The article presents an exploration into the race relations between German and African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina throughout the later 19th century. Details are given outlining how the positive relations between the German and African American communities waned as the German immigrants sought to associate more with Southern white culture, which focused on supremacist ideology and strained further relations to the former slave population. Analysis is offered regarding the psychology of the German community, noting their own history of political persecution from Germany and their desire to assimilate into the dominant culture of their new home in the South.