St Michael’s Church houses eight bells that crossed the Atlantic five times

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London cast a ring of eight bells in 1764 for this building, which remains the oldest church in Charleston. These bells weigh between 509 pounds and 1,945 pounds each. Their history tracks the conflicts that shaped the city. When the British evacuated Charleston at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, they seized the bells alongside silver, 3,800 loyalists, and 5,000 enslaved people. A merchant in London eventually recovered the metal and returned the set to South Carolina.

During the Civil War, the church moved the bells to Columbia to protect them from being melted down for artillery, a common fate for church bells across the South at the time. The shed housing them burned when Sherman’s army reached Columbia. Workers salvaged the metal and shipped it back to London for recasting. Upon their return, a faulty frame installation prevented the bells from swinging full circle on ropes. For 125 years, they were chimed by striking the clapper against a stationary bell.

Following the damage caused by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the bells returned to England once more. Technicians replaced every fitting and constructed a new wooden frame. Since 1993, the bells have functioned as they did originally, swinging in full circles.

Washington McLean Gadsden, who was born into slavery in 1824, served as the bell ringer for 61 years. He began this work at age thirteen and continued until his retirement in 1898.

Two signers of the United States Constitution are buried in the churchyard: John Rutledge, who served as Governor of South Carolina and Chief Justice of the United States, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who died in 1825.