Drayton Hall, a Charleston Treasure June 4th
A Hampden-Sydney
College Alumnus Dr. Carter Hudgins’00 gave us a private tour of Drayton Hall. John Drayton purchased the property where
Drayton Hall is located in 1738 that became one of his many properties that he
was an absentee owner. The Drayton Hall
house was completed around the mid 18th century. Drayton Hall became a rice and indigo plantation
managed by the Drayton family. The
Drayton family owned the Drayton Hall house and property until it was sold in 1974. Charlotta Drayton’s two nephews sold Drayton
Hall to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, because they could not
afford to pay the high costs associated with maintaining Drayton Hall.
Rice was the
cash crop of South Carolina until the 13th Amendment was amended to
the United States Constitution after the Civil War. Carter told me that the economy for rice was
not good in the 1830s, since rice was in decline in South Carolina. According to James O. Luken’s personal essay What The Land Revels: A Journey Into A Low
Country Rice Plantation “rice cultivation was highly profitable due to
relatively low production costs and relatively high commodity prices,” was one
of the reasons why rice was grown at Drayton Hall (142). The low costs to grow rice and its high
selling price attracted many people to get “land grants from the King of
England,” to get into this booming industry (142). Rice was an industry that died out after the
Civil War, because of the 13th Amendment that outlawed the free labor
that helped make rice an extremely profitable industry.
Drayton Hall was
the most magnificent plantation I have visited on this trip. The history.
Drayton Hall is one of many plantations that we have visited on our May
term trip that have been sold or willed in order to preserve the property. Drayton Hall was the first plantation that we
visited that grew indigo in addition to rice.
A once thriving planation owned by the Drayton family became an old
summer home that was not the primary residence of the Drayton family after the
Civil War. I was surprised to hear that
after hurricanes, floods, and after the Civil War the Drayton Hall house itself
still stands today. The preservation
projects scheduled for Drayton Hall will bring the house back to its appearance
from the plantation era. I hope to come
back to Drayton Hall someday to see those preservation projects that will help preserve
the history and architecture of Drayton Hall.
Kayaking through the shrimping and real estate industries of Charleston, SC June 5th
We kayaked along
the Mt. Pleasant side of the Port of Charleston learning about the ecology and
industries of the Charleston, SC past and present. The kayaking trip in Charleston was
scheduled, because our kayaking trip in St. Simons was canceled due to
inclement weather. During the trip we
kayaked by water front properties that are worth millions of dollars while
learning about the rice and shrimping industries that was once a thriving
industry in the Charleston area. This
was kayaking trip was my first visit to Charleston, and I was glad that see the
City of Charleston from the busy Charleston Harbor.
Our kayaking
guide Witt gave us a tour of Charleston Harbor and told us about the history
and economy of the Charleston area. Witt
told us that shrimping was a huge industry in the Charleston area and you could
see around 200 shrimping vessels leaving the harbor on a daily basis. In today’s economy you see a handful of ships
leave the harbor, because of the shrimp farms that can sell shrimp for a
cheaper price per pound than your local shrimper. Local shrimper’s selling price per pound of
shrimp is more expensive than a shrimp farmer’s selling price. This is true, because local shrimpers have to
include license fees, gas, and other various costs associated with marinating a
shrimping vessel. Local shrimpers are
not able to compete with the mass production shrimp farms that lower the price
of shrimp and that provide the frozen shrimp that you can pick up in any
grocery store in the country for a low price.
Lucy Lippard’s The Lure of the
Local (1997) “the ability to know a
new place quickly and well, and to adapt to its circumstance,” there are people
like Nate DaPore who adapt quickly to the environment even if it is not a
traditional industry (33). Nate is one
of many entrepreneurs who have come to Charleston and started technology
related businesses that are not traditional to Charleston.
The kayaking
trip of the Charleston harbor we took opened me up to the history and economy
of Charleston. I knew that the
Charleston area has been having an economic boom, but I did not know much about
its history or industries that once dominated the area. Charleston was one of the dominant ports in
colonial America, and has continued to be one of the dominant ports on the east
coast. The traditional industries of
Charleston (rice, shrimping, etc.) are not as prominent as they used to be;
however, Charleston’s recent economic boom is from non-traditional industries
(real estate, technology, and finance). Charleston is a beautiful area
that I plan to visit again soon, and I may be a city that I might work in this
summer.
McLeod Plantation, No That's Not the Front Yard! June 6th
Our last site
visit of our May Term at the Beach was to McLeod Plantation. William Wallace McLeod purchased the
plantation in 1851. After World War I, William
Ellis McLeod decided to convert McLeod Plantation into a vegetable and dairy
farm, so that the McLeod family could keep the plantation. The McLeod family owned McLeod Plantation
until 1990 when the last descendant, William Ellis McLeod, died and he left the
plantation house and property to the Historic Charleston Foundation. The property was left to the Historic
Charleston Foundation in William Ellis McLeod’s will, so that it could be
preserved to continue the legacy of McLeod Plantation.
Unlike most
southern plantations, McLeod Plantation did not get its start until 1851 when
William Wallace McLeod purchased the plantation in 1851 from William McKenzie
Parker II. According to The Friends of
McLeod, Inc.’s website (http://www.mcleodplantation.org/)
McLeod Plantation William McLeod grew “long staple cotton was normally
considered highly profitable, a combination of poor drainage and depleted soil
soon made the plantation known as “pick-pocket place,” until 1861 when the McLeod
family evacuated James Island. In the Journal of a Residence on a Georgian
Plantation in 1838-1839, Frances Anne Kemble mentioned “that the slaves on
this plantation are divided into field hands and mechanics or artisans,” this
was true with McLeod Plantation where slaves were assigned to various work
places based on their skills. Like many
plantations after the 13th Amendment was amended to the United
States Constitution McLeod Plantation, plantation owners lost their properties
to Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15, which distributed Union Army
confiscated land to freed slaves. The
Union Army confiscated McLeod plantation during the Civil War; however,
Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 was overturned, and as a result the
properties were returned to their original owners. Even though slavery was over, the slave
quarters that once housed slaves working on McLeod Plantation were
McLeod
Plantation was the last site on our May Term itinerary where we talked about
the plantation era and the Gullah culture.
This trip to McLeod Plantation was different compared to our other
previous plantation visits, because the plantations we previously visited were
rice plantations. I found it interesting
the McLeod plantation was bought in 1851, when the plantation economy was not
doing well especially rice. When we
walked up to the main plantation house we assumed that we were going to walk in
the front door; however, the side of the house we thought was front of the
house was actually the back of the house.
We pondered over why the back of the house was more majestic than the
front of the house, but I believe that it was made to be more majestic to show
off to the people driving by to the country club that is located on property
previously owned by the McLeod family.
The Gullah Culture is still alive at the Sweet Grass Festival June 6th
The last event
on our May Term itinerary was the yearly Sweet Grass Festival in Mt. Pleasant,
SC. The Sweet Grass Festival was like a
flea market that had dozens of vendors of several ethnicities selling all kinds
of items from cultural Gullah cuisine to seashell necklaces crafted by local
artists. This festival is where the
“dying Gullah culture” is brought back to life where people from the Charleston
area and from a small all men’s college in rural Virginia can come to learn
about the crafts, delicious cuisine, and other practices of the Gullah
descendants. After attending this
festival I believe that the Gullah culture is not dying instead, the culture is
very much alive in people old and young.
From day 2 of
our May Term at the Beach we visited the Penn Center where we were first
introduced to the Gullah peoples’ history and culture. Their culture is derived from slaves that
were brought over during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade era. Couple hundred years later their traditions
of making sweet grass baskets, knitting fish nets, and cultural heritage have
continued to be a part of Gullah descendants’ lives. A woman at a one of the Sweet Grass Festival
stands told me that her grandmother taught her to make sweet grass baskets in
she was a young girl, and that she has started to teach her own daughter the
same sweet grass basket weaving skills her grandmother taught her. This is an example of the Gullah people
preserving their culture by teaching their children the skills brought over by
their ancestors coming over to be slaves on southern plantations. According to Lucy Lippard’s The Lure of the Local (1997), “ most of
us are separated from organic geographical communities: even fewer can rely on
blood ties. We can only hope to fund
created communities – people who come together because they are alike on some
level”, the Gullah people are people who have not separated from their organic
geographical communities (24).
This whole trip
has been about sites that thrived between the 17th century and the
Civil War, and the people who helped make those places thrive were the slaves
who are descendants of the Gullah people.
While many people have forgotten their origin roots and traditions the
Gullah people have not forgotten their origin roots. The Sweet Grass Festival is a perfect example
of the Gullah people preserving their culture by sharing their cultural
practices with their children and the community. This trip has opened me up to a section in
American history that I am not familiar with, and the Gullah descendants played
a very important role in building our nation by working on plantation or
fighting to reunite a divided nation. I
would like to thank Dr. Deal and Professor Rhoads for organizing everything
necessary for this trip and for teaching me about the history, culture, and art
of the Gullah people, it was better than spending May Term on campus!
--
Max
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