This book is a collection of stories told against a backdrop of the history of the early European and African migration to the South Carolina Lowcountry. While the history of how the land was settled is important as a foundation for the appreciation of the essence of the Lowcountry, the truth of human existence emerges only when the lives of the people who have inhabited it mature with the landscape. That combination defines the ever-emerging character of the place. Put another way, the raw history of the settlement of the English colony of Carolina has long been read by the world in sanitized versions. But the truth often springs from human life. These stories-some old and some new-reveal the character and soul of the Carolina Lowcountry in ways that standard history books cannot.