Charleston: palmetto logs, a black steeple and a hand-cranked submarine

Charleston is a city of steeples and piazzas, of harbor forts and old wharves — and of a long, grave history of slavery that its streets still remember. This quiz invites you to explore it in 20 questions with pictures, for Charlestonians who think they know their city as well as for visitors.

How many men did the first battle of the Civil War cost, and where did the first Charles Town stand? What strange ransom did a famous pirate ask for in 1718, which crop did a teenage planter make succeed, and why did a fort on Sullivan's Island shrug off an enemy fleet? Why was a white steeple painted black, and what American first does a building on Church Street claim?

How many of the Africans brought to North America in chains passed through this port, and why did the sale of human beings move indoors in the 1850s? How did a carpenter become a free man, how did a convention vote in 1860, and what really left the heart of the city in ruins by 1865? How did an enslaved pilot slip past the forts, and what drove the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship?

What are the iron plates seen on so many old houses, how far away was the earthquake of 1886 felt, where does the street door of a single house lead, when did Rainbow Row get its colors, what tradition lives on in the Lowcountry's baskets — and which Broadway show launched a dance named after the city?

The pictures are old photographs, photochroms, lithographs, engravings, maps and paintings, all in the public domain.