Revolution

As in the other colonies, by the mid-1700s, many of the citizens of Charles Town had become disgruntled with the British crown, and revolution was in the air. In 1773, shortly after citizens in Boston hurled chests of English tea overboard from a merchant ship to protest the Stamp Act, a shipment of tea arrived in Charles Town. Citizens dared merchants to pay the tax and accept the tea, so it was eventually just removed from the ship and stored in the basement of the Old Exchange (or Customs House). Later, the tea was sold (without the accompanying British tax, of course), and the proceeds were used to fund the war effort locally.