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Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site
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Charlesfort NE bastion
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| Nearest city: | Beaufort, South Carolina |
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| Built: | 1562 |
| Architectural style: | No Style Listed |
| Governing body: | MARINE CORPS |
| NRHP Reference#: | 74001822 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | August 7, 1974[1] |
| Designated NHL: | January 3, 2001[2] |
Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site is an archeological site on Parris Island, South Carolina, which is also known as Ribaut Monument, San Marcos, San Felipe, or 38BU51 and 38BU162. It is the site of two settlements dating to the time of European colonization: Charlesfort, founded by the French explorer Jean Ribault in 1562, and Santa Elena, founded by the Spanish in 1566. For some background see Timeline of the colonization of North America.
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Charlesfort (1562-1563) was established when a French expedition, organized by Protestant leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and led by the Norman navigator Jean Ribault landed at the site on the May River in February 1562, before moving north to Port Royal Sound. There, on present-day Parris Island, South Carolina, Ribault left twenty-eight men to build a settlement known as Charlesfort. Ribault then returned to Europe to arrange supplies for the new colony, but was arrested in England due to complications arising from the French Wars of Religion, which prevented his return.
After Ribault left, much of his settlers' stores were burned, and Captain Albert's heavy discipline led to the tiny group attempting to return to France. Without supplies or leadership, and beset by hostility from the native populations, all but one of the colonists sailed back to Europe after only a year. They built their own boat and set sail, without compass, across the Atlantic. During their voyage in an open boat, they were reduced to cannibalism before the survivors were rescued in English waters.
The survivors were rescued by an English ship, and some eventually reached France. Shortly after their departure, Hernando de Manrique de Rojas commanded a Spanish force from Cuba that went and destroyed the French fort, and took captive the one Frenchman who had remained with the local Native Americans in the region of the fort.
Founded in 1566 on the site of Charlesfort, Santa Elena was the first capital of Spanish Florida until 1587.[2]
The Charlesfort-Santa Elena site is nationally significant because it illustrates the competition for the New World. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001.[2][3]
The SC DAH summary is here.[4]
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