Tales of the Graves With A Legend

Walking into class and sitting down had never felt more electric. This evening Dr. Harwood had brought in Ruth Miller a renown tour guide and author to tell us about the people that migrated to Charleston.

As she began to speak I quickly realized how passionate and wise Miller was. She started by telling us a funny story about how she began to like graveyards and the history behind them.

Ruth Miller energetically teaching our class. 

"I had been a tour guide for a number of years," she started smiling from the memory. "I had a bus full of morticians on one of my tours and we were on our way to a church. Well when we arrived at the church they were more interested in the graveyard! We stayed there for thirty minutes or longer and they taught me more than i taught them!" A funny start to a very energetic woman beginning the journey of knowledge for what she loved.

As the history part of the speech began Miller told us many interesting facts about Charleston. One fact that she drilled into our heads throughout the lecture was that "Winners always write history books." As she continued with her interesting speech this became more and more true.

One of the central topics of Miller's speech was the fact that there are twelve marked 18th century graves and she explained that religions didn't bury other religions in their own graveyards. She continued to explain the twelve original denominations in Charleston and how they came about.

Dr. Harwood and Ruth Miller after her speech 

Miller energetically engaged the audience with many questions and her upbeat personality the entirety of her speech. Telling us about the owner of the Carolinas Anthony Ashley Cooper was one of the more interesting facts I learned. I also enjoyed Miller's statistics such as Charleston exporting more than seventy percent of the worlds rice and that forty percent of all slaves in the colonies were in Charleston.

Writing several books about graveyards, churches and slavery Miller knew every fact perfectly. One of the things that will stick with me that she said is "Bodies, bodies everywhere!" She said this and explained that everywhere you walk in Charleston you will be walking on someones grave.

Being visited by Ruth Miller was truly an amazing experience and i throughly enjoyed it in its entirety. Thank you Dr. Harwood and Mrs. Miller for organizing this speech.