CHARLESTON, S.C. — Call me naive. Call me ignorant. Call me a frozen flatland hayseed who doesn't get out enough.

But I had no idea.

About Charleston, S.C., that is.

I knew the city was where the Civil War started, when the secessionists fired on Union-held Fort Sumter. I knew Charleston played a critical role in the Revolutionary War, with Americans first holding Fort Moultrie and then losing it in catastrophic defeat.

Obviously I knew Charleston was the major American hub in the African slave trade, with millions of enslaved people going through the city's port in the 18th and 19th centuries.

But other than those simple perspectives, easily gleaned from an eighth-grade history book, Charleston was a mystery. It just wasn't on the radar as a potential destination, like Fort Myers, Na

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