King Cemetery

National Register Listing

Street Address:

1.1 mi. ne. of jct. US 17 and S-19-38, Adams Run, SC (Charleston County)

Alternate Name:

38CH1590; U/19/0000/2480734.01

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NRHP Nomination

Record Number:

S10817710169

Description and Narrative:

The King Cemetery is a good example of the distinctive, regionally important type of African American cemetery found in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Named for the primary nineteenth century plantation owner, the King Cemetery is thought to have been used by the area’s African-American community since at least the late antebellum, and contains at least 183 graves. Oral history documents the extensive use of the graveyard during slavery and continuing into the first half of the twentieth century. Distinctive characteristics include the placement of grave goods, ranging from ceramics to bottles to household furniture, on the grave; the use of white or reflective materials and objects; the use of alternative methods of grave marking; and the use of plant materials. In particular, this cemetery clearly reveals the importance of plants and their association with grave plots, not only as items of lasting beauty, but also as lasting - and living - markers. Moreover, the King Cemetery clearly reveals the importance not of well-marked and permanently identified family plots, but rather of the area, the space. Oral history has kept alive the importance of this space, in spite of the black community’s fragmentation and the gradual loss of many cultural practices. Listed in the National Register June 13, 2000.

Period of Significance:

1838 – 1949

Level of Significance:

Local

Area of Significance:

Ethnic Heritage: Black;Social History

National Register Determination:

listed

Date of Certification:

June 13 2000

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