Charity & Benevolence African-American Cemetery Memorial
Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina
Marker Inscription
“Charity and Benevolence”
Erected by College of Charleston
The Story
In 19th-century Charleston, free and enslaved African Americans formed mutual-aid and benevolent societies—groups with names like "Charity" and "Benevolence"—that pooled members' dues to care for the sick, support widows and orphans, and guarantee every member a dignified burial. Excluded from many white institutions, these societies often maintained their own cemeteries, making the burial ground both a place of mourning and a testament to community self-reliance. This memorial marks one such African-American cemetery, honoring the societies whose charitable work sustained Charleston's Black community across slavery, the Civil War, and the generations that followed.
Why it matters
African-American benevolent societies were engines of survival and solidarity, providing welfare and burial dignity when the wider society would not—an enduring foundation of Black community institutions in America.
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