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Update July 31: The Island Packet was there for the speech and shares a nice little writeup; read it here.

First reporting July 30: Way back on July 31, 1844, Robert Barnwell Rhett stood before an oak tree in Bluffton and lead an impassioned speech about why the South should secede from the Union. 

Now 166 years later that moment is remembered as one of the first poignant calls for South Carolina to break away, and the tree is remembered as the Secession Oak. And it's a bit of Lowcountry history that will be remembered as Blufftonian Larry Hughes reenacts Rhett's speech.

The Island Packet has more on the anniversary and its first speaker; read it here.

Never knew that Robert Barnwell Rhett was born Robert Barnwell Smith. Funny.