Museum Director Carl Borick
Charleston is beloved by both residents and visitors who value its long, complex history, iconic 18th-century houses and distinctive Lowcountry vistas. No matter how many facts and myths are known about the city, there remain many unknowns. The upcoming show Ringleaders of Rebellion: Charleston in Revolt, 1775-1783, opening in January 2026 at The Charleston Museum, will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and offer a great opportunity to learn more about how the Revolutionary War played out in Charleston. The exhibition will feature an impressive array of historic artifacts — documents, weapons and clothing — that keep the 18th-century period familiar and relevant today.
Among the numerous items to be displayed is an original copy — on loan from New York’s Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History — of the Declaration of Independence broadside published in Charleston when news of its adoption arrived. Also featured is a dress worn by Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who was instrumental in making indigo a viable cash crop in South Carolina and made substantial loans to the state’s revolutionary government. Remarkably, the exhibit also includes the tip of a fire arrow, a weapon patriots used to try to oust British soldiers by setting fire to a commandeered home. Surprisingly, both colonists and British soldiers worked together to extinguish the blaze.
The anniversary exhibit is largely guided by the interests and expertise of Carl Borick, the museum’s longtime director.
Answers to visitors’ questions about why the Siege of Charleston was pivotal in the Revolutionary War are detailed in Borick’s scholarship and reflected throughout the museum displays.
Museum Director Carl Borick
Decades ago, when Borick began researching the May 12, 1780, siege — during which British forces captured Charleston — he found that although the event was famous for highlighting British miscalculations that ultimately contributed to the end of the war, no comprehensive account existed.
Fascinated with the Revolutionary War since childhood, Borick decided to take on the topic. His first book, A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston (2003), launched him as an expert on the war in the South and encouraged him to write about lesser-known aspects of the conflict. Relieve Us of This Burden: American Prisoners of War in the Revolutionary South, 1780-1782 (2012) examines the experiences of American patriots taken prisoner by the British. Borick’s third book, Backcountry Resistance: South Carolina’s Militia and the Fight for Independence (2026), which he believes is his best, will be published in March 2026. It discusses how South Carolinians resisted the British even after the fall of Charleston — the state’s capital and most important city — and how the revolution affected the daily lives of civilians, Black and white, and their contributions to the war. He also draws an intriguing connection between South Carolina militia tactics and the door-to-door guerrilla warfare that Americans found daunting in 20th- and 21st-century conflicts, from the Viet Cong in Vietnam to insurgent groups in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Beyond the topic of the Siege of Charleston, visitors may come with other questions.
For example: What was the source of funding for the Revolutionary War effort in the Lowcountry? In addition to continental funding, few may know that some of Charleston’s wealthy women generously opened their purses to support the colonists’ cause.
Looking for a hero? Borick has great admiration for Gen. Nathanael Greene, whose strategic leadership helped reclaim the Carolinas from the British and contributed to winning the war.
How did the British treat their colonial prisoners of war? Some were sent to relative comfort — often with one or more enslaved people — in St. Augustine, Florida. Others were placed in horrific conditions aboard prison ships in Charleston Harbor. Many were released after agreeing not to fight again. Among them were a group of patriots later described as “ringleaders,” who agreed to those terms but did not honor them. Instead, they wrote numerous letters urging colonists to continue resisting the British.
Though the Revolutionary War may seem distant, it comes vividly to life through the museum’s display of centuries-old artifacts. It is also startling to learn that the local battleground included the present site of The Charleston Museum. Among other events related to the anniversary, Borick will lead two tours in spring 2026 highlighting key locations from his research into the Siege of Charleston. His work draws from both high-tech mapping tools and crudely drawn historic maps of the area. In his office, Borick recently held up a copy of one such older map to show the line that separated Patriot and British forces and the locations where cannons were once placed within the defense fortifications.
“Very cool,” he summed it up.