beloned to Hunter’s Volunteers, an African American militia est. on James Island by 1877. Part of the S.C. National Guard, the unit kept an enlistment of 30-40 men tasked with helping preserve civil order. Most of them were farmers or laborers. The unit was disbanded in 1891 after trying to stop the arrest of a Black man in Charleston but was reinstated in 1892.
(Reverse) In 1899, Hunter’s Volunteers bought this site from Sarah Grimball and Henry Grimball. Over time, the unit became more of a mutual aid society and social club than a military outfit. In 1897, a year after being disarmed by the state, members chartered the Hunter Volunteer Charitable Society.
A two-story wooden building razed in the 1960s served as their lodge and may have originally been an armory. Sponsored by Canter Construction, 2019
Location
Sources
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