Before looking at Charleston houses for sale, let’s see how the city has developed from its historic roots. It’s impossible to look at the story of the city without taking into consideration the significant impact of a long period when slavery was the driver of the economy. However, in 2018, the City Council apologized for its role in the slave trade and condemned its inhumane history, acknowledging wrongs committed against African Americans by slavery. After British King Charles II granted a charter in 1663, the governor of the Province of Carolina arranged for several shiploads of settlers from Bermuda and Barbados. This settlement failed, but another close by thrived as it was more defensible. The Barbadian and Bermudan immigrants were planters who brought enslaved Africans with them, having purchased them in the West Indies. By 1690, the new town had become the fifth largest in North America. Principal items of commerce were pine timber and pitch for shipbuilding. Planters experimented with a variety of cash crops and brought in slaves who knew how to cultivate rice. The plantations and the economy based on them soon made this the wealthiest city in the 13 Colonies. In 1774, South Carolina declared its independence from Britain in Charleston. The British attacked the settlement three times. Between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, Charleston experienced an economic boom. The expansion of cotton crops led to huge wealth for a small segment of society and funded impressive architecture and culture. It also increased the reliance on slaves and led to more onerous restrictions on them. The 1793 invention of the cotton gin sped up cotton processing and England eagerly took up the extra production. Cotton became the city’s major export. In 1838, Charleston suffered a disastrous fire that burned more than a thousand buildings. The city played a major part in the Civil War and was the site of the first cannon shots fired in 1861. That same year another fire destroyed 500 acres of the city, with Union attacks continuing from the sea. After the defeat of the Confederacy, federal forces remained in Charleston during Reconstruction. Former slaves flocked in from the surrounding countryside, doubling the black population. By the late 1870s, industry was bringing the city and its inhabitants back to a renewed prosperity as new jobs attracted migrants. Then another very strong earthquake nearly destroyed the city in 1886, with 2,000 buildings being damaged. Charleston languished economically for several decades in the 20th century, though the large federal military presence helped to shore up the city's economy. Further blows to the economy were to come, with Hurricane Hugo causing much damage in 1986 and the closing of the huge Naval Base in 1996 having a major impact on the economy. Over the next 30 years, the peninsula's population shifted from two-thirds black to two-thirds white, when many of the former moved to the less-expensive suburbs. As the economy turned around middle-class families began returning to the urban core and the area gentrified with rising prices of houses for sale.

Middleton Place is home to America’s oldest and most important landscaped gardens. Began in 1741, the historic site today encompasses 110 acres including the gardens, house museum and stables.
Fort Sumter National Monument is where the first clash between the Union and Confederate armies in the Civil War occurred and where the Union forces finally surrendered after a 34-hour bombardment by the Rebels.
The Nathaniel Russell House was completed in 1808. The home’s elegant interiors with elaborate plasterwork, geometrically shaped rooms, formal gardens and collection of 18th-century decorative and fine art speak to the wealth of Charleston’s elite in the early days of the American Republic.
The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon was completed in 1771 and is recognized today as South Carolina's most historic building, where Patriots and pirates were imprisoned, the Constitution was ratified and George Washington was entertained.
South Carolina Aquarium offers visitors more than 5,000 marine animals and includes a sea turtle care center and two touch tanks for a hands-on experience with stingrays, sharks, horseshoe crabs, sea stars and urchins.
Charleston City Market is a popular tourist destination composed of 200-year-old brick market buildings with shops and restaurants.
Joe Riley Waterfront Park is a bright green public space overlooking the coast and great for picnics and walks.