Aiken-Rhett House

The kitchen, laundry, and enslaved quarters at the Aiken-Rhett House survive virtually untouched since the 1850s — dependency buildings that Charleston has largely demolished or repurposed elsewhere. Vastly expanded by Governor William Aiken Jr. in the 1830s and again in the 1850s, the property has been preserved "as-found" by Historic Charleston Foundation since 1995, meaning the structure and contents remain unaltered. What endured here is the fullest picture available of how enslaved people lived and worked within an antebellum Charleston household.