What is the history of presenting debutantes in Charleston?

I am not from here, but I have a good friend whose family has probably been here for 300 years, as has her husband's family. She debuted with the St. Cecila Society, as will her daughters. Her oldest daughter is 13, and has been going to cotillion class for at least 2 years that I know of, to prepare. read more

Old Charlestonians profess to really not understand what all the fuss is about, they really just want to be left alone to associate with the people their family has always associated with, just as they're sure the rest of us do, as well. That's just the Charleston way. read more

S.C. Encyclopedia | The debutante ball as a rite of passage for young girls probably evolved from a seventeenth-century European custom in which aristocratic families presented their daughters at court to help them find suitable husbands. read more

And then, in my beloved adopted city of Charleston, SC, there is the “unusual” bi-weekly Charleston Mercury restarted just a decade ago, and published by Charles Waring III. Charles is a lovely Charleston gentleman. read more