James Seidel 
A Visit to Charleston’s Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon
By James Seidel | CC News Network
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Standing at the corner of East Bay and Broad Streets in Charleston, South Carolina, the Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon—also known as the Custom House or simply “The Exchange”—is more than a museum. It is a living monument to the city’s complicated and often painful history. Built between 1767 and 1771, this imposing Georgian-style building has borne witness to revolution, enslavement, civic life, war, and protest. On a recent visit, I walked its stone floors, stepped inside its chilling dungeon, and stood beneath the same cupola where George Washington once waved to the city’s residents. What I discovered was not just a tourist attraction—but one of the most significant historical sites in the American South.
Colonial Purpose, Revolutionary Prison
The Exchange was originally commissioned by South Carolina’s colonial government as a center for trade, customs, and civic meetings. Designed by Anglo-Irish architect William Rigby Naylor and constructed by master masons John and Peter Horlbeck, it was among the most important public buildings in British North America at the time. When British troops seized Charleston in 1780, they converted the basement—now known as the Provost Dungeon—into a wartime prison. Research in 2012 documented at least 120 known prisoners held here during the Revolutionary War, including colonial soldiers, civilians, and even some British troops.
Detained at the Provost, Transferred to St. Augustine – September 5, 1780
Edward Rutledge – Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Christopher Gadsden – Lt. Governor, Member of the Continental Congress
Thomas Heyward Jr. – Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Richard Hutson – Member of the Privy Council
Col. John Laurens – Revolutionary War hero (father of John Laurens)
Alexander Moultrie – South Carolina’s first Attorney General
Lt. Col. Edward Rutledge – Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Rev. Robert Smith – Founder of the College of Charleston
Dr. David Ramsay – Historian, member of the Continental Congress
John Ernest Poyas – Merchant
Sent to St. Augustine – November 17, 1780
Arthur Middleton – Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Edward Fenwick – Horse breeder and patriot
Elisha Izzard – Intendant (mayor) of Charleston
Noble Wimberly Jones – Speaker of Georgia’s House of Assembly
️ Imprisoned in the Provost
Col. Isaac Hayne – Patriot executed by the British
Col. Owen Roberts – Officer of the 2nd SC Regiment
Rev. John Lewis Gervais – Member of the Continental Congress
Col. John Stark – Noted patriot
Capt. John McQueen – Continental officer
Dr. Joseph Blyth – Surgeon
✍️ Parole of Arthur Middleton, 1780
A special section notes that prisoners, including Middleton, were released on parole with the promise not to take up arms against the British again.
The Provost Dungeon is a dark, humid space where shackles once clanged and resistance to tyranny met grim consequences. Today, docents lead visitors through this cavernous chamber, past brick walls that still seem to echo with the cries of prisoners long gone.
Slave Auctions and Silent Suffering
Outside the north wall of the Old Exchange, business once thrived in the cruelest form: the sale of enslaved African and African-descended people. For decades, it was one of Charleston’s busiest slave auction sites. Historian Frederic Bancroft and eyewitness accounts describe the horror—families torn apart, crowds gathered as if at a spectacle, and young children clinging to their mothers while bids were called.
British painter Eyre Crowe, visiting Charleston in 1854, famously captured this grim reality in his painting A Slave Sale in Charleston, based on what he saw in front of the Old Exchange. That image remains one of the most harrowing depictions of American slavery.
The city eventually outlawed public street auctions in 1856 due to growing discomfort and congestion. Slave sales were moved indoors to places like Ryan’s Mart, now preserved as the Old Slave Mart Museum.
A Battle Over Ideas
In 1835, the building became the center of another historical confrontation—this one between abolitionists and defenders of slavery. After the American Anti-Slavery Society mailed abolitionist pamphlets to Charleston, angry mobs stormed the Exchange (then the city’s post office) and demanded their destruction. Although the first attempt was halted by law enforcement, the mob returned the next night and burned the mail on the parade ground of the Citadel, now Marion Square. The event was not only an attack on free speech—it was a declaration by Charleston elites that they would defend slavery at all costs.
A Presidential Podium and Wartime Headquarters
In 1791, President George Washington stood on the balcony of the Old Exchange and addressed a jubilant Charleston crowd. His visit marked a high point in the building’s civic life. Later, during the Civil War, the structure served the Confederacy as a post office. It survived Union shelling but suffered damage. By World War I, it was repurposed as military headquarters for General Leonard Wood. During World War II, it became a USO canteen and a Coastal Picket Station for the U.S. Coast Guard, guarding against German submarines in the Atlantic.
Preserving the Past
After decades of wear, the building was nearly lost. The Daughters of the American Revolution stepped in to save it in 1921. Since then, they’ve helped maintain it through wars, hurricanes, and neglect. A major restoration effort between 1979 and 1983 led to its reopening as a museum. Today, visitors walk through three levels of history—from grand halls where political debates were held to the dungeon below, where liberty was once locked away.
In 2016, the city of Charleston acknowledged the building’s role in the slave trade by dedicating a historical marker on its north side. It was a long-overdue recognition of the human suffering that occurred here in plain sight.
A Must-See for Truth-Seekers
The Old Exchange is not simply a building—it’s a crossroads of American ideals and contradictions. Freedom and oppression. Patriotism and protest. Justice and injustice. As I stood in the dungeon and later looked out from the cupola, I was struck by how much of our nation’s story—its triumphs and failures—can be traced through this one place. In Charleston, history doesn’t just live in textbooks. It lives in bricks and blood and memory.
The Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon is open daily for guided tours. If you want to see where liberty was born—and where it was once denied—there’s no better place to begin.
Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon
122 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC
Managed by the Rebecca Motte Chapter of the DAR
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973
For more stories like this, follow @CrimeAndCask and CCNewsNetwork.com
Connect with CC News Network
Over 1,500,000 Million likes of Tiktok alone!
Join Our 100,000+ Followers Across Social Media
Stay informed. Stay curious. Stay connected.
X (Twitter): @CCNewsNetwork
TikTok: @CCNewsNetwork
Facebook: CC News Network
Talk Radio: Listen Live on 97.7FM WVFF – Myrtle Beach
Amazon Author Page: James Seidel & CC News Books
Cameo: Book us @ CC News Network
Spotify: CC Records
Bluesky: @ccnewsnetwork.bsky.social
Mastodon: @CrimeAndCask
About the Author
1 thought on “A Visit to Charleston’s Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon”