It’s amazing what we walk by every day. The streets and alleys in the Historic District hide their history in plain sight.

Before about 1870 bricks were made by hand. Made by enslaved hands, actually. After harvesting clay from river’s edge, then seasoned over the winter, it would be hauled to the mixer where it was combined with sand and water. After being slapped into a mold, the bricks were turned out on the ground to dry.

Enslaved children were charged with turning each brick over and over until they were completely dry. When a child touched, lifted or pushed the heavy, damp bricks sometimes they left their fingermarks in those bricks.

That physical evidence of the labor, the existence, of the enslaved brickmakers remains today.
Historians and archeologists have found hundreds of those fingermarks in Charleston.

We’ve made them easier for you to find with the What3words app. Find it in your app store.

The photographs are here. The app will tell you where they are with in about 10 square feet. History becomes tangible.

You can let us know when you find more fingermarks by emailing a photo with the What3words location to fingerprints@uniquelycharleston.tours.