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Before shrimp and grits became synonymous with Charleston cuisine, a free Black entrepreneur named Charles C. Leslie was reshaping the city's entire seafood industry. Born poor in present-day Mt. Pleasant in the mid-1800s, Leslie built a wholesale seafood empire, championed species once dismissed as “trash fish,” and became one of Charleston's wealthiest Black businessmen — leaving a legacy written into the city's food culture, its historic architecture, and the scientific record. This is his story.

The next phase of the Nathaniel Russell Kitchen House Project is now underway!