Wicked Edisto - The Dark Side of Eden

by Alexia Jones Helsley

Alexia Helsley has served thirty-three years with the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, and also as director of public programs. She also manages a genealogical and historical consulting business. Alexia has published a number of books on North and South Carolina.

For many, Edisto is a little slice of heaven--live oaks festooned with Spanish moss, winding waterways and crashing surf. Yet the waterways were pathways for privateers, smugglers and gunboats. Marauders terrorized residents. Privateers made life uncertain during the War of 1812. John Wilson and Andrew Gillon dueled to the death on the sands of Edingsville. The Civil War brought repeated skirmishes between Union and Confederate scouting parties. Join historian Alexia Jones Helsley as she recounts lost lives, early widows, dashed dreams, unseen secrets--the dark side of Eden.