Preserving Culture by Rewriting History: Interpreting Sites in the

Transcription

Lowcountry Antebellum Planters’ Summer Cottage Community of
Bluffton, South Carolina
Carolyn M. Coppola
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Historic Preservation
at
The Savannah College of Art and Design
© May 2013, Carolyn M. Coppola
The author herby grants SCAD permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic
thesis copies of document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created.
Signature of Author and Date ________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________/__/__
Professor Connie Capozzola Pinkerton
Committee Chair
(date)
___________________________________________________________________________/__/__
Professor Thomas Taylor, Ph.D.
Committee Member
(date)
___________________________________________________________________________/__/__
Mary C. Socci, Ph.D.
Committee Member
(date)
Lowcountry Antebellum Planters’ Summer Cottage Community of
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Historic Preservation Department
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Historic Preservation
Savannah College of Art and Design
By
Carolyn M. Coppola
Savannah, GA
May 2013
Acknowledgements
I am thankful to all my professors at SCAD who watched my thesis unfold over the last two years, and
who encouraged and supported my efforts, never tiring of hearing more about Bluffton. I offer my
sincere gratitude to my thesis committee: SCAD Professors Connie Capozzola Pinkerton and Thomas
Taylor, Ph.D., and Palmetto Bluff Archaeologist Mary Socci, Ph.D. for reading and rereading drafts; and
guiding, inspiring, and mentoring me through this incredibly rewarding journey. And thank you to
Cookie Craft, who edited my many long drafts with an unwavering eye for detail and helped me produce
a better finished product. I am indebted to all of you for participating in this edifying experience.
Contents
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 1
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3
Chapter 2: The marginalization of African American History and Culture in U.S. Public History ................. 7
The problem .............................................................................................................................................. 7
The causes ............................................................................................................................................... 10
Potential solutions .................................................................................................................................. 18
Chapter 3: A Move Towards Center: Re-examining History in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage
Corridor ....................................................................................................................................................... 25
The Gullah Geechee People .................................................................................................................... 25
Antebellum Cultural Landscapes of the Lowcountry .............................................................................. 31
Rice Plantations................................................................................................................................... 31
Planters’ Summer Cottage Communities ............................................................................................ 38
Transforming the Plantation Landscape ............................................................................................. 40
Transforming Planters’ Summer Cottage Communities ..................................................................... 46
Missing Links ....................................................................................................................................... 59
Development, Enforcement, and Retention of Heritage in the Cultural Landscapes ............................ 62
Chapter 4: Heritage Tourism as a Mechanism for Preserving Culture and Place ....................................... 68
The Roots of American Tourism.............................................................................................................. 68
Expanding the View of Tourist Destinations and Activities: Heritage Tourism ...................................... 71
Identifying and Interpreting Historic Sites .............................................................................................. 73
Challenges in Site Interpretation ............................................................................................................ 79
Opportunities in Site Interpretation ....................................................................................................... 86
Chapter 5: Case Study: Developing a Heritage Tourism Program for Bluffton, South Carolina ................. 89
Bluffton’s Past ......................................................................................................................................... 90
Bluffton’s Present ................................................................................................................................. 110
The Cole-Heyward House Property................................................................................................... 112
Squire Pope Property ........................................................................................................................ 119
Garvin House Property ...................................................................................................................... 121
Praise House...................................................................................................................................... 124
i
Bluffton’s Future ................................................................................................................................... 126
Chapter 6: Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 132
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 136
Appendix A: Locations of Bluffton Residents’ Plantations........................................................................ 148
Appendix B: Slave Narrative, Daphney Wright ......................................................................................... 149
Appendix C: Assessment Study for a Heritage Trail in Old Town Bluffton ............................................... 153
ii
List of Figures
FIGURE 1. GULLAH GEECHEE CULTURAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR (NATIONAL PARK SERVICE,
HTTP://WWW.NPS.GOV/GUGE/PLANYOURVISIT/DIRECTIONS.HTM) ................................................................................... 30
FIGURE 2. AFRICAN AMERICAN WORKERS ON CAPE FEAR RIVER RICE PLANTATION, N.C. THRESHING (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,
HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/ITEM/2007677024/) ............................................................................................. 32
FIGURE 3. BEAUFORT DISTRICT (INSIDE COVER OF THE HISTORY OF BEAUFORT COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA, VOLUME 1, 1514-1861) ..51
FIGURE 4. SHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH SOUTH CAROLINA - BURNING OF MCPHERSONVILLE, FEBRUARY 1, 1865 (LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS, HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/ITEM/2004661258/) .............................................................................57
FIGURE 5. OLD SHELDON CHURCH RUINS (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/ITEM/ CSAS200803950/) .......58
FIGURE 6. SERVANT’S QUARTERS AT REAR OF HOUSE, SUMMERVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA (FROM LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,
HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/ITEM/FSA2000031004/PP/) ................................................................................... 61
FIGURE 7. COLE-HEYWARD HOUSE (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR) ..................................................................................113
FIGURE 8. COLE-HEYWARD HOUSE SLAVE CABIN (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR) ................................................................115
FIGURE 9. MARKINGS ON SLAVE CABIN FRAMING (PHOTO COURTESY OF MR. BOB DICKENSHEETS) ...............................................115
FIGURE 10. SQUIRE POPE PROPERTY, NORTH FACADE (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR) .........................................................120
FIGURE 11. SQUIRE POPE PROPERTY, WEST FACADE (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR) ...........................................................120
FIGURE 12. SQUIRE POPE PROPERTY, SOUTH FACADE (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR)..........................................................121
FIGURE 13. SQUIRE POPE PROPERTY, EAST FACADE (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR) ............................................................121
FIGURE 14. GARVIN HOUSE (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR) ............................................................................................122
FIGURE 15. PRAISE HOUSE (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR) .............................................................................................124
1
Abstract
Preserving Culture by Rewriting History: Interpreting Sites in the Lowcountry
Antebellum Planters’ Summer Cottage Community of Bluffton, South Carolina
Carolyn M. Coppola
May 2013
The economy of the antebellum Lowcountry region of the South molded and shaped the lifeways of its
inhabitants. The inhabitants, in turn, shaped the landscape, creating places that reflected their needs
and fostered the development of cultural heritage. Lifeways and cultural landscapes were abruptly
altered or destroyed by the Civil War. Some history has been forgotten or lost, and many places with
stories to tell are often silent.
This thesis identifies and defines the Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage community as a
distinct cultural landscape based on its physical, social, and economic characteristics and its relationship
to Lowcountry rice plantations. It examines how this cultural landscape contributed to or detracted
from the retention of cultural heritage for those whose lifeways simultaneously straddled two
interrelated but different landscapes. In doing so, this thesis encourages expanding the study of
plantation life and culture beyond plantation boundaries so that it includes this newly-defined cultural
landscape and the stories of all people who inhabited and shaped these places. Resulting research can
expose lost or forgotten stories, potentially rewriting history and increasing the profiles of previously
marginalized people and their cultural heritage.
Research necessary for heritage tourism programs identifies unifying themes in the built environment,
for example, architecture, spiritual life, the economy, and education, that emphasize relationships
among properties and people and balances historical texture. Using Bluffton, South Carolina as a case
study, this thesis proposes a heritage tourism program in Bluffton as a mechanism for rediscovering lost
or distorted history, rewriting it, and preserving cultural heritage by making it part of public history and
inspiring a broader collective identity.
2
Chapter 1: Introduction
De Southern soldiers come through Bluffton on a Wednesday and tell de white folks
must get out de way, de Yankees right behind ‘em! De summer place been at Bluffton.
De plantation wuz ten miles away.1
—Daphney Wright, Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938
Old Town Bluffton in coastal South Carolina is nestled on the banks of the May River across from the
former plantation lands of Palmetto Bluff and islands such as Bull Island and Savage Island. It retains the
original one-square-mile boundaries of Bluffton established in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, with
recent annexations, the Town of Bluffton encompasses over fifty-one square miles. Old Town remains
the heart of Bluffton. It is the site of most events, including a weekly farmers’ market, a regionallyknown Christmas parade, numerous art shows, food festivals, and more. One-of-a-kind boutiques and
shops, cafes, restaurants, art galleries, and antique stores also keep Old Town Bluffton active and lively.
New development and infill dovetail easily within this historic district.
To many people, Old Town Bluffton is a quaint town center with charming, historic buildings and a
magnificent view of and access to the May River. Bluffton offers a sense of southern hospitality to its
visitors. Yet there is something about its character that is hard to define, often leading people to
describe Bluffton as a “state of mind,” a label now adopted by the town. Old Town Bluffton’s unique
sense of place stands out, leading to the question, “What is Bluffton?” The answer to that can only be
derived from the answer to the question, “What was Bluffton?”
1
Phoebe Faucette, "Daphney Wright, 106 Year Old Ex-Slave," American Memory, Born in Slavery: Slave
Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, Library of Congress. n.d., accessed December 30, 2012,
http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/ampage?collId=mesn&fileName=144/mesn144.db&recNum=269&itemLink=D?mesnbib:8:./temp/~ammem_Jib
g::.
3
Available literature identifies early Bluffton as a “summer resort,” a place where planter families came in
the summer to avoid the heat and disease of their plantations. Adults socialized; children attended
school.2 There were many summer resorts throughout the United States in the early to mid-nineteenth
century, particularly in the Northeast. South Carolinians vacationed in Newport, Rhode Island as early as
1765.3 By the early part of the nineteenth century, Ballston Spa and Saratoga Springs in New York
entertained Southerners drawn to the promise of restored health in the mineral springs.4 Due to the
time required for travel, those who could afford to do so vacationed for an extended period, often for
two or three months, both in the United States and in Europe. The construction of roads and the
availability of railroads increased the possibility of travel, but it was still not always comfortable or
convenient. It seems reasonable that travel to more local places in the early part of the nineteenth
century may have been preferable to many.
It is easy to assume that Bluffton was one such resort destination. But Bluffton was not a “resort.” It
was not a vacation spot. Bluffton was a base of management operations for plantation owners who
were cast from the comforts of their plantation houses due to an increasing mortality rate among the
white population on the plantations. This shift occurred with the expansion of rice production. Bluffton
and other similar villages represented a new migratory lifestyle for both planters and their house slaves
in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Slaves and their masters lived in very close and intimate proximity
on the small lots of these villages, creating avenues for the development and transmission of cultural
heritage different from those on the plantation. Many Lowcountry residents experienced life on two
different, but tightly interrelated cultural landscapes: the plantation (most often rice plantations) and
2
The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, A Guide to Historic Bluffton. Bluffton (The Bluffton Historical
Preservation Society, 2007), 9.
3
Lawrence Fay Brewster, Summer Migrations and Resorts of South Carolina Low-country Planters (New York:
AMS Press, 1947), 30.
4
Richard H. Gassan, The Birth of American Tourism: New York, the Hudson Valley, and American Culture, 17901830 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), 12, 160.
4
what this research identifies, defines, and refers to as the Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer
cottage community. Through studies of these communities, most of which are extinct today, patterns of
a lifestyle emerge that define the cultural landscape and place Bluffton in a prominent position to
rediscover and share its history.
This research demonstrates the symbiotic relationship of antebellum rice plantations and cottage
communities and how each transformed the other. Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage
communities enabled the rice economy to succeed by providing safe locations from which plantations
were managed. In turn, the expansion of rice production defined the economy of the antebellum South,
setting politics and social standards in place unique to the Lowcountry. Cultural heritage was naturally
shaped by this environment and it was uniquely sustained. To preserve it for the future, history must be
re-examined and rewritten so that it is part of public consciousness in planning and preservation.
Heritage tourism is one mechanism of rediscovering history and preserving cultural heritage. The
research necessary to plan a heritage tourism program can engage people at a local level in the decisionmaking process of what to preserve and why. Value systems are revealed. Heritage tourism research
identifies unifying themes by which relationships among properties and people become clearer, the
history more textured, and the heritage value of individual properties higher.
The discovery of what Bluffton was explains its multiple transformations into the vibrant town it is
today. This knowledge contributes to ongoing research of Gullah Geechee, Lowcountry, and southern
cultural heritage. Gullah Geechee history and heritage are underrepresented in descriptions and
accounts of Bluffton. The Gullah Geechee people may have been silent in documented history, but their
history and heritage are embedded in the fabric of the built environment of Bluffton, in the adopted and
5
adapted heritage of the white population, and in the traditions carried forth by descendants. As a casestudy location, Bluffton represents the history and heritage of many such places in Lowcountry, with the
exception that it may be the only place with enough extant tangible material remaining to make
continued study possible. This material culture can fill in the gaps of Bluffton history, establishing a
stronger collective identity within the town and beyond. It expands the study of Lowcountry rice
plantations, offering a view of both the African diaspora and the white plantation family “homestead” as
an extension beyond traditional plantation boundaries.
Bluffton has an opportunity to rewrite its history and make it part of public history by designing and
implementing heritage tourism programs, including a heritage trail. Through such programs, Bluffton
can provide visitors with the experience of history and heritage discovery. Bluffton’s individual historic
sites are related to the larger storyscape of the town, that is, they are related through one or more
themes, such as education, economy, antebellum Bluffton, the Civil War, reconstruction, and others.
This thesis begins by examining reasons for lost or distorted history in the United States so that these
obstacles can be removed and history revisited at a local level. It explores the web of influences on
Gullah Geechee cultural heritage, including a previously undocumented cultural landscape necessary for
the success of rice production. It looks at how heritage tourism promotes the rewriting of history while
serving to preserve cultural heritage. And, finally, this thesis begins research specific to a few families
and properties in Bluffton and encourages continued research necessary to design and implement
heritage tourism programs. It introduces its readers to legacies that have enriched American cultural
heritage.
6
Chapter 2: The marginalization of African American History and Culture
in U.S. Public History
History is a record of the past, comprised of events, people, and philosophies that have shaped current
society. As time increases distance from past experience, historians and society can more objectively
review the past and identify those elements of it that have relevance today. History, as it is recorded,
evaluated, and disseminated, is dynamic. It is never a snapshot in time, but rather a snapshot of current
thought of a past time.
The problem
Disremembered and unaccounted for, she cannot be lost because no one is looking for
her, and even if they were, how can they call her if they don’t know her name?...They
forgot her like a bad dream. After they made up their tales, shaped and decorated
them, those that saw her that day on the porch quickly and deliberately forgot her.5
—Toni Morrison, Beloved
African American history and heritage have been marginalized, if not absent, components of U.S.
history. History is, after all, determined by the writings of historians and is therefore biased by time,
politics, and social standards of each era. In presenting U.S. history that includes the African American
story, historians and teachers must open a dialog about slavery, an uncomfortable and shameful, yet
very real part of the American story, and part of the country’s heritage. Slavery is a topic with which
teachers and public historians still struggle, but for many Americans, both of African and European
descent, it is the beginning of their American heritage.
In Sustaining Identity, Recapturing History, Ann Denkler demonstrates how one-sided history appears in
5
Toni Morrison, Beloved (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1987), 274.
7
the town of Luray, Virginia. Denkler reviews a short history of the area, its founding fathers, its
industries, and its participation in the Civil War. Much of this information is presented in tourism
literature and at historic sites and it is told by the dominant culture perspective, that is, through the
eyes of the white middle class. Obvious examples are the disparate care, treatment, and preservation of
two historic schoolhouses, one African American, and one white. She points out that even though
historic properties may hold stories of whites, free blacks, and the enslaved, the interpretive programs
at these properties may address only the white perspective. This limited perspective denies African
Americans a place in collective southern memory. 6
Denkler uncovers significant events in African American history in Luray, and notes the challenges in
integrating these into local or national public history, stating that historians who focus on “absolutes
and facts” may overlook “lost events” which can be disregarded when compiling history through
documents that reflect a narrow version of events, as those documents are usually produced by the
educated and certainly by the literate.7 These lost events dominate and define African American
heritage, since it is a heritage with origins in an oral tradition. There are few, if any, factual, written
documents that can tell a linear history of the African American experience from the perspective of the
enslaved. Historic sites interpreted by white perspective tend to present a conflict-free past, yet African
American history forces us to confront the conflict of slavery in American history.8 Two separate
histories can be interpreted at the same site based on these two different perspectives. Blending and
balancing the two is a challenge.
Until fairly recently, the subject of slavery and the African American experience at significant national
6
Ann Denkler, Sustaining Identity, Recapturing Heritage (Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2007), 26-27.
Ibid., 53.
8
Ibid., 67.
7
8
historic sites was treated as a secondary part of the site’s history. For example, until the mid-1980s,
guides at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello referred to slaves as “servants,” and tours focused exclusively
on the life and activities of Jefferson.9 School history books infrequently mentioned slavery, and other
than the information in text books, little was taught in the schools about slavery.10
Without understanding the role of slavery in United States history and the contributions of the enslaved
(then freed) African Americans to our national heritage, the story of United States history is incomplete.
This problem is certainly not confined to Luray, Virginia or to any one region. The story that Denkler
tells is a story repeated across cities, towns, and villages throughout the United States.
For example, the 1991 discovery of a slave cemetery, the African Burial Ground in New York City, took
many New Yorkers by surprise. Most city residents remained unaware of the city’s association with
slavery or of the large number of enslaved that shaped the city’s history. Prior to the uncovering of the
burial ground, those who knew slavery existed in the city, understood slavery to have existed for a very
short time and the number of slaves in the city to be small. This was not an issue considered significant
in the history of New York. This discovery sparked a re-examination of New York’s history and its
connection to the country’s larger history and heritage.11 New research inspired museum exhibits and
public awareness of New York’s unromantic beginnings. The dialog and research that followed affected
how all New Yorkers, both black and white, thought about their history.12 In this case, an important part
of history was literally and figuratively buried. Uncovering the burial ground ignited a search for truth
and a method of filling in the gaps of knowledge of New York and United States history. It helped
9
James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, eds., Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 138.
10
Ibid., 40.
11
Ira Berlin and Leslie M. Harris, eds., Slavery in New York (New York: The New Press in conjunction with The
New-York Historical Society, 2005), 3.
12
Ned Kaufman, Place, Race, and Story: Essays on the Past and Future of Historic Preservation (New York:
Routledge, 2009), 49.
9
rewrite a piece of history.
The causes
People are quite capable of obliterating, forgetting and disowning heritage that they
would rather be without.13
—Peter Howard, Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity
Indeed, heritage is habitually fig-leafed.14
— David Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of
History
History and heritage are sometimes lost, marginalized, subjugated, and altered. This occurs for a variety
of social, economic, and political reasons, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unwittingly. Definitions of
history and heritage aid in understanding the causes.
In Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity, author Peter Howard distinguishes heritage as
anything that any individual identifies as valuable to pass on to future generations.15 He defines it as a
process rather than a product, which is therefore not limited to material objects,16 but, rather, includes
the activities of people.17 Heritage reflects the identity of a person or a group,18 but that identity can be
manipulated. “National identity, for example, is almost entirely contrived, usually deliberately contrived
for clear political purposes.”19 Howard differentiates between history and heritage noting that while
13
Peter Howard, Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity (London: Continuum, 2003), 6.
David Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (New York: The Free
Press, 1996), 155.
15
16
Ibid., 12.
17
Ibid., 9.
18
Ibid., 11.
19
Ibid., 29.
14
10
history is a reflection of events in the past, heritage interprets the past for the present and future.20 In
Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History, Lowenthal takes a similar stand to
Howard, agreeing that history and heritage can never be fully truthful or accurate because history is not
static.
In Speaking for the Enslaved: Heritage Interpretation at Antebellum Plantation Sites, Antoinette T.
Jackson defines history as one story about the past out of many that could potentially be told. Like
Howard, Jackson identifies heritage as something worth saving for present and future access of the past.
The “stakeholder” determining that value can be a family, a community, or a nation.21 These definitions
demonstrate how one event can lead to a number of interpretations which are communicated and
preserved at personal, local, regional, and national levels, depending on the value the stakeholder
places on it. If the stakeholder places little value on an interpretation of an event, that event may fade
from memory or be replaced by those with more meaning to that stakeholder or stakeholder
community.
Political and social influences are implied, if not overtly stated in these definitions. Historic preservation
activities in the United States started as a means of capturing and enforcing an American identity and
were influenced by political and social norms of the times. Thus, these activities indirectly contributed
to the manipulation of history and heritage. This nationalistic view of history and heritage found its way
to local perspectives. Heritage may help distort history, as belief may be more powerful than fact. If a
site is connected with a heritage event, for example, where Christ ascended into heaven, or where
Princess Diana was killed, the authenticity of the site is not important. “…Whenever we are planning
20
Ibid., 21.
Antoinette T. Jackson, Speaking for the Enslaved: Heritage Interpretation at Antebellum Plantation Sites (Walnut
Creek: Left Coast Press, Inc., 2012), 23.
21
11
new heritage events and signs, it is wise to tread softly, for we tread on someone’s dreams.”22
Throughout history, the stories of heroes were passed from generation to generation without close
examination. Some stories can be surrounded by myth, and when this happens it is possible for the
truth behind the myth to have less importance than the actual story.23 The story or myth becomes part
of a person’s identity or experience.
In Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, James Loewen
points out numerous inaccurate historical accounts that Americans have absorbed as truth, for example,
Betsy Ross’ role in producing the first American flag, a story contrived by her descendants when
planning a tourist attraction in Philadelphia.24 Some “heroes” are created by omitting certain facts. For
example, few people know that Helen Keller was a staunch socialist. History focuses on her ability to
overcome overwhelming obstacles as a young woman, and socialism lay in direct conflict with
democratic ideals. Helen Keller’s story was meant to inspire young people to emulate her positive
qualities, and so perceived blemishes on this ideal hero were removed.25
From the earliest days of the United States, its inhabitants set out to establish roots and call the great
melting pot home. The first preservation efforts aimed to save structures that reminded people of the
struggle for independence from England. That struggle unified thirteen colonies that previously had
operated separately. The Revolutionary War transformed South Carolinians and New Yorkers into
Americans. The War of 1812 reinforced the idea of a unified country. Early art, architecture, and
22
Ibid., 96
24
James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 2.
25
Ibid., 26.
23
12
literature offerings of new Americans demonstrated and enforced the notion of an ideal American
identity.
Patriotism and preservation became linked. By remembering the events and leaders of the
Revolutionary War, citizens understood their connection to each other, identifying the path of history to
the current moment. By the mid-1850s, Washington’s homestead, Mount Vernon, had fallen into a
state of disrepair and was to be converted into a hotel. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association was
formed to undertake the first true national preservation project (though it would be years before the
federal government would actively participate in historic preservation). As many realized that a break in
the union was eminent, they looked to this property as a symbol of patriotism, national unity, and
common ground. Mount Vernon was saved as a symbol of national identity. And, thus, preservationists
joined the direction of artists, writers, and architects in establishing a pattern of portraying America as it
should be, and patriotic places as being those associated with white, middle-class or wealthy men.
A sense of continuity and progress is demonstrated in history, with the perspective of a dominant group,
deemed dominant by factors such as power, wealth, and education. When deciding what to conserve,
decision makers typically look to objects and properties that demonstrate a period of prosperity.26 Over
the course of history, many countries have put protective measures in place for items, structures, and
places valued by the dominant group. Even national parks, both in the United States and elsewhere,
reflect places the dominant group likes to visit.27 A survey conducted in 2000 found that of the
respondents that indicated they had visited a National Park System unit in the previous two years, only
thirteen percent of African Americans had visited a National Park, a percentage far below that of other
ethnic groups identified. White non-Hispanics comprised the largest group. Among other reasons
26
27
Ibid., 47.
13
given, African Americans responded that they were uncomfortable in these places.28 In the resulting
report, the National Park Service acknowledged that its 1997 strategic plan did not offer experiences
relevant to people of all ethnic backgrounds.29 The survey was repeated again in 2009, with almost
identical results.30 Over time, the dominant group naturally evolves or changes, and when this happens
people re-evaluate their history and, at times, reassess the value of historical events to be carried to the
future.
In A Richer Heritage, author Robert Stipe acknowledges the narrow view of United States heritage in
preservation practice, even in the mid-1960s when With Heritage So Rich was published – published
without including the view of social or ethnic history which explains so much of our built environment.
Stipe attributes this perspective to the lack of social history in the United States educational system
which focused on the military and politics, highlighting the successes of national heroes, which were
typically Euro-American males.31
Loewen asserts that American history books don’t adequately present history, but rather present a call
to blind patriotism by emphasizing national accomplishments and neglecting social issues. He asserts
that American history is impaired by omissions and distortions.32 Because of the way primary and
secondary school history teachers learn and teach history, Americans may be unaware of their own gaps
in knowledge about their country’s history and their own heritage. “Not understanding their past
28
Northern Arizona University, Ethnic and Racial Diversity of National Park System Visitors and Non-Visitors
Technical Report (Technical Report, National Park Service, 2003), 1.
29
Ibid., 3.
30
Rob Lovitt, "Where are the people of color in national parks?" NBCNews.com. August 3, 2011 (accessed March 2,
2013), http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44008927/ns/travel-news/t/where-are-people-color-national-parks/.
31
Robert E. Stipe, ed., A Richer Heritage (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 386.
32
James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 7.
14
renders many Americans incapable of thinking effectively about our present and future.”33 Given these
assertions, it is understandable that any group outside the dominant culture could have been
overlooked in the composition of the American story.
This skewed view of American history in the classrooms continues today. State boards of education
adopt curriculum standards and twenty state boards also adopt textbooks, creating a powerful financial
incentive for text book publishers to meet expectations. The boards are therefore able to influence the
content and tone of text books. In Texas, for example, the state board of education has been accused of
tainting the accuracy of history in order to promote its own conservative agenda.34
In 2010, the Texas Board of Education revised its social studies curriculum and its requests for textbook
content to portray American history in a more conservative light. Noting that history was already
skewed, the board believed its new curriculum would pull academia from left to center. The curriculum
and the new textbooks to teach it do not include Latino figures, despite the large Latino population in
Texas. The curriculum rejects the idea that American founding fathers intended a separation of church
and state. It emphasizes the superiority of American capitalism. It adds the study of conservative
movements demonstrated by the Contract with America, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle
Association. It does address the Civil Rights Movement, with selected perspectives of selected events,
people, and organizations.35
School curriculum and school text books must always be updated, and they will be updated by different
groups of people whose values and sense of history are molded by their own experiences and their own
33
Ibid., 9.
James C. McKinley Jr., "Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change." The New York Times, March 12, 2010
(accessed February 28, 2013), http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html.
35
Ibid.
34
15
times. Achieving true balance and equal representation of all groups and perspectives can be a
daunting, if not impossible, task.
In explaining the inaccuracies and omissions in historical accounts at an international level, Lowenthal
asserts that we inherit a history that may not be accurate or complete, but rather a history that has
survived the test of time. This history we deem credible.36 It is propagated by those who do not or
cannot question it. There are so many stories and so many “truths,” that to be firmly attached to one
may be perceived as offensive to people holding fast to another.
Heritage and history rely on antithetical modes of persuasion. History seeks to convince
by truth and succumbs to falsehood. Heritage exaggerates and omits, candidly invents
and frankly forgets, and thrives on ignorance and error. Historians’ pasts, too, are
always altered by time and hindsight.37
In addressing exclusion of groups outside the dominant culture, Lowenthal notes that groups push
others away through claims of superiority. Each group asserts its heritage as it feels it ought to be,
thereby creating a sense of superiority, whether or not intentional.38 Historians focus on the stories of
their own people, that is, the history with which they are familiar, and, in doing so, may neglect the
history of others.39 These exclusionary perspectives lead to exclusionary practices and separate
“stakeholder” communities who share history but not heritage.
36
David Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (New York: The Free
Press, 1996), 120.
37
Ibid., 121.
38
Ibid., 128.
39
Ibid., 119.
16
Even with a new social consciousness, Americans have trouble resolving the conflict of slavery at sites
preserved for patriotic purposes. History is retold with an applied layer of current perspectives and
awareness, breeding a sensitivity that may be perceived as avoidance or cover-ups.40
These practices have inadvertently omitted, hidden, and altered the history and heritage of many
people in the United States, including immigrant groups, women, and children, but particularly Native
Americans and African Americans. In acknowledging the methods and mindsets that shape our
historical knowledge and awareness, we can attempt to uncover and recapture some of the heritage
that makes Americans American. In recent years, we have been motivated to recognize and protect
history and heritage, including intangible cultural heritage.
In summary, there are many layered causes of distorted and incomplete views of American history and
heritage. Nationalism and patriotism, necessary for the formation of the United States, promoted an
idealized view of the country and its accomplishments. Political and social blemishes received “fig-leaf”
cover-ups and faded into the recesses of American consciousness. The educational system propagated
selective memory, which installed a false sense of national unity in successive generations of Americans.
Preservation activities followed and enforced the political and social agendas of each era. And
preservation activities now provide a method of recovering history.
40
Ibid., 153.
17
Potential solutions
History as seen by scholars today means open inquiry into any and every past.41
— David Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of
History
The places that commemorate sad history are not places in which we wallow, or wallow
in remorse, but instead places in which we may be moved to a new resolve, to be better
citizens… Explaining history from a variety of angles makes it not only more interesting,
but also more true. When it is more true, more people come to feel that they have a
part in it. That is where patriotism and loyalty intersect with truth.42
—John Hope Franklin in The National Park Service and Civic Engagement
Opportunities to re-examine and rewrite history present themselves in many ways, some unexpected,
such as the discovery of the African Burial Ground in New York City, others more subtle and indirect,
such as Denkler’s evaluation of the preservation of two schoolhouses in Luray, Virginia. To retrieve
these histories, new information must become part of public history and public awareness.
The National Park Service has historically supported and led efforts to preserve African American
history. In 1943, Congress added the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond,
Missouri to the National Park System. In 1956, it added the Booker T. Washington National Monument
in Hardy, Virginia. In 1962, the Frederick Douglass House in Washington, D.C. came under National Park
System management.43 However, these sites were evaluated and nominated by Congress, without local
41
Ibid., 119.
John Hope Franklin in The National Park Service and Civic Engagement (Philadelphia: National Park Service,
2001), 6.
43
Robert E. Stipe, A Richer Heritage (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 386.
42
18
community research and input.
Stipe identifies a need for the National Park Service, state historic sites, and locally and privately
operated sites to expand the interpretation of their sites to tell the “untold stories” through continuing
research. He provides the example of Civil War battlefield interpretations, which originally focused
solely on battle maneuvers and military leaders. This focus was limited in an effort to avoid a discussion
of slavery. When the sites were reinterpreted, they appealed to a broader audience.44
Preservation policies and laws have been fashioned in the last half century to empower citizens to
participate in the decisions of what to preserve and why. These acts create a more holistic approach to
preserving American heritage, incorporating the importance of intangible cultural heritage in
determining eligibility of sites, structures, and objects nominated for listing on the National Register of
Historic Places. The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was a pivotal action. It put in place the
National Register of Historic Places, which allowed people to nominate and protect places of value to
their communities that might not have national significance. It also enabled states to give local
governments the authority to create regulatory historic districts.
Local research exposes intangible cultural heritage. It was through these local surveys that the modern
preservation movement began. “An enhanced public understanding of cultural diversity began to
appear in large and small preservation projects when the National Register broadened its concept of
what was worth preserving and added vernacular, industrial, and natural resources to its nomination
criteria.”45
44
45
Ibid., 400.
Ibid., 16.
19
While the United States has been and still is a “melting pot” of many cultures, this diversity is not
demonstrated by listings on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2004, the National Register of
Historic Places contained over 77,000 listings. Of those, only about 1,300 were directly associated with
African American heritage. This low number raises the question of African American participation in
historic preservation programs and the obstacles in doing so.46 The National Park Service continues to
commission studies to address issues of diversity, but much work lies ahead.
Intangible heritage is not represented by a defined object or place. It gives meaning and value to
tangible cultural heritage, that is, objects, sites, and structures. It includes oral traditions, crafts,
performing arts, foodways, language, and other activities and values of communities. Some cultures
reject the distinction between tangible and intangible heritage because it does not represent an holistic
view of culture and heritage which includes values associates with objects and places. 47 Identifying
intangible cultural heritage, particularly because of its dynamic nature, is a difficult task. It is particularly
vulnerable to non-local influences. Social or community-defined values associated with heritage can
help identify heritage. Communities at all levels (local, regional, national) should consider additional
criteria for listing intangible cultural heritage in national registers.48
In establishing methods of preserving intangible cultural heritage, communities must take into account
the fluid nature of living intangible cultural heritage in practicing communities. Since heritage retains its
meaning through the practicing community’s involvement, safeguarding practices will necessarily be
46
47
Harriet Deacon, The Subtle Power of Intangible Heritage (Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council
Publishers, 2004), 28-29.
48
Ibid., 37-38.
20
different from those applied to material objects and places.49 Heritage practice requires different
methods of preservation that encourage future transmission.50
Acts that followed the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 encouraged local participation in the
preservation of American heritage. In 1976 the U.S. Congress addressed the importance of our living
cultural heritage through the American Folklife Preservation Act. In 1980, Congress amended the
National Historic Preservation Act and requested that the Department of the Interior together with the
Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center study the conservation of intangible cultural resources.51
The resulting report recommended that intangible cultural heritage elements be more systemically
addressed in implementing the National Historic Preservation Act and other preservation authorities.
The National Park Service began to prepare guidelines to assist in the documentation of intangible
cultural resources.
In 1992 the National Register of Historic Places issued Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting
Traditional Cultural Properties. This document helped people identify properties eligible for inclusion in
the National Register because of their association with intangible cultural heritage. These guidelines
were meant to be used with other National Register guidance bulletins, including Guidelines for
Completing National Register of Historic Places Forms.
The bulletin emphasizes Native American properties, but does not exclude others. The bulletin does not
address purely intangible cultural resources. It states that “the National Register is not the appropriate
vehicle for recognizing cultural values that are purely intangible, nor is there legal authority to address
49
Ibid., 60.
Ibid., 61.
51
50
21
them under 106 unless they are somehow related to a historic property.”52 The National Register
includes districts, sites, buildings, structures, or objects: tangible cultural resources.
In nominating properties with associations to intangible cultural heritage, criteria may be met in slightly
different ways. For example, for Criterion A, which is “association with events that have made a
significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history,” the word “our” may refer to the group
claiming the cultural significance of the property and the word “history” may also include oral history.
Identifying the period of significance may reflect the reference of time of the nominating group and
does not need to be based on Euroamerican history periods.53
As a result of the continuing conversations of what to preserve in the U.S. and why, and the importance
of intangible cultural heritage in understanding and appreciating the tangible, the first National Heritage
Area was designated in 1984. As defined in the National Heritage Area report of 2006:
National heritage areas are places where natural, cultural, historic, and scenic resources
combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape arising from patterns of
human activity shaped by geography. These patterns make National Heritage Areas
representative of the national experience through the physical features that remain and
the traditions that have evolved in them. These regions are acknowledged by Congress
for their capacity to tell nationally important stories about our nation.54
Once a region is designated, the National Park Service offers financial and technical assistance, though it
does not own any of the land. Heritage areas are organized and sustained by a partnership among
52
Patricia L. Parker and Thomas F. King, National Register Bulletin: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting
Traditional Cultural Properties (National Park Service: 1990, revised 1992, 1998), 3.
53
Ibid., 12-13.
54
National Park System Advisory Board, “Charting a Future for National Heritage Areas,” (Indianapolis: Moore
Langen, 2006), 2.
22
citizens, local, state, and federal governments, and nonprofit and private interests. These entities work
together to establish long-term goals for their communities by identifying and preserving the distinct
characteristics of the designated region. These characteristics or qualities are broad in definition and
include natural, historic, and scenic resources.55 Because the goals are community-derived, each area
can have different goals. Some establish conservation or preservation programs and others concentrate
on heritage tourism. Unlike other historic property designations, the resources are linked together
without emphasis on the tangible. The following examples demonstrate varying goals and management
plans of established National Heritage Areas:
•
The Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Area once had a 165-mile transportation
system for delivering anthracite coal along the Eastern coast. When the National Heritage Area
was designated, a plan was put in place to reconnect the transportation network and revitalize
the surrounding communities. A museum and visitor center was opened, which spurred more
than 50 new businesses in the area to accommodate the increasing number of visitors.56
•
The cultural influences of Scotch-Irish settlers and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians
were evident in the communities of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. The management
plan involved the arts and crafts communities to ensure these cultural heritage elements were
fostered and preserved.57
•
The history of Henry Ford’s invention of the automobile and its subsequent transformation of
American culture and the American landscape is preserved in part because of the designation of
the Motor Cities National Heritage Area. This designation encouraged the construction of a new
visitor center, increasing tourism and education opportunities.58
55
National Heritage Areas FAQs, accessed February 2, 2011, http://www.nps.gov/history/heritageareas/faq/.
National Park System Advisory Board, “Charting a Future for National Heritage Areas,” (Indianapolis: Moore
Langen, 2006), 18.
57
Ibid., 19.
58
Ibid., 22.
56
23
In 2006, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor was designated a National Heritage Area,
meaning it is recognized as containing historic resources of national significance. The Corridor is the
only National Heritage Area that deals exclusively with African American culture. How stakeholders
preserve, manage, and interpret the resources within the Corridor is of particular importance, as it may
well reveal a new perspective on American history. This federal designation offers a unique opportunity
to examine and re-examine the heritage represented by the people and the built environments in the
Corridor area. It stimulates research efforts and provides venues for disseminating newly-acquired
knowledge. One way of disseminating this knowledge is through heritage tourism programs within the
Corridor that attract and educate both residents and visitors, exposing them to history previously
marginalized.
Initially, preservation activities and laws emphasized patriotism, nationalism, and the perspective of the
Euro-American dominant culture, unintentionally overlooking the heritage of others who also shared an
“American identity.” With encouragement from fairly-recent preservation laws and the National Park
Service, all American citizens have an opportunity to identify what to preserve and why, and that
includes material culture representative of intangible cultural heritage. These ongoing activities fill the
voids of historical knowledge and create understanding of both similar and distinct characteristics of all
Americans.
24
Chapter 3: A Move Towards Center: Re-examining History in the Gullah
Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor management plan focuses on African American culture
which remains intact in the Corridor. Research throws a spotlight on the culture’s development and
survival, pushing untold stories of the past into plain view. The different cultural landscapes within the
Corridor offer an opportunity to study the retention of cultural heritage in the Lowcountry at a more
personal level. The varying cultural landscapes required different roles of the enslaved within their
communities and within the larger context of Lowcountry. More granular examination of the Corridor
landscapes further identifies unique means of sustaining cultural heritage and dispels a generalized
perspective of life on “Southern plantations.”
The Gullah Geechee People
We are all proud of our heritage. I can still see the ladies at such places as Raccoon Bluff
fishing with a drop line and cane pole from a batteau boat, while trusting in the Lord
because they couldn’t swim; the men fishing at night with flambeau, looking for
alligators with a long pole and giant hook.59
—Cornelia Bailey in The Legacy of Ibo Landing
The Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of enslaved Africans from many different West African
nations who were brought to this country to apply their skills, crafts, and knowledge for the financial
benefit of their white owners. They are identified by a unique and well-preserved culture. It is a cultural
heritage that distinguishes the Gullah Geechees from other African American groups in the United
59
Marquetta L., Goodwine, ed., The Legacy of Ibo Landing: Gullah Roots of African American Culture (Atlanta:
Clarity Press, Inc., 1998), 85.
25
States. The Gullah in Georgia are sometimes called Geechee, with the term “Geechee” possibly coming
from the fact that enslaved West Africans were smuggled into the Lowcountry along the Ogeechee River
in Georgia. “Gullah” may be derived from an abbreviation of “Angolans” which became “Golas,” and
which in turn became “Gullah.”60
Regardless of their origin, the terms identify a people whose rich culture was shaped by place, that is,
land and sea, as well as efforts to retain African tradition within the scope of the new society in which
they found themselves. The Gullah Geechee people forged a distinct culture demonstrated in arts,
crafts, foodways, music, and language. The Sea Islands continued to absorb newly imported slaves from
the illegal trade that continued after the slave trade was outlawed in the United States in 1808.
Therefore, African culture was regularly reintroduced to the slave population.
With few Europeans on the coastal and Sea Island areas, African traditions were reinforced and
maintained.61 The islanders became agriculturally self-sufficient. After the Civil War, African Americans
from many areas of the South migrated westward or to urban centers, becoming homogenized into
mainstream American culture (as much as African Americans were allowed to participate). However,
the Gullah Geechee people of the Lowcountry and coastal surrounds, for the most part, stayed in place.
“A hostile society led Gullah Geechee communities to remain unto themselves for almost another
century.”62 The islands were inaccessible by land; some remain so even today.
60
Emory Campbell, Gullah Cultural Legacies (Hilton Head Island: Gullah Heritage Consulting Services, 2008), 5.
Patricia Jones-Jackson, When Roots Die: Endangered Traditions on the Sea Islands (Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 1987), 9.
62
National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, "Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management
Plan," Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, 2012, accessed September 8, 2012,
http://www.gullahgeecheecorridor.org/, 5.
61
26
Among the unique traits of the Gullah are their language, concept of family, religious practices, folktales,
gestures, crafts, and agricultural preferences.63 The most immediately noticeable cultural element of
the Gullah Geechee people is their language, a Creole language that blended multiple African languages
with English. Until fairly recently, many whites determined that this language was evidence of inferior
minds and the language was not permitted in schools. The language has its own rhythm, tempo,
intonation and grammar and is difficult for outsiders to understand. However, when the language was
studied by linguists in the 1930s, it was clear that many words of Gullah origin had passed into American
speech, for example, words such as “yam,” and “gumbo.”64
More than any other attribute, it [language] characterized and molded together the
individuals of the sea-island community. Unique in lexicon, syntax, and intonation, the
speech formed an abiding bond of understanding among the slaves. An inflection in the
voice, a change in tone, could covey to a fellow black a secret thought hidden from
whites.65
For the Gullah Geechee people, the sense of a family unit extends beyond the immediate family and
encompasses relatives in different houses. This networking produces an economic and social unit. This
sense of community living is projected in the structure and arrangement of houses built by blacks in the
Lowcountry and extended areas within the heritage Corridor. Many communities have clusters of
homes, with each house occupied by an extended member of a family and his or her own nuclear
families.66 The land on which these extended family members live is not sold, but passed on through
unwritten contracts known as “heir’s land.”67 Unfortunately, the legal ownership is often questioned
63
William S. Pollitzer, The Gullah People and their African Heritage (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999),
7-9.
64
Ibid., 7-8.
65
Ibid., 129.
66
8-9.
67
27
and people living on the land are unable to sell it, creating a situation where the land is potentially lost
by African American families.
Religious services incorporate a call-and-response fashion of preaching, with ring shout, singing, and
dancing. While based in Christianity, certain African beliefs still mingle, including the idea of witches
riding people and a practice of “root,” which some outsiders liken to voodoo or magic. The religion of
the Gullah Geechee people has strong Baptist influence. The Baptists had practiced an informal form of
worship and there was little white supervision of these services among the black communities. Religion
was a means to create a cohesive black community.68
Many plantations allowed “praise houses” where the Gullah Geechee slaves could practice their religion
independently. These were small structures, often a plantation slave cabin, which partially quelled the
fear of whites that slaves were gathering in large numbers. It was most likely in the praise houses that
some of the current form of Gullah religious services started, for example, stomping and clapping. After
obtaining their freedom, Gullah people built or bought churches, but the praise houses were more
conveniently located, enabling people to come to worship multiple times a week. Praise houses became
community centers for Gullah life as well.69
Folktales include talking animals, with one of the most famous being Brer Rabbit. The essence of the
stories is illuminated through the telling and the setting of the telling. Tales are not designed to be read
but to be performed and heard. They are performed any place people meet. Written versions of oral
68
137.
69
Jeff Kidd, "Praise houses are a portal into the past," IslandPacket.com, March 10, 2010, accessed September 14,
2012, http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/05/1161830/praise-houses-a-portal-into-the.html.
28
tales capture the words but they do not capture the “telling of the tale.”70 The building of bridges and
the introduction of electricity have changed the occasions for telling folk tales. Children on the more
industrialized islands are now entertained by television.71
Gullah crafts reflect African style. Grass-basket weaving is one of the dominant crafts and one of the
oldest crafts of African origin in the United States. While “show baskets” demonstrate European
influences, the traditional work basket designs demonstrate the surviving African craft.72 Other crafts,
such as quilting, ironworking, wood carving, and pottery also retain African roots.
Many Africans brought to South Carolina were already skilled in growing rice, which had been a staple
food in Africa. Rice is the central part of Gullah Geechee family meals even today.73 The Gullah
Geechee people provided their own food by hunting, fishing, and gardening. At early ages all children
were and are still taught self-sufficiency through using natural resources for both sustenance and
medicine. Other plants introduced to United States soil through the slave trade were okra, sesame seed
(benneseed), cowpeas, watermelon, eggplant, and peanuts. To treat ailments, the Gullah Geechee
people grew medicinal herbs that were similar to those they knew in Africa.74
The retention of this heritage is remarkable in a people whose activities were strictly monitored and
directed for generations. The enslaved population held fast to their roots. Their ability to do so was
enhanced by political actions that influenced changes in the southern economy. The shift in economy
70
71
Ibid., 37.
72
Ibid., 18.
73
Marquetta L. Goodwine, ed., The Legacy of Ibo Landing: Gullah Roots of African American Culture (Atlanta:
Clarity Press, Inc., 1998), 137.
74
196.
29
created a cultural landscape, that is, a built and natural environment that could exist only in the
Lowcountry.
Figure 1. Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (National Park Service,
http://www.nps.gov/guge/planyourvisit/directions.htm)
The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is a coastal strip of land and islands about 250 miles long
and 40 miles wide in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida (Figure 1). The heart of the
Corridor is in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. The Gullah people have called this area home for hundreds
of years. In examining the Lowcountry segment of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the
development and retention of this culture can be understood and appreciated. It is through this
examination that this culture and history becomes integrated into the larger context of United States
history.
30
Antebellum Cultural Landscapes of the Lowcountry
I must make good use of the time, because early in May the heat becomes great in the
South, and then all the planters remove from their plantations to avoid the dangerous
fevers which then prevail. During the summer months, it is said that a night spent on
one of the rice-plantations would be certain death to a white man.75
—Frederika Bremer, Homes of the New World
Much of southern history can be described as having taken place on two cultural landscapes: urban
centers and plantations. Vlach breaks down plantation landscapes further, defining the planters’
plantation landscape and the African Americans’ plantation landscape. Lifeways were distinctly
different in each.76 The Lowcountry antebellum economy necessitated a third cultural landscape, that is,
the planters’ summer cottage communities. This research focuses on the unique plantation landscapes
of Lowcountry and the evolution of summer cottage communities, specifically in the area previously
known as Beaufort District. Lowcountry plantations and summer cottage communities each helped
mold and define the other.
Rice Plantations
The Lowcountry provided a geography that enabled planters to grow profitable crops that did not grow
anywhere else; Lowcountry is identified as being at or nearly at sea level. In early colonial days, indigo
proved to be a lucrative crop. England imported indigo dye produced in France, but war with France cut
that supply and created an opportunity for Lowcountry planters to replace that supply. However, British
75
Fredrika Bremer, The Homes of the New World; Impressions of America, Vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers,
1853), 283.
76
John Michael Vlach, Back of the Big House: The Architecture of Plantation Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1993), 2-17.
31
trade restrictions limited the distribution of that product. 77 The American Revolution further limited
markets, and caterpillars destroyed crops in 1780.78 At that time, rice was free from the trade
restrictions imposed on indigo, and so it was shipped throughout northern Europe. Rice was considered
a “bonanza crop,” which required only mud and labor to guarantee a family’s fortune. The Lowcountry
was full of low-lying salt water marshland as well as inland fresh water, both of which were necessary
for successful rice cultivation.79 A device for husking rice was available in 1790, increasing the potential
for prosperity.80 Because of the Lowcountry planters’ success with indigo, the Lowcountry had in place
adaptable social and labor structures.81 And so rice fields flourished (Figure 2).
Figure 2. African American workers on Cape Fear River rice plantation, N.C. Threshing (Library of
Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007677024/)
77
Samuel Gaillard Stoney, Plantations of the Carolina Low Country, 7th (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. in
association with The Carolina Art Association, Charleston, SC, 1989 (replication of 1977 seventh edition)), 27.
78
Theodore Rosengarten, Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter with the Journal of Thomas B. Chaplin (18221890)(New York: Quill , 1986), 49.
79
80
Ibid.
81
32
One observer described what he saw as follows:
…rice fields, the surface of which is leveled with almost mathematical exactness, as it is
necessary to overflow them at particular periods from various canals which intersect
them, and which communicate with rivers whose waters are thrown back by the flowing
of the tide.82
The need for labor in establishing rice plantations was great. Swamps needed to be cleared, the fields
laid out, and a method for flooding the fields from nearby tidal rivers by ditches, canals, and dams also
had to be put in place.83 In addition, preparing the rice for market was labor-intensive. Milling was
performed partly by hand and partly by animal power.84 Since Europeans had little to no experience in
successful rice cultivation, they sought the skills of Africans from the African West Coast, an area where
rice was plentiful.85 Because of the concentration of slaves from the west coast of Africa in the
Lowcountry, African methods of planting, hoeing, winnowing, and threshing the rice were employed.86
The slave trade increased dramatically as rice production expanded in the Lowcountry.
From 1720 to 1726 an average of about 600 slaves were imported into the colony
annually, while an average of over 71,000 hundredweight of rice were exported. From
1731 to 1738 the colony imported an average of more than 2,000 slaves each year,
compared to average exports of almost 143,000 hundredweight of rice. By 1740
82
Adam Hodgson, Remarks During A Journey Through North America 1819 To 1821 With An Account Of Several
Of The Indian Tribes And The Principal Missionary Stations 1823, edited by Samuel Whiting (Whitefish: Reprinted
by Kessinger Publishing, 2007), 119-120.
83
Charles Joyner, Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community (Chicago: University of Illinois
Press, 1984), 13.
84
David Doar, Rice and Rice Planting in the South Carolina Low Country (Charleston: The Charleston Museum,
1936 (Second printing 1970)), 18.
85
Press, 1984), 13.
86
North Carolina Press, 1993), 57-58.
33
Africans in South Carolina numbered nearly 40,000 and exports of rice numbered over
308,000 hundredweight.87
Most newly-arriving slaves went to the South Carolina Lowcountry which dominated the rice market. In
1860 the United States produced 5,000,000 bushels of rice. Of that amount, South Carolina produced
3,500,000 bushels. North Carolina and Georgia produced the rest.88 On November 23, 1861, Harpers
Weekly published a map of South Carolina showing the proportion of African Americans, both free and
slave, to the aggregate population of each county. The map notes that almost all of these African
Americans were slaves. In Georgetown, Charleston, Colleton, and Beaufort Districts, the heart of
Lowcountry, several parishes claimed a population where over 90% were African Americans. City
populations were more balanced. For example, Charleston’s African American population was 53% of
the entire population and six sevenths of those were free.89
87
Press, 1984), 14.
88
1936 (Second printing 1970)), 43.
89
Harper's Weekly, "Map of South Carolina, Showing the Proportion of Slaves in Each County," November 23,
1861: 741.
34
Federal census data for St. Luke’s Parish in Beaufort District shows the following breakdown of the
population during antebellum years:90
Census date
Total Inhabitants
Number of whites
Number of slaves
Number of free blacks
1800
6,608
720
5,887
1
1810
8,175
915
7,260
0
1820
5,583
756
4,809
18
1830
9,422
1,005
8,298
119
1840
8,304
1,118
7,029
157
1850
8,841
1,262
7,385
194
The St. Luke’s Parish data from 1820 reflects a drop in rice production in the Lowcountry of South
Carolina. This drop in production was due to President Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo Act of 1807 and the
War of 1812.91 The 1860 census was formatted differently than from previous years and the breakdown
of the population is not evident. However, the very large percentage of slaves in St. Luke’s Parish is
demonstrated in the previous decades and can be assumed to be similar at the start of the Civil War.
Throughout much of the South and particularly on cotton plantations, slaves worked under close
supervision in a “gang system” of labor. However, in the Lowcountry, the task system was the prevalent
labor organizing method. In the task system, each person received a daily assignment of work. Tasks
were established and defined so that they were the same from plantation to plantation, enabling
90
The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, Inc., St. Luke's Parish Beaufort District South Carolina Census
Records 1790-1900 (Bluffton: The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, Inc., 1996).
91
William Dusinberre, Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Rice Swamps (Athens, Georgia: The University of
35
flexibility and efficiency.92 When tasks were completed, slaves could work for themselves or earn time
off. Most plantations allowed slaves to grow their own gardens and raise their own meat, which,
cultivated on their own time, belonged to them. They could keep it, trade it, or sell it.93
Adam Hodgson, an English traveler in the United States in 1820 and 1821 described the task system on
rice plantations in Lowcountry. He wrote that the enslaved started work at sunrise and finished
anywhere from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM in the evening. He noted how vastly different this system was from
the gang system he witnessed in the West Indies where slaves worked a specified number of hours
under strict and cruel supervision.94 While slaves on rice plantations were still in bondage, they were
able to secure control over some small aspects of their lives.
The slaves on rice plantations generally possessed a number of skills, including carpentry, bricklaying,
shoemaking, spinning, and blacksmithing. They contributed African traditions in material culture, such
as basket making for winnowing rice, and canoe building. Plantation boat carpenters constructed
various types of boats, including those used to move households between residences.95 Skilled
craftsmen were in demand and could make arrangements to work outside the plantation.96
David Doar also noted the variety of skills necessary to keep a rice plantation running, including
carpentry skills to build trunks, repair houses, and build and repair fences. Blacksmiths completed iron
work, repaired plows, and made nails. Doar noted that these people may not have been artisans but
92
93
Ibid.
94
by Kessinger Publishing, 2007), 118.
95
Charles Joyner, Remember Me: Slave Life in Coastal Georgia. Revised 2011 (Athens: The University of Georgia
Press, 1989, revised ed. 2011), 26.
96
Ibid., 29
36
were intelligent and had been sent to city trade schools, enabling them to do any kind of work in their
line, including the repair of engines and boilers.97
While visiting a rice plantation near Charleston, Frederick Law Olmstead provided a similar description
of skilled slaves. He described one “gentlemanly-mannered” slave who claimed managerial
responsibilities on the plantation. This individual had been raised in the “big house,” receiving some
education through his close association with the white children of the household. The plantation owner
noticed his talent and paid to have him educated to become a machinist, enabling him to repair and
maintain plantation machinery as well as hire himself out for wages.98
Rice planters reaped success and wanted to demonstrate it by building or enhancing their plantation
homes. “Noble porticos were put on the fronts of old houses, fine wings were added to the fine old
work of others. New and delightful plantation houses were built with money from the rice-field mud of
many rivers.”99 This sense of permanence on the plantation land and in the manor home was soon
shattered.
The expansion of rice fields brought an unexpected consequence. Standing water in the canals and
fields attracted mosquitoes, beginning in the first warmth of spring and lasting until the frost of late fall.
Malaria, which had always confronted the Lowcountry population, became more malignant.100 In
addition, yellow fever became a threat around 1790, a threat thought to have been introduced by
97
1936 (Second printing 1970)), 30-31.
98
Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States In the Years 1853-1854 with Remarks on Their
Economy (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, reprinted by Book Jungle, Champaign, IL, in 2007, 1904 (first published
in 1856)), 55.
99
100
Ibid.
37
French immigrants from St. Domingo.101 While the African populations of rice plantations also suffered
mosquito-borne malaria and yellow fever, their natural defense was better developed than that of the
white population, most likely due to their exposure to these diseases on the African rice coast which
improved their immunity to them. The sources of these diseases were unknown, and they were deadly;
thus, they were feared. Visitors were aware of the almost-certain fatal consequences of being in the
“country” during the unhealthy season, which was identified as the period from early to mid-spring and
lasting until late fall. The characteristics of healthy land also varied based on the survival rate of those
removed to these places.
In describing this concern and the migration away from the plantations in the summer, Adam Hodgson
wrote that once families were removed to the city or other such safe locations, “…it is considered in the
highest degree hazardous to sleep a single night in the country.” Otherwise, “…fatal consequences
would generally be expected…” Owners were not expected to return until the passing of the unhealthy
season.102
Planters’ Summer Cottage Communities
The molding and shaping of plantation land for rice production necessitated the molding and shaping of
land in which to escape the unhealthy season of Lowcountry rice plantations. Historically, many
plantation owners either owned or rented townhouses in places where they conducted business, for
example, trading and selling their products. Because of the remote locations and poor means of travel
between plantations, urban areas, such as Charleston, Savannah, and even Beaufort, became social and
political centers for the scattered plantation families. However, these places were not without periods
101
Margaret Ruth Little, Carolina Cottage: A Personal History of the Piazza House (Charlottesville: University of
Virginia Press, 2010), 57.
102
38
of disease, so were not considered refuges from the unhealthy seasons of the rice plantations. By the
early 1800s, Charleston had suffered the effects of yellow fever.103 In 1816, Alexander Lawton wrote in
his diary that a “yellow and bilious fever” killed one sixth of the white population in Beaufort that year
and two hundred in Savannah in the month of October alone.104 Safer locations were necessary.
In that ten years [1790-1800] a number of little villages sprang up all over the plantation
country. Sea Island people chose the beaches for themselves, inlanders the pine lands,
and lightly built, airy little houses with many piazzas were spotted along the sand-dunes
or scattered among the pines, where the breezes of the ocean or the terebinthine odors
of the pines would protect the plantation people from the night miasmas.105
Thus began a transient life for Lowcountry planter families and some number of their slaves. This
abrupt and significant lifestyle alteration affected culture, politics, spiritual life, architecture, and
society. Many wealthy planters owned or rented town homes and those who still aspired to spend time
in town, now felt an urgency to do so. Time away from the plantation seemed to breed excuses for
more time away from the plantations, and many began to spend long periods of time at places such as
Flat Rock, North Carolina; Virginia Springs, Virginia; Balston Spa, New York; and Newport, Rhode Island.
In time, many would recognize the benefit of staying closer to the plantations to facilitate better
management.
The unhealthy, sickly season was considered to begin in May and last until the frost of November. On
May 17, 1857, Adele Petigru Allston noted in a letter to Robert F. W. Allston from her plantation, Chicora
103
104
Carolyn L. Harrell, Kith and Kin: A Portrait of a Southern Family 1630-1934 (Macon: Mercer University Press,
1984), 174.
105
39
Wood, that the family rose in health that day. She gave recommendations for family members to start
getting out to the beach, then cautioned Robert, “We ought to move before you come home as I do not
think it would be well for you to pass a night on the plantation after returning; tho the weather is still
very cool.”106
The fear of the night miasmas was so strong and the need to properly manage a plantation so urgent
that some planters built summer cottages in wooded acreage removed from the planted areas on their
plantation land. Alexander Lawton of Beaufort District built a summer cottage he called “Transpine” on
acreage within his Mulberry Grove plantation before settling into the summer cottage community of
Robertville.107
Transforming the Plantation Landscape
Another change was taking place. With time at the plantations reduced for the white planter families,
and a commuting lifestyle underway, plantation architecture changed. In addition, throughout the
South, new Americans began throwing off their English traditions of passing land and home to the eldest
son, since this practice was viewed as representative of the former aristocracy. The plantation was no
longer the country seat. Simple wood structures began to replace brick.108 In Lowcountry, the almostempty plantation home needed to be built only for comfort and utility. The plantation house was
transformed to become a residence from which to work. It was only marginally more elaborate or
106
J. H. Easterby, ed. The South Carolina Rice Plantation as Revealed in the Papers of Robert F. Allston
(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004), 137.
107
1984), 174.
108
40
decorated than the “camp-cottages” at the beaches or in the pinelands.109
Enslaved skilled carpenters were engaged to construct buildings for both plantations and summer
cottages. Renty Tucker of Hagley plantation built a chapel on the plantation of Plowden C.J. Weston. In
addition, he built the Weston summer cottage in Pawley’s Island, hewing lumber on the plantation,
numbering the boards, and assembling the structure once it was transported to the island.110 Other
such examples of buildings being produced at plantation carpenter shops, transported to the summer
cottage location, and assembled there, indicate that this may have been a common practice. These
examples provide more evidence of the Gullah Geechee contribution to the shaping of the land and of
life in Lowcountry.
Reverend Charles Edward Leverett’s letter to his son Edward on December 22, 1855 described
construction of the family plantation house, Canaan, in Beaufort District. He identified Ephraim, Billy,
and Lewis as bringing in the building materials by raft. He noted the slow progress of the work and
stated that Mr. Archibald Seabrook was going to hire his carpenters to the Leveretts to work on the
plantation house. Ephraim and Lewis were to cut more lumber at the pinelands of McPhersonville
(summer cottage community) for the house. Solomon built the chimney and Leverett noted that “the
bricks [are] not laid so square as they would be by a professional man,” but he was satisfied with the
work overall. Multiple buildings were being erected and a smokehouse moved. The houses were all
whitewashed, but it is not clear if the plantation house was one of those.111
109
Ibid., 40.
Press, 1984), 72.
111
Frances Wallace Taylor, Catherine Taylor Matthews and J. Tracy Power, The Leverett Letters: Correspondence
of a South Carolina Family 1851-1868 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000), 28-29.
110
41
Descriptions of plantation homes during this period confirm the utilitarian appearance and finishes.
Emily Burke, a northern visitor to Georgia, described a plantation house she visited as a clapboard
structure with no ceiling or plaster in the interior. She explained that this lack of luxury came about as a
result of migration and the need to be “moveable.” Wealth was measured by other possessions, for
example, number of slaves, livestock, furniture, carriages, etc. 112 While Burke expressed surprise at the
lack of domestic comforts, Lowcountry planters accepted this standard as a circumstance of the
economy of rice planting.113 The “big house” on Rose Hill Plantation, owned by Charles Heyward near
Charleston, was described as a plain, simple country home, painted white with green shutters. It was
modest but well-built. It is also noted that this house resembled many others on Lowcountry rice
plantations.114 Duncan Clinch Heyward recalled that since two houses were necessary, one in a summer
cottage community, there was no reason to make the plantation house finer.115
In the middle of the nineteenth century, less than one percent of slaveholding families throughout the
South fit the plantation stereotype of owning great plantation estates, and that number had been
steady for one hundred years.116 Where Stoney identified a transition in the Lowcountry due to new
migration lifestyles and casting off of British aristocratic ideals, Vlach attributed the more modest
residences of southern plantations to a lack of crop and financial success. He noted that “great” success
was necessary to maintain an estate home, which had become an ideal and expected style of southern
plantation living. Plantation architecture and layout also reflected the crops, work schedules, and
112
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household: Black & White Women of the Old South (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 106.
113
Ibid., 107.
114
Duncan Clinch Heyward, Seed from Madagascar (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, reprint 1993,
1937), 101.
115
Ibid., 68.
116
North Carolina Press, 1993), 8.
42
equipment of a particular plantation.117 While this latter premise might hold true for cotton plantations
and more generalized “southern” plantations, the unhealthiness of rice plantations caused a level of
absenteeism that reduced the need for a permanent and elaborate home.
It is also possible that the design of plantation homes was influenced by the design of summer cottages.
Built to sustain health, the cottages followed a Lowcountry vernacular style, sometimes called Carolina
Cottage. The houses were typically raised high off the ground and had piazzas that spanned the front
façade, often wrapping around one side. The piazzas were shaded, cooling air as it flowed into the
house. They were built for ventilation. Families used the front piazza as a room, both a reception area
and a living room. The cottages were constructed of pine, generally believed to produce odors that
cured diseases of the lungs while also resisting insect infestation. Even furniture was designed to be
light and simple, promoting and encouraging ventilation throughout the house. For example,
headboards were designed with removable panels so air flowed around the beds.118 This house style
spread beyond the Lowcountry and became typical in all villages, whether they were at the beach, on a
river, in the pinelands, or in the mountains.
Slave cabins on the rice plantations were also simple and crude, yet have been described as better than
the housing of the poorest whites. In the early antebellum period, the cabins demonstrated African
origin by their thatched roofs and dimensions of about ten by twelve feet. By the mid-nineteenth
century, slave cabins were more matched to the architecture of the big houses while on a completely
different scale.119
117
Ibid., 10.
Virginia Press, 2010), 58-59.
119
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household: Black & White Women of the Old South (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 150.
118
43
On a visit to an unnamed friend who owned a rice plantation near Charleston, Adam Hodgson described
the environment. They breakfasted at his town house and caught a ferry across the bay and proceeded
to the plantation, about 30 miles from Charleston, too far to manage the plantation by day and return to
the city at night. Hodgson reported seeing about a dozen female slaves threshing rice, noting the
extremely hot weather for such laborious activity. He described the “little dwellings of the Negroes,”
stating that, “These were generally grouped together round something like a farm-yard; and behind
each of them was a little garden, which they cultivate on their own account. The huts themselves are
not unlike a poor Irish cabin, with the addition of a chimney.”120
Slave cabins on the Bluff plantation, a Heyward family property, were double houses for two families.
Each family had two rooms in the house with a front and back door and three windows. A fireplace and
brick chimney stood at one end. The houses were placed in two facing rows.121 The house slaves lived
close to the big house, rather than on the slave street, and did not interact much with the field slaves.122
House slaves and slaves with trades did not perform field work.123
Slave quarters on the plantations varied in layout though the most were a distance from the planter’s
house, enabling some privacy and control of living quarters. Slaves viewed their cabins as their own
domains and they transformed the structures into homes.124 Some plantation owners found the
120
121
1937), 73.
122
Ibid., 74
123
Ibid., 84.
124
44
activities of slave street mysterious and “seemingly charged with mischief.”125
Olmstead reported that on most large rice plantations, slaves worshipped in a prayer house. The
planter expressed to Olmstead his lack of understanding of the prayer services which, by his account,
included shouting, jumping, clapping, and dancing. He asserted that when slaves attended town
churches, they conducted themselves in a “sober and decorous manner.” He also noted that town
churches managed and conducted by slaves carried on services similar to those on the plantations.126
This account implies a willingness of plantation owners to allow African religious practices on both
plantations and in towns.
In summary, African heritage developed and was sustained on rice plantations due to multiple
conditions and circumstances, including the following:
•
The distance of the field slave dwellings from the plantation houses
•
The community settings of the slave dwellings and the personalization of space
•
The absence of the white planters from the plantation
•
Self-sufficiency derived from provision gardens and the ability to hunt, fish, and raise livestock
for personal benefit
•
The task system which enabled periods of time that belonged to the individual, and sometimes
the ability to earn money by being hired off plantation
•
Praise houses in which African Americans practiced religion
•
The sheer number of African Americans on rice plantations, which forged bonds and sustained
tradition
125
Ibid., 229.
Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States In the Years 1853-1854 with Remarks on Their
Economy (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, reprinted by Book Jungle, Champaign, IL, in 2007, 1904 (first published
in 1856)), 80
126
45
•
The application of African skills, crafts, and foodways, which helped define Lowcountry rice
plantation culture
Domestic slaves were a very small percentage of the plantation work force, with typically no more than
a half dozen slaves tending to the houses, no matter the size of plantation. These slaves were removed
from the general slave community and lived within close proximity to their white masters. They were
always on duty and did not benefit from the free time of the task system.127 To a great degree,
proximity of slaves’ quarters to the big house determined a slave’s control over any aspect of their
activities. Outbuildings near the big house were generally designed or decorated to complement the
main house, reflecting the master’s space. House slaves were more integrated into the household, and
thus, less likely to find opportunities to have a space of their own.128
Transforming Planters’ Summer Cottage Communities
The “camp-cottages” and their communities also evolved in their specific landscapes. Many planters
needed to be close to their businesses in order to properly manage them, rather than leave them to the
discretion of overseers or, in many cases, rice drivers. Planters seemed tempted to stay put on the
plantations during cool springs, yet heeded health warnings. On June 2, 1857, Matilda Leverett wrote
her brother Milton from their Beaufort District plantation, Canaan, noting that family members had
already gone to the village and that she was soon to follow. “It is so cool and pleasant down here, that
we might easily stay much longer, but Pa prefers being on the safe side.”129
Frederick Porcher, a planter near Charleston, reported in his antebellum memoirs that he resided in a
127
Ibid., 18-19.
Ibid., 233.
129
of a South Carolina Family 1851-1868 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000), 41.
128
46
distant summer cottage community one summer so did not make regular visits to his plantation. In the
fall he found his crop to be a failure. He then resolved to build his personal residence in the nearby
summer cottage community of Pinopolis, from where he could more regularly manage the affairs of the
plantation. His decision paid off in a fruitful crop.130 Porcher provided a descriptive look at summer
cottage community life, both in his boyhood cottage community and in the community of his adulthood.
Porcher noted that he was unsure of exactly when the notion of unhealthy summers on the plantations
forced the move to summer cottage communities. He offered that Summerton, a summer cottage
community, was established long before the general migration pattern began. It was common for city
dwellers to “avoid the pestilence of the City.” He cites a letter from 1725 written from Summerton by
someone whose regular residence was Charleston. The “more recent” summer migrations away from
the plantations, he labeled “forced,” attesting to the beliefs of so many others that it was most unwise
to spend summers on a Lowcountry plantation and so no one would choose to do so.131 Certainly, the
expansion of rice fields increased the chances of malaria. That combined with the introduction of yellow
fever raised a sense of immediacy in seeking a safe location.
Porcher noted that the extended absences from the plantations created a sense of incompleteness and
discomfort, with plantation owners reluctant to improve houses in which they spent little time.132 As
planters discovered locations on the outskirts of the marshlands where they avoided fevers, villages
formed, with first a few families and then others joining as sustained health was proven. Schools and
churches followed.133 Porcher’s boyhood summer cottage community was Pineville, fifty miles north of
130
Frederick Adolphus Porcher and Samuel Gaillard Stoney, "The Memoirs of Frederick Adolphus Porcher
(Continued)," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 47, no. 2 (April 1946): 83-108, 101-102.
131
Frederick Augustus Porcher and Samuel Gaillard Stoney, "The Memoirs of Frederick Augustus Porcher
(Continued)," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 44, no. 3 (July 1943): 135-147, 135.
132
Ibid.
133
Ibid., 136.
47
Charleston.
Because land cultivation was deemed a contributor to the night miasmas of Lowcountry plantations, no
gardens or flowers were planted in Pineville. The village was thick with pine trees. When Porcher
resided there, Pineville had about sixty residences, with each lot roughly an acre. Porcher’s house was
plastered, as it was to be used year round but it was more common to leave the cottage unfinished and
whitewashed.134 Most Pineville village houses had piazzas twelve to fourteen feet deep running on two
sides of the cottage, most often east and north. The piazza was a principal part of a summer house,
acting as a reception area for guests. Each household burned a nightly fire on the property to attract
insects that would otherwise be attracted to house lighting.135
Another account of Pineville reports that it had an academy, a public library, a chapel, and a racetrack.
In 1832, it boasted eighty houses, 235 white inhabitants and 554 slaves. Pineville did, however, go
through a fever epidemic a few years after this accounting, abruptly losing its status as a healthy haven
and, therefore, part of its population. It was, nonetheless, burned by Sherman’s troops.136
Generally, the move for the summer season translated into the migration of an entire household, which
included belongings, some furniture, family, extended family, friends, and house slaves. If building
materials and labor were needed, these too, were brought from the plantation.137 If there was a piano
134
Frederick Augustus Porcher and Samuel Gaillard Stoney, "The Memoirs of Frederick Augustus Porcher
(Continued)," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 45, no. 1 (1944): 30-40, 30.
135
Ibid., 31.
136
137
AMS Press, 1947), 11.
48
in the plantation house, it also had a spot in the summer cottage.138 Elizabeth Allston Pringle described
the move from her family plantation to the family summer cottage (which was built by plantation
carpenters). Her description provides a picture of the complexity of this transition.139
This complete removal from the plantation further separated the household slaves from the field slaves.
The house slaves neither shared the work and schedule of the field slaves, nor did they share the larger
landscape. While these people retained their African roots and traditions, they did so under different
circumstances.
A number of summer cottage communities developed in Beaufort District (Figure 3). Brewster identifies
them as Bluffton, Gillisonville, Grahamville, Hardeeville, Heywardville, McPhersonville, and
Robertville.140 Rowland, et al. lists Beaufort, St. Helenaville, Bluffton, Grahamville, Gillisonville,
Robertville, Lawtonville, and McPhersonville.141 A network of rivers and tributaries in Beaufort District
connected plantations to Savannah and Charleston from where crops could be distributed and sold
worldwide, making the location practical and desirable.142
Brewster and Rowland, et al. identify places like Beaufort in Beaufort District and other “resort”
communities such as Newport, Rhode Island as planters’ summer resorts without the definition of the
cultural landscape of a Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage community, which, as defined
138
139
Elizabeth Allston Pringle, A Woman Rice Planter (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1992
(originally published in 1913)), 58.
140
AMS Press, 1947), 39.
141
Lawrence S. Rowland, Alexander Moore, and George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Beaufort County, South
Carolina: Volume 1, 1514-1861 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 380.
142
1984), 183.
49
in this thesis, has distinct characteristics. Beaufort was a center of commerce and light industry. It was
also a resort village, in the same way that Virginia Springs, Virginia was.
Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage communities were not commercial centers, nor were
they resorts. Businesses in the villages existed to support the populations. Planters managed their
plantations from these operational bases when the unhealthy season forced them away from the
plantations, so the villages were within commuting distance of residents’ plantations. Village plans were
usually in a grid pattern with small, regular lots, typically about one or two acres. The houses were
wood-framed with framing members exposed and exposed surfaces whitewashed. If the villages were
not on the shores of an ocean or river, they were densely shaded. They had schools, churches, stores,
and doctors. Typical populations were between forty and sixty households. These physical, economical,
and social patterns were repeated in Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage communities
and set them apart from places where planters did their banking and traded their goods. They were
quite different from places to which planters traveled for rest or relaxation. The villages embodied a
lifestyle dictated by economy and by family and social obligations to participate in that economy.
The Civil War erased the physical existence of these places in the same way it eradicated the plantation
economy. Despite the abrupt ending to the economy, lifestyle, and cultural landscape, a foundation of
cultural heritage was formed in these places, carried forth in different physical environments and
preserved for future generations. Identified Beaufort District Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer
cottage communities are described below.
50
Figure 3. Beaufort District (Inside cover of The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 1,
1514-1861)
St. Helenaville
In the 1840s, St. Helenaville on St. Helena Island was formed for planters on other parts of the island.
Small frame houses lined the bluff to catch breezes and others were built in the pine forests. The
residents of St. Helenaville built an Episcopal church, which also served as a boarding school.143 St.
Helena Island was far enough removed from the mainland to make regular travel between a mainland
summer cottage community and the plantations of St. Helena Island impractical. By setting aside land
143
51
that would not be cleared for planting in an area considered free of the night miasmas of the
plantations, the planters of St. Helena Island could attend to business on plantations during the day and
still return to the family in St. Helenaville in the evening.144 By 1860, St. Helenaville had two churches
and a dozen cottages, all of which had slaves’ cabins behind them.145 St. Helenaville did survive the Civil
War, but was destroyed during the hurricanes of 1893 and 1911, leaving little more than brick and tabby
foundations and chimney bases. It was never rebuilt.
St. Helenaville is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an archaeological site. The National
Register of Historic Places nomination form stated that there had been little disturbance on the site
since the Civil War and that some artifacts had been collected. Eighteen buildings were identified on an
1862-1866 tax map. There is very little historical documentation of this village, its structures, and its
lifeways there.146 The nomination acknowledged the potential uniqueness of the summer cottage
community lifeways and the opportunities to study it. The same lack of documentation and general
knowledge is true of all the antebellum planters’ summer cottage communities. St. Helena Island
Historic Resources is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but there are documented
sources from which to draw more conclusions about plantation life and Reconstruction, as most of the
island was still intact after the hurricanes. This nomination form listed multiple properties on the island
from the period of significance of 1740 to 1935. It classified them as residential structures, commercial
structures, structures associated with coastal defense, etc.147 The archaeological site is part of the
overall nomination, but it is also individually listed.
144
Ibid., 383.
AMS Press, 1947), 29.
146
"National Register of Historic Places, St. Helenaville Archaeological Site (38Bu931)," St. Helena Island, South
Carolina: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, October 6, 1988.
147
"National Register of Historic Places, Historic Resources of St. Helena Island, c. 1740-c. 1935," St. Helena
Island, South Carolina: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, October 6, 1988.
145
52
Bluffton
In the 1820s, planters from Hilton Head Island, Palmetto Bluff, and other nearby locations began
building summer cottages on the banks of the May River. By 1825 the village was operating a college
preparatory school called the May River Academy and several churches were erected. Several general
stores operated on the main street and regular steamboat service to Savannah began in 1843. Casting
aside unofficial names of this area, the village was renamed “Bluffton” in 1844.148 In 1863, much of the
village was burned by Union troops, but twenty-one buildings, including two churches, survived, leaving
Bluffton one of the best preserved summer cottage communities in Beaufort District, if not all of
Lowcountry. It remains a potential site of study today, with ten surviving antebellum structures, two of
them open to the public, and the others identified on a walking tour brochure. Appendix A illustrates
the close proximity of the plantations of several of Bluffton’s residents, verifying a manageable
“commute” to facilitate plantation management.
Grahamville
Rice planters of upper St. Luke’s Parish in Beaufort District built Grahamville in pine forest land of
Captain John Graham. Churches and a school were established. The Holy Trinity Episcopal Church was
constructed in 1859. In 1860, the Charleston and Savannah Railroad came to Grahamville. By the end of
the war in 1865, Grahamville was destroyed by Union troops.149 The only structures left standing were
Holy Trinity Church and some outbuildings. Grahamville families did return and tried to start anew.
Since homes were destroyed, some families rolled several surviving outbuildings together to form
makeshift houses, and, out of necessity, those houses lasted them for years. A new church was built in
148
149
Ibid., 385.
53
the center of the village.150
In an undated family document, Emma Sipple Meadors described Grahamville as a summer home to
planters who grew rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton. The residents collected books and read
newspapers and participated in a literary society. The village had private schools, and parents sent their
children to London and Paris to finish their education. The village had a ballroom where dances and
other events took place. Horses and carriages set out frequently on village roads for afternoon rides.
Afternoon tea and cake were served on the piazzas. Slaves served family members coffee before they
got out of bed in the morning. Houses were surrounded by Spanish moss-draped live oaks, magnolias,
and sycamore trees. Every home had a flower garden in front with a white picket fence around it.
Meadors observed that at the time of her writing, the village was occupied by new people and that none
of the original families remained.151 Today Grahamville is known as Ridgeland and is a rural community,
its original layout most likely erased.
Gillisonville
Another Beaufort District summer cottage community, Gillisonville, was also established in a pine forest.
After complaints that the Beaufort District courthouse at Coosawhatchie was in an unhealthy location,
the courthouse was moved to Gillisonville in a new square in the center of the village. A Masonic Lodge
was also established by 1860. However, the entire village, including all its records, was burned by Union
troops in 1865. Only the Baptist church built in 1838 and the Episcopal church built in 1847 were
spared.152 In 1867 the Episcopal church building was sold to the Baptist church in Robertville that had
lost its building in the Civil War. The building was moved to Robertville. The village of Gillisonville did
150
The News and Courier, "Grahamville Suffered Badley During War Between States," January 18, 1949.
Frances Meadors Colvin Wells, "A history of the Sipples of Grahamville," no. 34/543, Charleston, South
Carolina: South Carolina Historical Society, 1977.
152
151
54
try to reestablish itself, building a new school in 1912.153 However, the 1971 National Register of
Historic Places nomination form for the Gillisonville Baptist Church noted that the only two structures
left in the old town of Gillisonville were the church and one dwelling, with no description of the
dwelling. It stated that both buildings were still in use.154 Satellite photos show the area is rural today
with no village street grid visible.
Robertville
Robertville was one of the oldest villages, noted by Robert Mills in his 1826 Statistics of South Carolina.
He described a village that contained several houses, a Baptist church, a post office, a school, and a
library. Mills did not refer to Robertville as a summer cottage community, though it subsequently was
known as such. Mills noted other early communities, such as Gillison (probably Gillisonville),
Grahamville, McPhersonville, and others.155 Robertville was also burned during the Civil War, with no
buildings identified as having been spared. Robertville did try to rebuild, purchasing and moving the
Gillisonville Episcopal Church in 1867, renaming it the Robertville Baptist Church. Post cards from 1910
show buildings in Robertville, including a general store. In 1910 Robertville’s population stood at
ninety.156 Today, no census data is collected for Robertville and satellite photos show a rural,
undeveloped area.
Lawtonville
Lawtonville started with a Baptist Church in 1826. In 1833 it had a post office, and by the 1840s, the
153
Howard Woody and Thomas L. Johnson, South Carolina Postcards Volume II, Southern Carolina: Beaufort to
Barnwel. (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1998), 65.
154
"National Register of Historic Places, Gillisonville Baptist Church," Ridgeland: South Carolina Department of
Archives and History, May 14, 1971.
155
Robert Mills, Statistics of South Carolina (Columbia: University of South Carolina, reprint 1972, 1826), 370371.
156
Howard Woody and Thomas L. Johnson, South Carolina Postcards Volume II, Southern Carolina: Beaufort to
Barnwel. (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1998), 67.
55
Lawtonville Academy educated village children. Union troops burned Lawtonville in 1865 as they did all
the other summer cottage communities.157 Residents did try to rebuild but were unsuccessful. When
Estill was incorporated one mile east of Lawtonville in 1905 with a railroad stop, Lawtonville ceased to
exist.
McPhersonville
McPhersonville in Prince William Parish of Beaufort District was also built on high ground in a pine
forest. While the residents of this summer cottage community were wealthy planters, the cottages
were simple. Charles DeSaussure’s description of the homes appears in The History of Beaufort County.
The homes were
…low, broad, wide houses with large rooms and very broad piazzas, running almost
entirely around the house and eaves extending about five feet beyond the edge of the
piazza, forming what was called a “sunshed.” These houses were neither lathed nor
plastered nor finished inside with ceiling, but were whitewashed inside and out every
spring. Those spacious houses had ordinary pine floors which were covered with fine
china matting in white and red squares, checkerboard fashion.158
This description of simple and plain is consistent with Elizabeth Allston Pringle’s postbellum diary
description of her “pine-land village” summer house. She notes that she took a guest to the village to
attend church services. After the service, she took the guest to her summer house. The guest was
“amused at the roughness and plainness of the pine-land house as compared to the winter quarters.”159
157
Carolina: Volume 1, 1514-1861 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 385-386.
158
Ibid.
159
Elizabeth Allston Pringle, A Woman Rice Planter (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1992
(originally published in 1913)), 53.
56
Further descriptions of McPhersonville reported that yards were surrounded by low fences and the
houses were layed out irregularly in intervals of 100 to 400 feet. McPhersonville had no school, its
residents preferring to have their children privately tutored. The village location enabled planters to
attend to business on the plantations during the day and return to the village in the evening.160
McPhersonville was also in Sherman’s path through South Carolina in 1865 (Figure 4). The village was
burned, with three buildings surviving, including two churches. The “Old Sheldon” ruins still stand as a
ghostly reminder of the devastation of the Civil War (Figure 5). Today McPhersonville is a noted by a
marker on a secondary road between Yemassee and Early Branch.
Figure 4. Sherman's March Through South Carolina - Burning of McPhersonville, February 1, 1865
(Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004661258/)
160
57
Figure 5. Old Sheldon Church Ruins (Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/
csas200803950/)
In general, the summer cottage communities were described as having some permanent residents, such
as clergymen, doctors, and storekeepers. They were quiet and almost deserted until the spring
“awakening.” Slaves arrived ahead of the family to prepare the house and outbuildings with fresh
whitewash, cleaning, and airing out. Firestands were prepared in the front yards.161 When the families
arrived, the pattern of village life picked up momentum. Music was a great part of evening
entertainment, and often provided by slaves.162 These accounts and descriptions of various
communities provide a small view of everyday life.
161
AMS Press, 1947), 44.
162
Ibid., 46.
58
Missing Links
Summer cottage communities were founded as places to escape health threats. They existed
throughout the Lowcountry. They were centers of plantation management, social life, academic life,
and spiritual life. The houses were plain and simple and almost always whitewashed. Plantings around
the houses varied, depending on the location of the community. There were parties, dances, teas, and
carriage rides. House slaves resided in these communities. But there is so much that remains unknown.
Descriptions of plantations, both physical and social aspects, are available from a number of sources.
While documentation may present the perspectives and concerns of the white landowners, physical
evidence combined with written accounts provide a source of information for interpreting the lives of
the enslaved. Vlach uses physical evidence presented in the remains of the built environment as a
starting point of understanding the lifeways of both master and slave on plantations.163 His focus is not
specific to the Lowcountry, yet there are enough similarities to be able to use this approach in explaining
aspects of Lowcountry plantation life. As previously noted, the absence of the white planters from
plantations presented more opportunities to practice African traditions in a cohesive community.
However, little physical evidence of any form exists to aid in understanding the lifeways of planters’
summer cottage communities. With some descriptions from memoirs, diaries, and letters, it is possible
to determine part of a story. Yet no descriptions of the layouts of the lots with their cottages, slave
cabins, kitchens, and other outbuildings exist. There are no Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS)
drawings or photos. Most of these places were destroyed or redefined before anyone thought to
document them. Outbuildings, which served as the operational centers of the households and almost
163
North Carolina Press, 1993).
59
completely dominated by the enslaved, were not considered of noteworthy importance. In fact, even
plantation records give little notice to kitchen appearance or activities. These structures, and their
relationships to the cottage home, could help define the lifeways of these communities.
Many questions arise, such as the following:
•
What was the division of labor for the slaves in the villages?
•
Did slaves have an opportunity to “hire out” outside of the household?
•
How many slaves sustained the household?
•
Did all the plantation house slaves come to the summer cottage or did some stay on the
plantations to attend to the planter on his regular supervisory visits?
•
What sense of community did the enslaved have in the villages as opposed to the plantation?
•
What was the population breakdown of these communities?
•
How did the enslaved practice religion?
•
What role did music play in the lives of the enslaved in summer cottage communities?
In her 1870 publication, Elizabeth Poyas reported that the previous census determined the white
population of Summerville to be 548 and the black 540. There were three churches and nine stores in
Summerville. The number of dwellings, which included slaves’ houses, was 372.164 When Summerville
was expanded in 1832, deeds noted that each lot would be an acre, would have no fewer than fifteen
pine trees, and that only one house and “all sorts of out houses in the owner’s discretion may be built
on one lot…”165 A 1938 photo (Figure 6) shows multiple servants quarters at the rear of a property.
Without context or comparable data from other communities, it is impossible to know whether this was
164
Elizabeth Ann Poyas, "Shadows of the Past," Library of Congress ETexts and Archives, Prod. Sloan Foundation
(Charleston: William G. Mazyck, 1870), 11.
165
Legare Walker, "A Sketch of The Town of Summerville, South Carolina," Library of Congress, Ebooks and
Texts Archive. 1910 (accessed November 10, 2012), http://archive.org/details/sketchoftownofsu01walk , 20.
60
a typical layout in Summerville or in any other summer cottage community.
Figure 6. Servant’s quarters at rear of house, Summerville, South Carolina (from Library of Congress,
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000031004/PP/)
Brewster noted that in 1832, 235 whites and 554 African Americans comprised Pineville’s population.166
While such numbers are expected on a plantation where crop cultivation was so labor-intensive, it is
difficult to comprehend the need for such a high percentage of the enslaved where tasks would be
limited. With no other numbers available, these statistics cannot be assumed to be typical.
166
AMS Press, 1947), 42.
61
Development, Enforcement, and Retention of Heritage in the Cultural
Landscapes
Not long ago I visited White Hall and walked through those old slave quarters. I
searched the walls for any writing, for the names of those who had once occupied them,
and then suddenly I remembered that slaves could not write. They could leave no signs
behind them. Their names had died with them long ago.
—Duncan Clinch Heyward in Seed from Madagascar
The built environment of slave villages on rice plantations exposes conditions for and means of
sustaining culture as described by Vlach, Joyner, and others. Plantation life was forever changed as a
result of the Civil War. Yet plantations did not disappear from the landscape, nor did the people who
lived on them. Many African Americans transitioned into freedom within the communities they knew.
When the Civil War ended, many former slaves stayed in place, preferring community to a new life as a
separate individual. Slaves on Silver Bluff plantation in South Carolina refused to leave the plantation at
the end of the war.167 While they had established residential domains within the era of slavery, freedom
brought new methods of expressing a sense of home. Freedmen restructured their domestic
landscapes, transforming their former cabins into homes.168 The descendant populations of Freedmen
who stayed in their communities provide opportunities to interpret the cultural heritage of those places.
Few studies focus on the relatively small number of the enslaved, those who worked in the big houses
on both the plantations and the summer cottage communities, and the means and methods of
sustaining cultural heritage in these different environments. The survival of certain cultural traits was
impacted by a number of factors, including the value of the trait to the people and the environment in
167
168
Ibid., 231.
62
which they found themselves in this new world.
Culture is dynamic, and interaction is a two-way street. More than borrowing or survival of a
trait is involved; both the migrants and those among whom they settled are changed. Many
features of African life brought to American shores have appreciable influence on the culture of
the dominant, European-derived population, from language to houses.169
Joyner identified differences in the lives of the plantation house slaves and the different manifestation
of cultural heritage in these small groups. Plantation slaves already practiced “accommodation and
resistance,” that is, to some degree assimilating to a Euro-American culture without relinquishing the
essence of their African heritage. House slaves participated in this adaptive process in an environment
where they were separate from other slaves and also separate from the white families, creating an
“intermediary role” in the retention of culture. 170
House servants took elements of black culture into the culinary, religious, and folkloristic
patterns of the Big House and brought elements of white culture to the street. It was through
the house servants that black southerners derived much of their European heritage, and white
Southerners derived much of their African heritage.171
White children grew up hearing stories of Africa and seeing African traditions become part of their own
world. Northern visitors observed the intimacy between house slaves and white children. African
American nurses tended to white children. Children of both races played together creating firm ties to
169
Georgia Press, 1987), 11-12.
170
Press, 1984), 86.
171
Ibid.
63
each other.172 Children of house slaves became playmates of the white children of the house,
sometimes even being assigned to a white child.173
In an 1844 letter, Emily Wharton Sinkler described her children playing in Charleston, noting that one
child was “enchanted” with the other children, including four little slaves who sang as they accompanied
her on a wagon ride. Emily’s daughter joined them in song. These childhood interactions continued
with more stories noted in an 1855 letter.174 Emily Sinkler also kept a recipe book compiled from many
sources, including her friends and her slaves.175 These recipes were the basis of family meals, as well as
cleaning agents and health remedies.
House slaves maintained intimate contact with the planter families. Duncan Clinch Heyward felt that
these slaves felt they were “almost members of the household” and they were as proud as the planters
when any distinction came to the family. They were quite removed from the lives of the field slaves and
considered themselves in a different class.176 This sincere sentiment of Heyward represents his
interpretation of the feelings of the enslaved, but their perspective remains undocumented and
unrepresented.
Brewster’s cataloging approach to identifying summer cottage communities underscores the explicit link
between rice plantation culture and summer cottage community culture. The very number of these
communities in Lowcountry points out that most rice planters and their house slaves experienced life
172
of a South Carolina Family 1851-1868 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000), 15.
173
Charles Joyner, Remember Me: Slave Life in Coastal Georgia. Revised 2011 (Athens: The University of Georgia
Press, 1989, revised ed. 2011), 28.
174
Anne Sinkler Whaley LeClercq, An Antebellum Plantation Household, Including the South Carolina Low
Country Receipts and Remedies of Emily Wharton Sinkler (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006), 51.
175
Ibid., 64
176
1937), 187.
64
across two cultural landscapes. House slaves comprised the majority of the slave community in summer
cottage villages while they were the clear minority on plantations. Some tradesmen were necessary,
but there is no evidence that they resided in the villages, rather than returning to the nearby plantations
when their services were complete.
In the absence of documentation or surviving built environments of summer cottage communities, a
look at domestic slave life on nearby plantations may reveal some possible similarities. Slaves in the
summer cottage communities would have lived in very close proximity to the cottage house, likely closer
than on the plantations. Like plantation house slaves, they would have been on call all day and every
day. They may have worshipped in the galleries of the white churches. They likely ate the same food,
since options for supplementing what was given to them would have been limited. Their cabins would
have matched the style and materials of the cottage house.
Archaeological research at the Stoney/Baynard plantation in Hilton Head Island explored the impact of
constant exposure to the planter’s value system on the house slaves. Claims of loss after the Civil War
for this plantation site include a small amount for household contents, which is an indication that it was
infrequently inhabited and therefore sparsely furnished. The house was grand as compared to other
Hilton Head Island plantation homes, made completely of tabby, yet it was small.177 However, in every
other respect, it is comparable, that is, in the number of total acres, number of cultivated areas, crops
produced, and the fact that they were both run by absentee planters, etc.178 It therefore represents a
typical lifestyle on Hilton Head Island at that period of time. There is little documentation of the kitchen
177
Natalie Adams, "In the shadow of the big house: domestic slaves at Stoney/Baynard Plantation, Histon Head
Island, prepared for Friends of Stoney/Baynard Plantation, the Environmental and Historical Museum of Hilton
Head Island"( Columbia: Chicora Foundation, 1995), 22.
178
Ibid., 26.
65
here or anywhere else, when, in fact, much of the house slaves’ lives were spent in the kitchen.179
Historical research and documentation are fairly silent on the lives of the house slaves who spent much
time in the kitchen building. Where big house, slave cabins, and other outbuildings have been
documented through diaries, HABS photos, research on slavery, etc., there is little with which to imagine
and understand the structures of the kitchens and the activities inside, making the house slaves, already
a minority of the slave population, mostly invisible.180
The archaeological study at the Stoney/Baynard house found many expensive items in the house slaves’
quarters, more than were found in the field slaves’ home sites. There were few bowls recovered,
possibly indicating that the house slaves ate similar foods to the planters and not soups and stews of
field slaves. The number of kitchen items found in the house slave cabins indicates that the house slaves
cooked for themselves. Each plantation operated differently, so research evidence from one does not
necessarily apply to another.181 However, house slave treatment here may have translated into this
family’s relationship with these slaves in their summer cottage community.
To identify examples of cultural heritage as it is retained across generations, heritage managers may
need to look in unlikely places, for example, on the table of European descendants in the Northeast or in
a church spiritual in the Midwest. By identifying the sources of these traditions, that is, a history of
some shared experiences, collective identity becomes broader. Individual connection to a larger
community becomes more commonplace. By re-examining these cultural landscapes and rewriting their
histories, the definition of “American” is more inclusive. Heritage tourism programs offer opportunities
179
Ibid., 33.
Ibid., 34.
181
Ibid., 90.
180
66
for such re-examination and research. While the names of the slaves disappeared, the enslaved people
left a rich cultural heritage which is still visible and still practiced today.
67
Chapter 4: Heritage Tourism as a Mechanism for Preserving Culture and
Place
American tourism was fueled by politics, supported by economics, and challenged by social changes. As
social awareness expanded, a new segment of tourism emerged: heritage tourism. Identifying and
managing heritage has become a complex process. Though it potentially supports cultural diversity, it
also potentially segregates cultural heritage. Careful and sensitive planning and thorough research
expose hidden cultural heritage and rebalance interpretation of historic sites. In making the resulting
stories public through interpretation, cultural heritage sites, such as those of the Gullah Geechee
people, gain recognition and value, and are consequently preserved.
The Roots of American Tourism
The vast wilderness of the American continent became pristine nature, uncorrupted by
the hands of man and reflective of God’s immanence. Scenic and sublime wilderness in
America offered a natural legacy representative of American exceptionalism and even
superiority over Europe that moved beyond human accomplishment and into God’s
realm.182
—Marguerite S. Shaffer, See America First: Tourism and National Identity, 1880-1940
Tourism in the United States emerged in the 1820s as a step in the process of defining a national
identity. It promoted the value of locations in the United Sates. Writers, such as Washington Irving and
James Fenimore Cooper, and artists of the Hudson River School, such as Frederick Church and Thomas
Cole, targeted a tourist class audience which was the new gentry of the United States.183 Tourists were
182
Marguerite S. Shaffer, See America First: Tourism and National Identity, 1880-1940 (Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Books, 2001), 73.
183
Richard H. Gassan, The Birth of American Tourism: New York, the Hudson Valley, and American Culture, 17901830 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), 3.
68
attracted to a compelling destination to which they could comfortably travel and one with a “cultural
infrastructure,” that is, a story.184 Most of these locations were in the Northeast where road systems
were developing. American artists and literary figures created stories and images of an ideal America,
starting a model of tourism that spanned a century, then evolved to reflect political, economic, and
social changes.
Early guidebooks prompted travel beyond the Northeast, transforming the tourist industry from regional
and international to national.185 The “See America First” tourist campaign in the early twentieth century
was a method of negotiating national identity. After the Civil War, Southerners and Midwesterners
were “engaged in inventing a shared public history” while westerners were trying to integrate their own
history and identity into that of the nation. These varied experiences were linked with a larger, national
history.186 European identity was linked to ancient history and that history was a draw for American
tourists. The beauty of American scenery compensated for a lack of ancient history and it served as
visible proof of American exceptionalism and God’s blessings.187
Formation of the National Parks and a campaign to promote visitation were the next movements in
American tourism. Trips would inspire discovery and a sense of identity. The tourism campaigns
prescribed what to see and how to see it.188 By 1906, the See America First campaign was underway
and it was strengthened by the outbreak of World War I.189 “Under the leadership of the National Park
Service, the United States government, in partnership with private corporations, began to define and
promote a national tourism as a ritual of American citizenship. In the process, the national parks were
184
Ibid., 5.
Marguerite S. Shaffer, See America First: Tourism and National Identity, 1880-1940 (Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Books, 2001), 21.
186
Ibid., 36.
187
Ibid., 73.
188
Ibid., 4.
189
Ibid., 33.
185
69
transformed into a system of national assets, and tourism became integrally linked to national
identity.”190
Starting in the early nineteenth century, a number of tour guide books were produced in the United
States, including D. Appleton guides and the See America First series. These guides celebrated American
tradition by selecting and presenting specific historic facts and picturesque and romanticized views of
the nation. In 1935, writers of the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the New Deal programs, began work
on the WPA’s American Guide series. The books were to illustrate a national way of life and help
Americans refresh their knowledge of their country.191
While the tour guides linked tourism with a patriotic and nationalist agenda, they also reflected a public
interest in discovering an American way of life, that is, American culture.192 The WPA guides captured
local and regional diversity, but used a prescribed format. State guides provided information on state
development, natural setting, Native Americans, history, and economic and social development. The
format received some criticism for being too rigid, though the Washington, DC office encouraged writers
to highlight local differences, including religious and social customs and folk legends.193It is this focus
that led to the interviews of thousands of former slaves, the North American slave narratives. And it
gave new purpose to travel in America.
The guides encouraged tourism, though only a small number of Americans joined the tourist class.
Many of those who toured the United States kept logs and journals, and chronicled their journeys in
letters. These provided personal perspectives and impressions, and highlighted distinguishing
190
Ibid., 92.
Ibid., 169-170.
192
Ibid., 203.
193
Ibid., 215.
191
70
characteristics of people and places in the United States. But they also reflected the experiences and
interests of the tourist class, that is, the white middle to upper class who could afford time away from
work and home. Travel time was often lengthened by transportation methods and infrastructure.
Expanding the View of Tourist Destinations and Activities: Heritage Tourism
Tourism is the result of the creation of heritage.194
—Peter Howard, Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity
With the construction of roads after World War II and the introduction of the family automobile in the
1950s, travel became faster, easier, and cheaper. Public history sites became instrumental in binding
people together, enforcing collective memory, and instilling a sense of nationalism and pride. These
places have been sources of education for countless people.
Social changes spurred by the civil rights and women’s rights movements encouraged a more thorough
look at public history sites in the United States. These changes prompted review of overlooked sites.
They inspired questioning of a collective American identity and encouraged the growth of heritage
tourism as a segment of the tourism industry. Studies in cultural heritage tourism emphasize research,
interpretation, and reinterpretation.
Tourism is peripheral to heritage. It packages heritage for an audience. Heritage is preserved by people
for themselves.195 If heritage is relevant to a wide audience, it gains more advocates for its preservation.
194
195
Ibid., 50.
71
Preservation activities moved in step with political, economic, and social agendas. Since the 1960s, the
United States government has continued to broaden its view of preservation, encouraging more
community-based participation in preservation activities. This local level of participation increases
interest in national heritage and participation in tourism programs to discover and experience it.
Heritage tourism is travel for the purpose of experiencing places, artifacts, and activities that
authentically represent both past and present. It is a vehicle for identifying local history and heritage
and integrating it into the broader scope of the American experience. It motivates research, expands
collective identity, and encourages preservation activities. It helps maintain or improve a community’s
economic viability. It serves to educate as well as entertain. Heritage tourism programs must be
researched, planned, designed, managed, and maintained. Those planning heritage tourism programs
must consider numerous issues, including the message or story to communicate, the audience to whom
to communicate it, the benefactor of heritage tourism, the balance between conservation and access,
stakeholder identity, stakeholder input, dominant culture bias, ownership of heritage, and the list goes
on. The multicultural composition of the United States and other countries as well, means that all these
issues become even more complex when identifying, interpreting, and managing heritage.
In 2001, the National Park System Advisory Board published a report that ultimately challenged the
National Park Service to ensure that National Park Service properties provide more than recreation to
visitors. It suggested that National Park Service properties become “springboards for personal journeys
of intellectual and cultural enrichment,” and directed National Park Service employees to tell the
American story completely and accurately. The National Park Service responded quickly by organizing a
72
workshop to establish goals and a plan to move forward and to meet the challenge.196
The National Park Service acknowledges that determining the significance and integrity of a site is
influenced by time and context. Decisions are not based solely on policy and standards. National Park
Service interpretation of criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places is still not
consistent, reflecting ongoing evolution of thought and practice. The treatment of a resource reflects
the value placed on that resource, and that value, too, changes.197 Preservation and interpretation of
these sites is a response to conditions and thoughts at a specific point in time.
Identifying and Interpreting Historic Sites
History only exists in the telling.198
—Ned Kaufman, Place, Race, and Story
…when he was visiting a historic house he observed that a number of people asked the
identical question: “Is this place still in the hands of the same family?” There, at least, is
a vulnerable spot that most people share in common: the longing for continuity,
whether it be of ownership of real estate, of their own family or race, or of the subtler
kind that relates the puzzled human to the physical world he sees about him.199
—Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage
Freeman Tilden was a consultant for the National Park Service who was responsible for designing a plan
196
National Park Service, The National Park Service and Civic Engagement (Philadelphia: National Park Service,
2001), 5.
197
Ibid., 7.
198
199
Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1957), 128.
73
for public relations and interpretation. He recognized the importance of site interpretation in
connecting people to place and inspiring stewardship. He felt that interpretive programs should not
merely instruct, but should provoke. Provocation would stimulate the reader or hearer to seek an
“understanding of the greater truths that lie behind any statements of fact.”200 Effective interpretation
is, therefore, a starting point in expanding a reader’s or listener’s knowledge of history and heritage.
Tilden challenged interpreters to supplement sterile and static data with personal impressions of facts,
demonstrate the act of discovery, and use the physical cultural resource as a launching point to
experience a place. In this way, visitors begin their own journeys of discovery. He noted that good
interpretation led to the preservation of the object of interpretation. “Through interpretation,
understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection.”201 Tilden
targeted National Park Service rangers, but his writing on interpreting heritage has been a foundation
for many subsequent studies of heritage tourism and effective site interpretation.
“Interpretation” has multiple definitions, but for the purposes of heritage tourism, the National Park
Service definition is most appropriate, that is, “…interpretation facilitates a connection between the
interests of the visitor and the meanings of the resource.” It is a form of education that connects
historic places to history and the current population to the former inhabitants of historic places.202
Interpreting sites makes the meaning of places public. By educating the public, preservationists and
others have inspired community members to participate in preservation activities, both directly and
200
Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1957), 59.
Ibid., 65.
202
Ron Thomson and Marilyn Harper, "Telling the Stories: Planning Effective Interpretive Programs for Properties
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places," National Register Bulletin (National Park Service U.S.
Department of the Interior. 2000), (accessed January 19, 2013), http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/interp/,
12.
201
74
indirectly. But the benefits of interpretation reach further. Good interpretation instills a sense of
cultural identity and motivates preservation of both place and intangible cultural heritage. This is the
sense of continuity to which people connect, the proof that they pass part of themselves on to future
generations. Good interpretation establishes a personal relationship to the larger history of American
development.
In a 2001 report, the National Park System Advisory Board noted that the country’s history is an
essential part of civic education and that the interpretation of historic sites contributes to civic
education using a place-based method of education. The Board directed the National Park Service to tell
American stories, even those that are unpleasant, and to tell them in a way in which all citizens can find
meaning and relevance. Some reinterpretation decisions are unpopular. When the National Park
Service sought to reinterpret Gettysburg National Military Park to address slavery as one cause of the
Civil War, it received demands to return to apolitical policies. It nonetheless expanded its
interpretation.203
Identifying the places to preserve and protect requires input and commitment from community
stakeholders. Broadening the scope of places to preserve can be perceived as a threat to some
stakeholders who may feel that a dominant group is taking over the heritage of another.204 The
question of who owns heritage and how to preserve it can produce complicated responses.
Howard identifies the following questions to address when managing heritage:
•
Shall we allow public access even though that compromises preservation?
203
National Park Service, The National Park Service and Civic Engagement (Philadelphia: National Park Service,
2001), 9.
204
75
•
Which story shall we tell?
•
Whose heritage is to be conserved and whose ignored? At whose expense?
•
Shall we stress international, national, regional or local identity?
•
How do things become heritage?
•
Should we display this in the context of its original place, even if that means repatriation?
•
Can we adapt the heritage for new uses?
•
How shall we route visitors around this site?
•
Which kinds of visitors are welcome?205
Howard’s list demonstrates the complexity of planning a heritage tourism site. There is much to balance
and multiple answers to these or the multitude of other questions that arise when identifying sites and
planning for interpretation.
Kaufman suggests that places of importance to a community are those that have gained social-capital
value. Social capital is a set of activities that connects individuals to each other and to society. These
networking activities include belonging to clubs, socializing with friends, attending church, etc. Kaufman
asserts that social capital may be more important to a society than financial capital. Among the many
benefits derived from social statistics, social capital creates a sense of commonality that aids in
resolution of collective problems and promotion of gender and racial equality.206 Many activities that
generate social capital rely on appropriate places. These places become “story sites” that represent a
community’s traditions and, therefore, social-capital value. People outside the community discover
205
Ibid., 98.
Routledge, 2009), 43-44.
206
76
these sites by learning the stories behind them.207
Story sites may also have historical value to the general public. They “act both as mnemonic devices and
as touchstones, provocations to tell history.”208 Kaufman presents an example of a simple local story
that connects with most Americans. The story is that of a hotel near a railroad that burned down and
was never rebuilt. As simple as this story sounds, it carries context of urban expansion, leisure activities
of the upper middle class, eventual urban decay, and others.209 People outside this community can find
different personal touch points to which to connect.
Story sites embody history, tradition, and memory. They therefore establish and enforce a sense of
personal and community identity, develop citizenship, and transfer history.210 But many stories remain
recorded only in local memory and are not part of public history. Kaufman recommends surveying
communities to identify stories and their connections to places, but more importantly to document
them in a way that enables them to be retold or relived.211
Once sites are identified, interpretive planning begins. The first question for any property or site is,
“What story does this site have to tell?” The response requires thorough research, looking beyond
recent history and surface evidence. A story is incomplete if it does not include all people whose lives
are intertwined in a site. By including accounts and experiences of people who lived history differently,
the story of the site is better balanced. It is richer and more complete than it would be if limited by one
207
Ibid., 44.
Ibid., 49.
209
Ibid., 50.
210
Ibid., 70.
211
Ibid., 71.
208
77
perspective.212 The National Park Service advises interpreters to confront controversial issues such as
slavery by including them in the interpretation. It cautions that these issues must be handled with
sensitivity in order to avoid negating potential lessons by emotional impact. It suggests looking at
successful programs for input into the planning phase of interpretation. Successful interpretations, such
as those at Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello, address the impact of slavery on both blacks and
whites and describe the strong communities established by the enslaved within the restrictive
environments of the plantations.213
Research for National Register nomination is useful as a starting point for interpretation because it
requires that the history of the property be placed in a broad context to evaluate its importance. It
therefore establishes relationships beyond a local context.214 However, deeper research is necessary to
uncover the personal stories and intangible cultural heritage that any property of site embodies and
which connect visitors to the site.
Once stories are uncovered, interpretive themes can be identified. Themes help direct further research
and establish the value of a site through the stories it can tell. It is also important to identify audience
for the interpreted site during the planning phase so that the eventual design and interpretive methods
are appropriate.215
212
14.
213
Ibid., 15.
214
Ibid.
215
Ibid., 16.
78
Challenges in Site Interpretation
Interpretation should seek to provide opportunities for visitors to care about places on
their own terms.216
—National Park Service, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Plan
Heritage as a commodity is consumer-led, meaning that interpretation and presentation must appeal to
“users” and is most often dominated by those who are on the demand side of demand-and-supply
relationships. That group can be narrow.217 But heritage is for everyone. Howard concludes that
groups outside the dominant group, including women, ethnic minorities, and the poor, can use heritage
as a means of being heard. He presents an example of preservation in post-World War II England,
where the National Trust responded to new popularity of vernacular architecture and former industrial
buildings by opening kitchens in country manor houses and purchasing and interpreting properties
representing popular culture.218 Howard notes the same trend in the United States. While heritage may
still be controlled by a dominant group, the dominant group may be broadening.
Progress is evident, but communities, preservationists, and cultural resource managers must still work
their way through obstacles, particularly resistance to telling a story that evokes discomfort. The essay,
“Tourism with Race in Mind,” in Tourism and Culture presents an example of a collaborative effort in
interpreting the past of Annapolis, Maryland. Interpretation at some historic sites in Annapolis had
marginalized African American history. Interpretations either ignored black history or separated it from
white history. A collaborative effort at reinterpretation among archaeologists, anthropologists, and
216
Plan," Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, 2012 (accessed September 8, 2012),
217
Peter Howard, Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity (London: Continuum, 2003), 32-33.
218
Ibid., 39.
79
Historic Annapolis Foundation recognized the importance of input from African American community
members.219 Community input helped form research questions and public dialog about potential
interpretive programs and generated more ideas for research, for example identifying “African American
archaeology” and a focus on freedom rather than slavery.220
The Maynard-Burgess House and the Charles Carroll House in Annapolis were interpreted to represent
“white origins” despite direct archaeological evidence that African Americans played significant roles in
the history of each place. “Historical interpretation inevitably serves contemporary interests and reveals
present day biases.”221 In this case, these limited interpretations left an impression that Annapolis
history was about a white population. To serve an entire community, interpretation must include
varying perspectives, even opposing perspectives.222
Historical accounts of local history in Annapolis focused on the colonial period and the upper class of
those times, resulting in an incomplete history for both visitors and residents. A fragmented history
prevented connections between past and present and created separate histories, one for blacks and one
for whites, presenting blacks predominantly in the nineteenth century. Appreciation for African
American heritage remained within African American communities.223
Other sites in Annapolis were not expected to yield information on African American culture. However,
during archaeological excavations, unexpected discoveries revealed significant evidence of African
American cultural heritage. Despite this evidence, these properties were interpreted to focus on
219
Erve Chambers, ed., Tourism and Culture, An Applied Perspective (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1997), 129.
220
Ibid., 134.
221
Ibid., 131.
222
Ibid.
223
Ibid., 132.
80
architecture, ignoring the properties as African American history sites.224
While the essay was written over a decade ago, the experience highlights the need for research to
uncover broader history to aid in site interpretation. It also highlights continuing obstacles in filling in
the gaps of history presented at historic sites, despite evidence of history that was previously unknown
or misunderstood.
In Sustaining Identity, Recapturing Heritage, Ann Denkler directly states that all aspects of public history
in Luray, Virginia continue to focus on founding families and Confederate soldiers, thereby marginalizing
the history and heritage of African Americans and American Indians.225 It is particularly important to
understand how history and heritage become subjugated in order to remove the barriers and present a
more complete and balanced account of history at historic sites.
In Speaking for the Enslaved: Heritage Interpretation at Antebellum Plantation Sites, Antoinette T.
Jackson explores the history and cultural tradition of the Kingsley Plantation in East Florida. She notes
that the plantation site is a physical reminder of slavery in the United States. But she adds, “The
Kingsley Plantation is enshrined within the political agenda of the National Park Service and
representations of national heritage in the United States.”226 Jackson suggests that the lives of the
people who inhabited Kingsley Plantation testify to an African diaspora that extends well beyond
plantation boundaries. She states that a reexamination of the plantation history and heritage would
challenge stereotypical characterizations of plantation life.227 Jackson’s studies of Kingsley Plantation
224
Ibid., 143.
Ann Denkler, Sustaining Identity, Recapturing Heritage (Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2007), 3.
226
Antoinette T. Jackson, Speaking for the Enslaved: Heritage Interpretation at Antebellum Plantation Sites
(Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, Inc., 2012), 130-131.
227
Ibid., 132.
225
81
and her 2012 appointment as National Park Service Regional Ethnographer – Southeast Region should
help the National Park Service meet the goals set for it in 2001 by the National Park System Advisory
Board, which directed the National Park Service to tell a more complete and accurate story of American
history.
Preserving heritage will make some people feel more rooted, more secure.228 But others will be
uncomfortable, preferring to leave unpleasant history behind. In the United States, the issue of slavery
is still a sensitive topic at historic sites, yet this history has shaped the present and, regardless of
whether or not it is re-examined, it will continue to shape the future in the form of racism and racial
politics. Re-examination of history can provide a smoother transition into the future.
In 1994, the Library of Congress created an exhibit based on John Vlach’s book, Back of the Big House.
The exhibit was taken down in less than three hours in response to African American employees who did
not want to be reminded of slavery, which they felt was still not over.229 Employees found the title of
the exhibit offensive, though it was the same title as Vlach’s book, and they determined that the exhibit
lacked historical context and critical examination of slavery.230 It is because of the hidden, yet ongoing
legacy of slavery that African American heritage has a tradition of privacy and oral transmission.231
When selecting sites for preservation and interpretation, there may be fewer visible places of African
American experience. Denkler challenges the notion of the traditional tangible sites as the only spaces
that represent history. To make African American history public, it needs to be studied through a wide
range of sources and methodologies, including ethnography and cultural landscape study.232 Denkler
228
230
Gail Fineberg, "Plantation Exhibit Opens at MLK Library," Library of Congress, January 22, 1996, accessed
May 11, 2013, http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9601/mlk.html.
231
232
Ibid., 69.
229
82
also raises the question of leaving some historically private events of African American culture out of
public view to better preserve them, for example, services and performances in churches.233
Jackson concurs with Denkler’s view of making African American history public, but adds the need to use
descendant voices “as sites of knowledge informing history and the production of history…” These
stories of the underrepresented help complete the American story.234 Also essential to understanding
African American heritage in the United States is recognition that diaspora space was not restricted to
plantation boundaries.235 The study of various cultural landscapes is important in establishing a fuller
understanding of African American cultural heritage and identifying heritage sites.
Denkler and Jackson have demonstrated that historic sites may have been the locations of multiple
cultures, but are interpreted to reflect the social-capital value of the dominant group. In the Gullah
Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, there are many such sites. African American heritage and stories
may be harder to identify in these places. In addition, sites with high social capital value to the Gullah
Geechee community may be overlooked because they do not meet criteria for listing on the National
Register of Historic Places. Representation may seem like a tug of war.
The acute ethnic and racial consciousness of contemporary American society has led to
the wide adoption of constructs like “African American history,” Irish American history,”
or “women’s history.” While useful in themselves and in correcting the errors and
omissions of larger “American history,” such segmented narratives should not trick us
into forgetting that, for better or worse, we are part of each other’s histories.236
233
Ibid., 70.
Antoinette T. Jackson, Speaking for the Enslaved: Heritage Interpretation at Antebellum Plantation Sites
(Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, Inc., 2012), 32.
235
Ibid., 132.
236
234
83
Kaufman’s observations should act as a caution to interpreters of historic sites, particularly in the Gullah
Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the only National Heritage Area to focus on African American
heritage. There is potential to perpetuate accounts of parallel but very separate histories, rather than
correct imbalances of past historical interpretation.
The goal of site interpretation in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is to connect visitors and
residents to the intangible cultural heritage of the Gullah Geechee people through interpretations in the
Corridor. Without a thorough understanding of the Gullah Geechee people, a distorted, one-sided
history will continue to be presented.237 The Corridor is managed by a Federal Commission on which
serve five cultural resource experts and ten state representatives who work with the National Park
Service and the State Historic Preservation Offices of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South
Carolina. The Corridor management plan encourages interpretation of sites that represent any of the
following six themes identified by the Commission:
I.
Origins and early development
II.
The quest for freedom, equality, education, and recognition
III.
Global connections
IV.
Connection with the land
V.
Cultural and spiritual expression
VI.
Gullah Geechee language238
The themes are the basis for stories about events, people, and time periods. For each theme, the
237
Plan," Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, 2012 (accessed September 8, 2012),
238
Ibid., 170.
84
management plan identifies a number of thematic topics, for example, the American Revolution, the
Civil Rights Movement, connection to Africa, de-culturalization of Gullah Geechee in educational
institutions, and unique architecture.239 Any number of topics and themes can be embodied in an
historic site or be presented in an exhibit, on a marker, etc. These can also be used to create
personalized interpretations.
In addition, the Commission has identified the following potential audience for interpretive programs:
•
Residents
•
Youth
•
The elderly
•
Homecoming groups (Gullah Geechee people outside the Corridor)
•
Heritage tourists
•
Pass-through tourists
•
Virtual visitors
•
International visitors
•
Scholarly community240
The management plan lists methods of interpretation implementation, such as electronic media,
resource inventories, publications, and education programs. It notes that the connection of tourists to
living culture, that is, the Gullah Geechee culture, justifies and encourages preserving the environment
and the culture.241 Its goal is to develop a model of sustainable tourism.242
239
Ibid., 176-180.
Ibid., 183-185.
241
Ibid., 190.
242
Ibid., 193.
240
85
Opportunities in Site Interpretation
The true story of your area is the one worth telling.243
—National Trust for Historic Preservation, Cultural Heritage Tourism (website)
The travel and tourism industry is one of the largest employment areas in the United States. Mandela
Research reported that seventy-eight percent of all United States travelers participated in cultural or
heritage activities in 2009.244 A 2011 study by the U.S. Department of Commerce – Office of Travel and
Tourism Industries showed that 68% of all international tourists visited historic sites in the United
States. Forty percent visited cultural heritage sites.245 There is clear demand for cultural heritage
experiences by tourists. By interpreting cultural heritage sites, communities can diversify their
economic bases, preserve their unique characters, and contribute to the broad story of American
history.
Heritage tourism sites have the potential to make local history public and to reach an expansive
audience. A goal of site interpretation is to educate, but an interpretive program can extend beyond
tours at a site. Educational programs targeted for school students supplement classroom learning with
community-based learning.246 Community as a classroom can create a strong sense of connection to a
243
National Trust for Historic Preservation, "Focus on Quality and Authenticity," Cultural Heritage Tourism. n.d.,
(accessed June 11, 2012), http://www.culturalheritagetourism.org/principles/focusOnQuality.htm.
244
"Cultural Heritage Tourism 2012 Fact Sheet,." Cultural Heritage Tourism. March 2012 (accessed March 29,
2013), http://www.culturalheritagetourism.org/resources.htm.
245
U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries,
"2011 Cultural Heritage Traveler," Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. 2011 (accessed March 30, 2013),
http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/outreachpages/download_data_table/2011-cultural-heritage-profile.pdf.
246
17.
86
place. Education programs can be established for all school levels, as well as for adult audiences.247
Bluffton, South Carolina is within the boundaries of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. It
was founded as a Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage community and it survived the Civil
War with twenty-one structures intact. Postbellum structures demonstrate transitions in economy and
society. A portion of Bluffton was registered as an historic district in 1996 with forty-eight contributing
buildings and sites representing three periods of significance: the antebellum era (eight surviving
structures), Civil War and Reconstruction, and commercial growth and decline. Two antebellum period
buildings are open to the public. Bluffton is currently a tourist destination due to its close proximity to
Hilton Head Island, Savannah, and Beaufort, and its offerings of events, dining, and the arts.
Bluffton’s unique history as an unresearched cultural landscape, rich with stories from multiple eras of
history, and its excellent state of preservation, make it a perfect focus for the development of a heritage
tourism program. New research, inclusion of descendant voices, and a better understanding of the
antebellum economy, skills, and crafts that built Bluffton can redefine current Bluffton. The socialcapital value of the historic district and individual places within the district can be better defined and
described. An expansion of the tourism business already present in Bluffton will justify further
investment in its preservation and identify new stewards. It will aid in meeting goals of the Gullah
Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor management plan for interpretive programs. It can make untold
stories of all inhabitants of Bluffton part of public history for the first time.
In summary, tourism in the United States started with a strong political agenda but has grown to
incorporate social awareness and to recognize the multicultural nature of the country. Heritage tourism
247
Ibid., 19.
87
programs can install a sense of stewardship for the preservation of place and the cultural heritage that
defines place. The designation of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor encourages reexamination of sites within the Corridor with a focus on the cultural heritage of the Gullah Geechee
people. This designation is an opportunity to explore history throughout the Corridor and identify story
sites. Interpretive programs will educate residents and visitors, highlighting both common and unique
heritage. Places like Bluffton, South Carolina can participate in this expansion of public history and
collective identity.
88
Chapter 5: Case Study: Developing a Heritage Tourism Program for
The little town of Bluffton, on May River, is noted as the Summer resort of the best
people of the low country. It is a charming little village, and is the residence of some of
the old families who in years gone by owned the sea island plantations in that part of
Beaufort County. Although but few are in affluent circumstances to-day, they still
maintain their places among the most honorable and high-toned Americans, and are
always glad to extend a Southern welcome to those whom they meet.248
—The New York Times, October 14, 1894
Little documentation on antebellum Bluffton exists. At the start of the Civil War, Beaufort County Court
records were stored in Gillisonville, an antebellum planters’ summer cottage community. Gillisonville
was burned by Union soldiers. There is some evidence that the records were burned while they were
being transferred to Columbia for safekeeping. Bluffton’s history is told through surviving evidence of
its built environment, newspaper articles from places that were not burned (such as Savannah), census
records, and surviving family and church documentation. Family letters indicate the intertwined lives of
the families living in Bluffton and some of the social, political, and religious experiences they shared.
While documentation of the African American experience from this time is all but non-existent, the
absence of village and town records silences this important segment of Bluffton’s population further,
increasing the need to look at non-traditional sources for historical information. For example, the stories
presented in this chapter are constructed from family letters, including a letter written by a house slave,
diaries, census data, slave narratives, newspaper articles, and even gravestone inscriptions. The
glimpses into everyday life that these sources provide combine to form a broader view of a period of
248
"A Southern Coast Home: Glipmses of the Old-Time Plantations in South Carolina," The New York Times,
October 14, 1894, accessed April 28, 2013,
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60F15F83A5515738DDDAD0994D8415B8485F0D3.
89
time, a person, or an event.
These stories reveal Bluffton’s compelling history, a shared history that enhances a sense of collective
identity. With a growing tourism industry already underway in Bluffton, its history and the cultural
heritage derived from that history provide reason for extending tourism activities to include heritage
tourism programs. Historic sites in and around Bluffton can become story sites tied to the larger
community by themes identified in research. Each story contributes to a sense of place.
In addition, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Plan has identified multiple
sites in Bluffton that have the potential to tell stories of national significance. The plan identified
research and story themes related to Gullah Geechee cultural heritage. The following vignettes and a
summary of Bluffton’s current presentation of Gullah Geechee heritage at several properties
demonstrate great opportunity to rewrite history through heritage tourism programs that reveal a new,
more complete, and balanced perspective of history.
Bluffton’s Past
Bluffton, South Carolina was inhabited by the early 1820s as an antebellum planters’ summer cottage
community. It was known as May River and Kirk’s Bluff, the latter being the name of one of the
founding families. The village street plan was laid out in the 1830s and remains intact today. The village
was renamed Bluffton in 1844 as a compromise to the two founding families, the Kirks and the Popes,
but the village was not formally incorporated as such until 1852.249 The name Bluffton refers to the
elevated ground on which the town sits, which was probably an enticement to potential residents.
249
The Bluffon Historical Preservation Society, No. II a Longer Short History of Bluffton, South Carolina and its
Environs (Bluffton: The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, 1988), 8.
90
Bluffton rises to forty feet above sea level. This was considered high in Lowcountry where most land is
at or just above sea level. The elevation promoted breezes in the hot summer months, providing some
relief from heat and a mechanism for minimizing the population of disease-bearing mosquitoes. Three
deep coves from the May River contributed to the comfort of Bluffton inhabitants.
Education was of primary importance to the founding families in Bluffton. In November of 1822, the
Daily Georgian, a Savannah newspaper, ran an advertisement seeking a teacher who had received a
“classical education” and who could prepare students for college. Applicants were to respond to
William Pope, Jr. or John McNish, Esq. in May River, South Carolina.250 The request for a permanent
teacher in Bluffton indicates a commitment to village development. On January 14, 1823, another
advertisement appeared in the Daily Georgian looking for students to enroll at the May River Academy.
The coeducational school would prepare students for “advanced standing in a University.” The
advertisement identified the principal of the school as Mr. Gilbert. It noted the location as “the North
side of the May River, well known to be one of the most healthy in the low country of S.C.” The trustees
were listed as John McNish, James Kirk, and William Pope Jr.251 Later, Professor Hugh Train from
Scotland and poet Henry Timrod taught at the academy.252
According to a memoir of Dr. Paul Pritchard, there were only three or four houses in Bluffton in 1841.253
Yet by 1843, pleasure excursions from Savannah to Bluffton were underway and they were advertised
250
The Daily Georgian, Bluffton, South Carolina: Caldwell Archives of Bluffton Historical Preservation Society,
November 25, 1822.
251
The Daily Georgian, Bluffton: Caldwell Archives of The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, January 14,
1823.
252
253
Paul Pritchard, "Reminiscences of an Octogenarian: A Man Who Lived with Men We Read About," The
Beaufort Gazette (The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, August 18, 1904).
91
using the new name “Bluffton.”254 It seems unlikely that a village of only three or four houses would
attract day visitors and be able to support a school.
The founding of Bluffton demonstrated needs and concerns of early nineteenth-century Lowcountry
plantation families. Lowcountry planters needed residences close to their plantations that were safe
from the threat of death from “night miasmas.” In addition, Lowcountry planters were well-educated
and expected to provide a solid education for their children, even if they were forced from their
plantations. Bluffton developed a reputation as a location to safeguard one’s health. In 1843 a
plantation owner in St. Peter’s Parish was in the process of building a slave hospital away from
plantation fields. He noted in correspondence that he hoped to find a location as healthy as Bluffton.255
An event promoting the secession movement was held in Bluffton on July 31, 1844. All influential St.
Luke’s Parish inhabitants, including Squire William Pope, James Kirk, and Dr. Daniel Heyward Hamilton,
attended a dinner honoring Congressman Robert Barnwell Rhett. Rhett vehemently opposed the Tariff
Acts of 1828 and 1832, and believed strongly in states’ rights. Though the “Bluffton Movement” was not
the success Rhett had hoped for, the name “Bluffton Movement” was associated with secessionist
activity, and the label “Bluffton Boys” referred to Rhett’s followers.256
Notices in local newspapers that did survive the Civil War provide a small glimpse into life in antebellum
Bluffton. Advertisements appeared in the Daily Georgian for the return of runaway slaves, providing
names of planter families and their slaves, but also noting characteristics of slaves, such as “intelligent
254
255
Ibid., 325.
256
Ibid., 420-421.
92
countenance and quick spoken.”257 One hinted that a slave may have been hired out to someone in
Savannah. The slaves were to be returned to residences in May River. These slaves may have been
familiar with Bluffton and may also have been familiar with the water routes to Savannah, since some
probably built and navigated the boats between the plantations and the summer cottage communities.
An 1853 letter from William Pope Woodward (grandson of Squire William Pope, one of Bluffton’s
founders) to his father, Reverend Alsop P.V. Woodward, described his schooling while his father was
away. He was studying Latin, but had fallen to second in the class. He was making an effort to regain his
standing in the top of the class. He identified three teachers of the May River Academy of 1853, a Mr.
Edwards, who supervised the English department, a Mr. Wells who taught classics, and Mr. Seabrook,
with no mention of Mr. Seabrook’s subject area. Woodward noted that there had been some sickness
in Bluffton, but its current state was “healthy.” A new church was planned, but the congregation was
still deciding where to put it. Woodward was referring to the Church of the Cross. A postscript to this
letter from William’s sister, Ellen Vail Woodward, announced a new resident, a “bouncing lass,” Miss
Julia Maxwell Verdier.
Diaries and letters of planters present a first-hand account of some of the middle-class planters in
Beaufort District. The diary of Thomas B. Chaplin, owner of Tombee in Beaufort District, dispels the
image of a worry-free life of ease and wealth. Chaplin recorded his long-term worries about his finances
and the many responsibilities and obligations of a planter.258 An 1859 letter from Squire William Pope
(founder of Bluffton) to Joseph J. Pope discussed Joseph’s purchase of land. William expressed his hope
that Joseph’s his new land would be more productive for him than Coggins Plantation had been for him.
257
The Daily Geortian, Bluffton: Caldwell Archives of The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, January 31,
1839.
258
Theodore Rosengarten, Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter with the Journal of Thomas B. Chaplin (18221890)(New York: Quill , 1986).
93
William recognized a need to reduce his labor force due to crop failures in previous years and he
realized there was a strong likelihood of continued failure. He wrote, “…were it not for breaking up old
cherished associations, and almost destroying home affections, it would be to the interest of my family
to sell out my whole property.” 259 Squire William Pope was obviously disappointed and disillusioned
with Lowcountry planting, but felt obligated to continue on his expected course.
In 1904, the Beaufort Gazette published a series of articles titled, “Reminiscences of an Octogenarian”
by Dr. Paul Pritchard. While some of the information may be tainted by the inaccuracies of memory and
the distance of time from the actual events, this unofficial history of Bluffton offers a personal
perspective of events in Bluffton history. It provides names and some general information about
Bluffton’s early days, but it goes into no great detail. Pritchard noted that Calhoun Street was always
the central street and that prior to the Civil War, steamers landed at the wharf at the end of the street
to move passengers, mail, and freight between Bluffton and several other places, including Savannah,
Hilton Head Island, and Beaufort. Pritchard described the sudden evacuation of Bluffton when news of
the Confederate abandonment of Fort Walker at Hilton Head Island reached Bluffton. He called the
evacuation a “stampede,” recalling that furniture and belongings were left behind as residents fled in
haste. Additionally, he recounted Bluffton’s slow but sure recovery after the Civil War, primarily for the
same reasons that drew people to it in the 1820s: its “natural advantage.”260
On August 24, 1861, The Charleston Courier reported the establishment of the “Bluffton Soldier’s Aid
Association,” a group of women in Bluffton. The list of officers and managers appeared as a who’s who
of Bluffton society, with names such as Allen, Coe, Kirk, Cole, Pope, Porcher, Seabrook, etc. The purpose
259
Pope family, "Pope family papers, 1825-1916," no. 1144.00 (Charleston, South Carolina: South Carolina
Historical Society, n.d.)
260
Paul Pritchard, "Bluffton (Paul Pritchard's Memoir)," The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, 1904.
94
of the association was to supply the Coast Guard around Bluffton and Hilton Head Island with clothing,
medicine, and other items of comfort. The women met each week in the Bluffton Masonic Lodge,
preparing garments to send to Confederate soldiers.261
During the Civil War, the people of Bluffton evacuated to other communities further inland, such as
Grahamville, Gillisonville, Allendale, etc. Bluffton offered Confederate forces a location from which the
troops could view Union movement on the Calibogue Sound and the May River between Savannah and
Hilton Head Island. In June of 1863, the Union had control of Hilton Head Island and had seized Fort
Pulaski, raiding Bluffton properties several times to furnish their quarters at Fort Pulaski. In 1863, the
commander at Fort Pulaski ordered troops to destroy Bluffton in retaliation for spying. On June 4, 1863,
Union soldiers burned approximately two thirds of the town. About twenty-one buildings survived.262
The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society produced a map of properties in the center of town on the
eve of the Civil War based on an account of the burning of Bluffton published in the Charleston Mercury
on June 8, 1863. The article listed property owners in Bluffton and identified the properties
destroyed.263 While not every property was accounted for, the map specifies the locations of churches,
a Masonic Lodge, at least one store, and the names of some of Bluffton’s inhabitants. The Popes and
the Kirks, two founding families, lived next to each other on the May River. Both houses were burned,
but surviving members of each family made their way back to Bluffton after the war.
Kirk family letters to Emily, daughter of Caroline and John W. Kirk, M.D., present a long-term look at
261
Edward Kirk Webb, ed., "Kirk family letters, 1803-1868," no. 34/474 (Charleston, SC: South Carolina Historical
Society, 1977.)
262
The Bluffon Historical Preservation Society, No. II a Longer Short History of Bluffton, South Carolina and its
Environs (Bluffton: The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, 1988), 9.
263
The Bluffon Historical Preservation Society, A Short History of the Early Days of Bluffton, South Carolina
(Bluffton: The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, 1983), 6.
95
Bluffton. Emily left Bluffton to attend the Female Collegiate Institute, also known as Barhamville
Academy, in Columbia, South Carolina. It appears that after her schooling, she married and lived in
Yorkville (renamed “York” in 1915). Her family sent her regular news about Bluffton, leaving behind
images of society there that spanned the antebellum period, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Remarkably, one of the first letters to Emily is from her personal slave in Bluffton. Emily was seventeen
when Pleasant wrote her the following letter.
the 30 November 1856
My Dear Mistress
I am at this time able to anser your letter and was glad to here from you and did think
strange that you did not write to me before. I hope that you is Enjoying your Self and
quite well. There is nothing worth relating to you at the present more than all things is
Going on well. A good provision Crop is made. A tolerable Cotton Crop also. The
Servants is all well and no Illness on the place this Summer and no death but one. Polley
lost her Baby. Wally is well. Mary is Sewing very smartly and is to keep to it and the
Rhone horse is so fat until he Shine. The Black horse is as frackhous as ever.
Mistress and Master and all the family is well at present. Master is going Tonight to
Charleston.
All sends Howdy for you and my Self.
Daddy Jim sends his love to you.
I will write by the next male.
From your faithful and humble
Servant Pleasant264
264
Edward Kirk Webb, ed., "Kirk family letters, 1803-1868," no. 34/474 (Charleston, SC: South Carolina Historical
Society, 1977.)
96
Caroline Kirk’s letters to her daughter Emily stressed the importance of taking her education seriously.
She mentioned a new teacher in Bluffton who had been trying to teach Willie to read “scotch,” but
without apparent success. (Willie was Emily’s brother and the Scottish teacher was May River Academy
professor, Mr. Hugh Train.) Caroline discussed clothing, art, music, horseback riding, and news of
people in Bluffton. She told Emily of her plans to engage a music teacher for the Bluffton children for a
summer (the letter is undated, but is assumed to be from the late 1850s). She mentioned the Hardee
girls, the two John Seabrooks, the two James Seabrooks, the two Woodwards, Connie, Julia Pope, Emily
and her brother, Mary Drayton, and George Strobhart. These were potential students for music
instruction. She noted that Mrs. Cole’s daughter might take singing lessons. In other letters, Caroline
expressed her distaste for Bluffton and for her husband’s drinking problem, which she described as an
“unfortunate habit that degrades us all.” She encouraged Emily to expand her social opportunities and
not limit them to Bluffton, as it was “a miserable community.” 265 The letters make clear that Emily, at
17, was multi-talented and that she was being groomed for life in a privileged class that extended to a
larger social landscape.
By the time of the Civil War, Emily was married to Mr. Edward Moore and was living in Yorkville, South
Carolina. Letters from Caroline indicate a changed lifestyle, but no bitterness. She noted that there was
little left on the plantation, as everything was stolen or destroyed. She was sending some of the slaves
to Emily, asking that she be notified when they were settled, as several had been sick. In a later letter
dated April 21, 1862, Caroline expressed deep concern over Emily’s illness. She asked Emily’s husband
to leave the sick slaves with a doctor instead of caring for them himself and bring Emily home. Several
of the enslaved were mentioned by name.
265
Ibid.
97
In another letter, Caroline urged Emily to stay strong for the Confederate men and to stop listening to
Union men in Columbia. She assured Emily that Charleston would not fall. She stated, “I am surprised
at you. If the women give up, depend upon it, the men will become dispirited. You are lowcountry and
too used to the sound of cannon balls to fear the Yankees.” Pleasant, the slave who wrote to Emily
when Emily first left for school, was still with her during the war. However, Caroline was quite disturbed
at how “impertinent and disobedient” Pleasant had become to Emily, and threatened to have Mr. Kirk
sell her when “the trouble is over in Charleston.” There was much discussion about the slaves, who
apparently still moved between the houses with the family members. Caroline expressed shock that
Emily still wanted a negro playmate for her baby, reminding her that neither she nor her brother had
negro playmates.266
The Kirks stayed in Grahamville during the Civil War, which Caroline described as “quite gay.” Though
Dr. Pritchard described an abrupt departure from Bluffton, the Kirks did remove their furniture from
their home. Caroline reported to Emily that she and Mr. Kirk had spent two days at the plantation and
had found much destroyed, including their Bluffton furniture, which included a clock, a card table, a
wardrobe, a work table, and medicine chests, among other household items.267
John W. Kirk, M.D., Caroline’s husband, wrote Emily in 1862 discussing the progression of the war efforts
and the movement of troops. He also addressed Emily’s notice that her slaves were suffering from
scarlet fever. Kirk sent a remedy he had used on his plantation and described exactly how to administer
the doses. Caroline added a postscript with further instructions, specifically for one of the slaves who
had a more precarious condition. The family’s slaves appear to have been divided between the two
households. In one letter, Caroline asked Emily to “…visit the negroes whenever you can. Tell them
266
267
Ibid.
Ibid.
98
their children are regularly washed, combed and clean clothes put on them. I take them candy or cake
every week.”268
As the war continued, Caroline noted the scarcity of many daily items, such as food staples and fabric.
In 1863, John Kirk pondered the question of where to keep the “negroes” so that they were cared for
and fed. Multiple letters named many of the enslaved, providing descriptions that indicated a long and
familiar relationship. Caroline asked Emily why she didn’t provide more news about specific slaves and
why one of the slaves had not responded to a personal letter to her, indicating that Kirk household
slaves may have been literate and Pleasant may not have been the only one to receive or write a
letter.269
Caroline died in Grahamville in 1864 and was buried there. Emily’s husband, Edward Moore, also died
during the war. John kept up the correspondence with his daughter and he sent her money. At the end
of 1864, John Kirk cautioned Emily to refrain from buying anything but necessities. He wrote,
“Remember, my Daughter, there is always and ever will be as good things in the world as have ever
been before.”270 Letters written by both Caroline and John portrayed them as educated, caring people
who remained optimistic in the worst of circumstances. Caroline appeared to be a strong woman, very
much in control and able to manage the multitude of tasks associated with plantation life. These letters
also present a first-hand account of the conflict of slavery and the complexity of the relationships and
interactions between masters and slaves. The Kirks apparently enabled or allowed literacy among some
of their slaves. They appeared to provide for the slaves’ physical care. Multiple slaves are named in
correspondence, revealing familiarity and intimacy. But when Pleasant was rude, Caroline quickly
268
Ibid.
Ibid.
270
Ibid.
269
99
offered to sell her.
In January of 1866, Willie, now a man with responsibilities, communicated with Emily regarding his
return to the family plantation, Rose Hill, also in Bluffton. Since his last visit there in September, items
had been stolen, but all the buildings were standing. John Kirk had gone to Hilton Head Island to attend
to the plantations there, but there was no labor to be secured, despite what Willie considered generous
offers of payment. He reported that their uncle had rented plantations expecting to employ 250 people
and had been unable to find a single worker. One of the former slaves, Charley, left with his family for
the promise of more money in Savannah, an offer that Willie found to be too good to be true. Willie
also discussed some of the other family slaves and whether they intended to stay or leave. Willie also
reported on an old family problem, that of his father’s drinking, noting positively that John Kirk drank on
only one occasion since leaving Yorkville, and only for a few hours.271
John Kirk wrote Emily a long letter, also in January of 1866, advising her of the difficulty in restarting the
farms, and describing laws enacted to aid in reconstruction. John repeated Willie’s news about Charley
leaving, expressing disappointment that Charley never said goodbye to Willie. He also noted that he had
contracted with George Heyward’s son and a Yankee from New York to work a nearby plantation. The
Yankee was to furnish the money, Heyward’s son would keep the accounts, and Kirk would secure
“necessaries” and oversee the workers. Profits were to be distributed among the three. Kirk recognized
that this was not a great money-making opportunity, but he needed any amount of money as soon as
possible. He had already sold a beloved horse because he could no longer afford to feed it. He was
hopeful that Heyward would bring laborers from Charleston, and the business would enable him to
271
Ibid.
100
reduce his debt and to cultivate his own land.272
The George Heyward of which Kirk wrote was George Cuthbert Heyward, who would later follow his
son, Jacob Guerard (known as Guerard) from Charleston to Bluffton trying to restart their lives and
remake their fortunes. George Heyward rented the Cole house in Bluffton, and his descendants bought
and resided in the house until 1998, when a descendant sold it to the Bluffton Historical Preservation
Society.
Further letters to Emily implied that jewelry had been left in Savannah with a Mr. Richmond for
safekeeping during the war. Over the next months, descriptions of crop condition, difficulties in
managing plantation workers, lack of plantation workers, and poor crop results painted a picture of
efforts to survive in a world vastly different from the antebellum period. Yet in none of the letters was
there a hint of sorrow, self-pity, or regret. However, in 1867, Emily asked John for money and his
response was one of disappointment, as he had none to send. He noted the lack of food, which was
becoming more common and more severe.273
The entrance of the George Cuthbert Heywards to Bluffton after the Civil War is noted in the diary of
Pauline DeCaradeuc Heyward, the wife of Guerard Heyward, George’s eldest son. George had been a
successful cotton factor in Charleston before the Civil Ear. After the war, George moved his family to
Bluffton, renting the Cole house and working Buckingham Plantation. Guerard set up a house for his
new bride, completely furnished, and hired a staff of servants. It was this home to which she came after
272
273
Ibid.
Ibid.
101
her wedding in Charleston in November, 1866.274 With money scarce and properties lost, the Heywards
still provided a new bride with domestic help. As the mistress of the household, Pauline’s role would
have been to manage the household, not necessarily perform the daily tasks of running it.
Pauline noted uncomfortable visits from Guerard’s cousins, Mary Strobhart and Harriet Gadsden, and
was relieved that while they visited “…Little Bluffton crept out of its snail shell and three dances were
gotten up…” Pauline referred to her home in Bluffton fondly, though she noted that she had plenty of
trouble with the servants. Guerard spent long days and some nights at the plantation, working hard and
without complaint, but leaving Pauline feeling lonely at times.275
George Heyward was murdered on March 1, 1867, leaving twenty-three-year-old Guerard in charge of
the large family, including his widowed mother and eleven siblings. Pauline reported that they all
moved in together in a larger house in Bluffton, and she was anxious about this arrangement.276
Guerard continued to try to support the family, but he was unable to make enough money through
farming. He moved to Savannah in 1868 to work as a bookkeeper for cotton factors, where he had
much more success. The family remained in Bluffton until Guerard was better established and was able
to secure jobs for his brothers.277 Pauline reported little more about life in Bluffton, though the family
remained a strong presence there, and remains so today.
Postbellum Bluffton was also described in several Pope family letters. Sarah L. Pope, widow of Bluffton’s
founder Squire William Pope, returned to Bluffton after the Civil War with her daughter. Because their
274
Mary D. Robertson, ed., A Confederate Lady Comes of Age: The Journal of Pauline DeCaradeus Heyward,
1863-1888 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991), 112..
275
Ibid., 113.
276
Ibid., 116.
277
Ibid., 119.
102
house had been burned, they joined surviving outbuildings to form one residence.278 Sarah Pope’s
letters revealed her loneliness, despite the fact that she seemed to have many friends around her. She
also presented a portrait of a town trying to reinvent itself after the war. Her letter of January 31, 1869
informed her granddaughter, Ellen that Park and Ned Stoney were trying to grow a crop and raise hogs.
Mrs. Campbell had moved to Savannah to open a boarding house. Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Edwards were
part of Sarah’s social circle. Despite the activity of life around her, Sarah wrote, “…I see nothing to live
for, all trouble and disappointment…”279
On March 21, 1869, Sarah informed Ellen, “Our village is very dull, everybody seems discouraged at the
times and finding it so hard to live – It is a great pity for this is such a pleasant place to live at, if it was
only the same that it was before the war.” Sarah updated Ellen on other people in Bluffton. John Pope
was going away. Mrs. Crowel was engaged to a Yankee Presbyterian Minister, a Mr. Robertson. She
named some of her friends as Mrs. Allen, Rosa Edward, Sallie Mellichamp, Caroline Cole and her
daughters.280
Caroline Cole was the widow of John James Cole, who built a summer cottage in 1840 for his new bride
on the corner of Boundary and Bridge Streets. That house, now known as the Heyward House, survived
the burning of Bluffton, but the Cole family did not return to it. Instead, they returned to their
plantation, Moreland, at Palmetto Bluff. The Coles rented this house to the Heywards.
In 1954, Reverend Albert Sidney Thomas, LL.D., D.D., S.T.D., Retired Bishop of South Carolina, presented
278
The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, A Guide to Historic Bluffton. Bluffton (The Bluffton Historical
Preservation Society, 2007), 24..
279
Pope family, "Pope family papers, 1825-1916," no. 1144.00 (Charleston, South Carolina: South Carolina
Historical Society, n.d.)
280
Ibid.
103
a sermon in the Church of the Cross, former St. Luke’s Parish in Bluffton, commemorating the one
hundredth anniversary of the church building. Church of the Cross had been the center of religious life
for the majority of Bluffton residents and their slaves, since the founding of the village. Rev. Thomas
recounted the history of the area of St. Luke’s Parish, noting that when the parish was incorporated in
1788, John Cole was one of the vestrymen. John Cole was the grandfather of John James Cole, owner of
Moreland Plantation, who built a summer cottage in Bluffton in 1840. Captain Stoney and Mr. Fripp
were instrumental in building another church on Hilton Head Island, probably because their plantations
were located there. Services alternated between the two churches. In 1824, services were held in four
places, including Grahamville, one of the towns to which Bluffton residents fled during the Civil War.281
In that same year, and for the second time, the church had fallen into “ruinous condition” and so a new
structure was built. In 1831, the rector of St. Luke’s Parish first reported services held in May River
(Bluffton). By 1833, the rector, Mr. Young, noted that these services were in a chapel.282 In addition,
the rector reported a large number of services conducted for the enslaved on plantations, adding that in
1838 a chapel was built for them and that churches also had galleries for them.283
The Village of Bluffton had become the center of church activity in St. Luke’s Parish. In 1842, Squire
William Pope donated land and a new church, “Chapel of the Cross,” was constructed. It had a gallery
for African Americans. Five years later, the church was expanded and another structure built about a
mile from Bluffton for the African congregation, marking the second time the church recognized a need
for a separate structure for the African congregation.284 The sermon did not name the African American
281
Rt. Rev. Albert Sidney Thomas, "Church of the Cross : St. Luke's Parish, Bluffton, S.C. : historical sermon"
(Bluffton, South Carolina: Church of the Cross, July 1954), 5.
282
Ibid., 6.
283
Ibid., 7.
284
Ibid.
104
church.
In 1851, another church was planned in Bluffton. Squire William Pope’s son-in-law, Rev. Alsop
Woodward was rector.285 Rev. Thomas noted that “…a large work was done in the parish among the
Negroes involving an assistant minister.” He did not describe the “large work.” When Rev. Woodward
resigned, Rev. James Stoney assumed the leadership role in St. Luke’s Parish, rotating services among
three locations.286
In 1857, the church building that remains today was consecrated with the name “Church of the Cross.”
The 1851 structure was still standing when this new building was constructed, though record of its
survival is not available. The sermon listed long-term parishioners, many of the same families
consistently involved with Bluffton’s development. Rev. Thomas recounted that the parishioners
scattered during the Civil War.287 Mr. Stoney returned as rector in 1867, but Bluffton families were still
dispersed and impoverished, so services were suspended in 1868. Rev. Thomas related how after the
war, the Hilton Head Island church “entirely disappeared,” as did many plantation chapels. With so
many residences burned or destroyed, the wood was needed to build houses. Services at Church of the
Cross resumed in 1870.288 Rev. Thomas described a number of modifications to the church building and
identified the people involved with the various projects. The history of the Church of the Cross reflects
the history of a good portion of Bluffton’s inhabitants, though it recognizes only the names of white
parishioners. However, the need for church buildings to accommodate the African congregation
indicates a large population of Gullah Geechee in Bluffton.
285
Ibid.
Ibid., 8.
287
Ibid., 9.
288
Ibid., 10.
286
105
The United States Census of 1860 for St. Luke’s Parish was divided by Post Office delivery. The Bluffton
Post Office area covered people residing in the village of Bluffton, as well as area plantation owners who
picked up their mail in Bluffton, regardless of their plantation locations. Occupations listed for Bluffton
Post Office residents included the following (in no particular order):
•
Planter
•
Overseer
•
Carpenter
•
Naval Officer
•
Clergy (distinguished by denomination)
•
Physician
•
Farmer
•
Blacksmith
•
Merchant (most were immigrants)
•
Baker
•
Teacher/tutor/governess
The head of one free mulatto family in Bluffton was listed as a mason.289
The 1860 Census also listed slaveholders, the number of slaves each held, and the number of slave
dwellings provided for the slaves, though this latter number seems to have been inconsistently collected
by the census takers. In addition, it is not clear if the number of slave dwellings included those in the
summer cottage communities. By looking at numbers provided by residents such as James Chalmers,
Bluffton’s baker, it can be assumed that his four slaves and one slave dwelling were on his village
289
106
property and not on a plantation or other rural property which would have required more labor. Joseph
Mellichamp, the village physician, had three slaves and one slave dwelling.290
Other merchants owned few slaves. The village of Bluffton likely had multiple buildings on each lot,
similar to other summer cottage communities for which there are more historical descriptions. No data
shows the population breakdown of the antebellum village of Bluffton and no maps survive that show
the layout of structures on the lots. However, there is compelling reason to believe that the enslaved
comprised a good percentage of the village population, if not the majority. St. Luke’s Parish claimed an
over-eighty-six percent black population in 1850 and the few summer cottage communities that
reported slave populations show a high percentage of the enslaved.291
The 1870 United States Census is yet more revealing. Again St. Luke’s Parish was divided by Post Office
location. But the occupations of blacks, mulattos, and whites indicate the spread of population between
rural and village areas as well as engagement in many of the same occupations. Most women,
regardless of race, were listed as “keeping house,” a vast change for the newly-freed Gullah Geechee
women. Almost all blacks and mulattos were unable to read or write.292
290
Ibid.
Ibid.
292
Ibid.
291
107
Occupations of Bluffton residents in 1870 include the following:
Blacks and Mulattos
Whites
•
Farmer
•
Farmer
•
Lumber cutter
•
Timber cutter
•
Teamster
•
Teamster
•
Farm hand
•
Farm hand
•
Housekeeper
•
Lumber dealer
•
Gardener
•
Gardener
•
Washwoman
•
Store clerk
•
Cook
•
Physician
•
Plasterer
•
Planter
•
Shoemaker
•
Shoemaker
•
Fisherman
•
Wheelwright
•
House servant
•
House servant
•
Brick layer
•
Farm overseer
•
Butler
•
Retail dealer
•
Plowman
•
Mail carrier
•
Basket maker
•
Baker
•
Blacksmith
•
Locomotive engineer
•
House carpenter
•
House carpenter
•
Railroad track hand
•
Day laborer
•
Insurance agent
•
Railroad freight agent
•
Clock repairman
•
Lawyer
•
Railroad track hand
•
Dentist
•
Saw mill hand
•
Governess/teacher293
The black and mulatto population of Bluffton in 1870 was approximately 1,665. The white population
293
Ibid.
108
numbered approximately 517, only about thirty percent of the total population.294 While those of
African descent in Bluffton, the Gullah Geehee people, may have been silent in documented history,
their history and heritage are embedded in the fabric of the built environment of Bluffton, in the
adopted and adapted heritage of the white population, and in the traditions carried forth by
descendants.
Bluffton survived the Civil War. Even properties that were destroyed leave behind a wealth of data to
be explored and studied. Bluffton has not suffered from excessive development. The sites of lost
homes, such as those of General Thomas F. Drayton, Squire William Pope, and John W. Kirk, M.D., are
not buried under parking lots or high rises. Further, freedmen built homes and churches in the village.
Material culture, both above and below the ground, can fill in the gaps of Bluffton history and establish
a stronger collective identity within the town and beyond, thus establishing a compelling reason to
continue to preserve this cultural landscape, potentially more aggressively.
Bluffton reinvented itself after the Civil War. It became a commercial center in the county, engaging in
the oyster, timber, and turpentine businesses. General stores along Calhoun Street multiplied, and
people continued coming to Bluffton in summer months to take advantage of the breezes and proximity
to water. The Calhoun Street dock became a busy transport place of both people and freight.295
Residents constructed a large pavilion at the end of the Calhoun Street dock to accommodate
community gatherings and dances.296 Former homes or home sites became boarding houses, for
example, the antebellum home of Colonel Middleton Stuart, known as Seven Oaks. New modes of
transportation, the bridging of the Savannah River, and development of Hilton Head Island in the 1950s
294
Ibid.
The Bluffon Historical Preservation Society, A Guide to Historic Bluffton (Bluffton: The Bluffton Historical
296
Ibid., 24.
295
109
once again altered Bluffton’s economic base and population. Bluffton was no longer a trading center,
though it retained its reputation as a summer resort.297 More recently, Bluffton reinvented itself again
as an arts community and continues to grow and encourage new business and tourism while retaining
its historic character and sense of place.
Bluffton’s Present
The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society is located in the Cole-Heyward House (more commonly
referred to as the Heyward House), one of the early summer cottages in Bluffton. The house was built
by John Cole, whose plantation, Moreland, was at nearby Palmetto Bluff. The Bluffton Historical
Preservation Society operates the property as a house museum, offering docent-led tours of the
property, which includes a slave cabin. It is one of only two antebellum properties open to the public.
The house also serves as the town welcome center, so is a point of orientation for many tourists.
The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society also offers walking tours of Old Town Bluffton, pointing out
a number of properties in the historic district, many of those also noted by plaques that the Society
provides. The walking tour can be docent-led or self-guided. The walking tour pamphlet, published by
the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce provides a map that shows the locations of
buildings burned during the Civil War and a map and key to twenty-six existing structures. The brochure
provides a short, but thorough history of Bluffton and a brief description of twelve properties, including
names of the builders, subsequent owners, construction and architectural information, etc. Two of the
twenty-six buildings are noted as having ties to African American heritage in Bluffton.298
297
Ibid., 10.
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, "Bluffton, South Carolina Historic Walking Tour" (Hilton
Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, n.d.).
298
110
The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society publication, A Guide to Historic Bluffton, presents a brief
history of Bluffton and identifies over fifty-six structures and sites which are still standing. It also
includes photos of some demolished buildings. Of these, five are noted as being linked to African
American heritage in Bluffton.
Gullah Geechee history and heritage are underrepresented in descriptions and accounts of Bluffton. This
occurs for a number of reasons, including lack of available documentation, inaccessibility of these
properties, and the heritage value placed on them by the community. The 2010 United States Census
listed Bluffton’s population at 12,530. This includes people in a broad expansion area beyond its original
one-square-mile boundary. The white population was 8,950; the African American population
numbered 2,025, and other ethnic groups accounted for 1,555 persons, meaning that the African
American population in Bluffton in 2010 was sixteen percent.299 The census of 2000 counted the African
American population of Bluffton as thirty-two percent of the total population. In 2005, the population
was sixteen percent. This shifting of population proportion between blacks and whites in Bluffton is
another reason for marginalization of Gullah Geechee cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible.
This research does not analyze reasons for the population proportion changes. A significant increase in
all residents between 2000 and 2005 may indicate a redrawing of Bluffton’s boundaries, meaning that
additional areas became part of Bluffton through annexation within this time period. However, a
proportionally declining African American population may result in a lost opportunity to identify story
sites through descendant experiences and memories. The time to capture this heritage is now.
299
"2010 Census Interactive Population Search, Bluffton, South Carolina," United States Census, 2010, accessed
May 3, 2013, http://www.census.gov/2010census/popmap/ipmtext.php?fl=45.
111
Many structures that directly represented antebellum Gullah Geechee life are gone. But structures that
do remain, if preserved, reconstructed, or reinterpreted can demonstrate a timeline of Gullah Geechee
presence and influence in Bluffton. Due to neglect, several of these structures are threatened.
Preservation plans and action are required to salvage the visible history of Bluffton’s population.
Because Gullah Geechee culture was retained through an oral tradition, these structures are the
documentation of their history. Intangible cultural heritage remains in Bluffton. But it needs a tangible
representation so that it is remembered in the present and transitions into the future. Some of the
structures that present opportunities to tell a more complex and rich story of Bluffton are:
•
The Cole-Heyward House and Slave Cabin
•
The Squire William Pope House
•
The Garvin House
•
The First Zion Baptist Church Praise House
The Cole-Heyward House Property
This undeniable treasure is a house museum and the town welcome center (Figure 7), and one of only
two antebellum structures in Bluffton open to the public. It is the start of most visitors’ experience of
Bluffton. It tells the stories of early antebellum Bluffton, Bluffton’s role in the Civil War, and
Reconstruction and beyond. It retains an impressive amount of original historic material.
112
Figure 7. Cole-Heyward House (photo courtesy of the author)
The Cole-Heyward House is an early example of the vernacular Carolina Cottage style in Bluffton. As
described by Margaret Ruth Little, the main features of the Carolina Cottage style are a one- or one-andone-half-story form, a side-gable roof, and an integrated porch that extends completely across the
house façade.300 It is raised on masonry piers. The property has two surviving outbuildings, a slave
cabin, and a building presumed to have been the kitchen. John James Cole, newly remarried in 1840,
likely began construction in 1840 to protect the health of his wife, Esther Caroline Corley, and their
future children. (Cole’s first wife, Gertrude Pope, was the daughter of Squire William Pope, one of
Bluffton’s founders. She died in childbirth.) Cole owned four hundred fifty acres of the Moreland
Plantation and held thirty-three slaves.301 Some of the slaves resided with the family in Bluffton,
spending much time in all of the structures on the property.
300
Virginia Press, 2010), 5-6.
301
113
The original house, most likely constructed by Cole slaves, contained three rooms, two on the first floor
and a bedroom in the upstairs half story. In the 1850s, additions completed the house and resulted in
four large rooms and a wide center hall downstairs and three rooms upstairs. The wide, lapped siding
and other exterior surfaces were whitewashed. In addition, the wall and roof-framing members were
exposed and whitewashed.302 This description, included in a 2001 Historic Structures Report, is
consistent with written descriptions of houses in other Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer
cottage communities which no longer survive.
The slave cabin (Figure 8) has the most obvious connection to Gullah Geechee heritage, but its residents
worked in every room of every structure on the property and probably attended Bluffton churches. The
cabin is also currently open to the public as part of the house museum tour. Preservation work
performed about twelve years ago indicated that some of the structural wood components had
markings on them (Figure 9). It was not uncommon for slaves to mill and mark the wood for summer
cottage community buildings on the plantations and assemble the buildings on the summer cottage
community site.
302
PRESCON Preservation Consulting Services, "Cole-Heyward House Historic Structures Report and Restoration
Report," Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, Bluffton, 2001, 6.
114
Figure 8. Cole-Heyward House Slave Cabin (photo courtesy of the author)
Figure 9. Markings on Slave Cabin Framing (photo courtesy of Mr. Bob Dickensheets)
The slave cabin is interpreted to reflect a generic view of slavery and slave life in Bluffton. The current
interpretation identifies the institution of slavery outside plantation boundaries, and is therefore, a
valuable reminder that Bluffton life was maintained by those behind the big house.
115
While little direct documentation is connected with this property and the families who lived on it,
indirect information constructs a profile of people and place during different time periods. Pope and
Kirk family letters mention the Coles, so their social circle is established to some degree. Church of the
Cross historical records note John Cole’s grandfather as a founder of the church, and Cole family
documents confirm John Cole’s continued participation in the church.
Cole family research and papers referenced in Stranger in a Strange Land indicate that three of the Cole
children died in infancy before 1850. And, as if to confirm the danger of the night miasmas, when the
Coles returned to the plantation after the Civil War, two children died two days apart in 1866.303 John
Cole died on October 20, 1867 of tuberculosis contracted during his service in the war.304
The names of the slaves who occupied the cabin on the property and stories of their lives remain
unknown. However, the Cole family bible did list the first names of their slaves, and the slave cemetery,
still on the grounds of the former Moreland Plantation, provides several last names on headstones and a
means of researching their lives. For example, Maria Chalmers is buried in the Cole slave cemetery. Her
headstone notes the same date of birth as the family bible records, October 22, 1854.305 Additionally,
Maria’s husband is identified on the headstone as Wm. J. Chalmers.
William Joseph Chalmers opened a bank account in Savannah, Georgia’s Freedman’s Bank in 1872. On
the application, William identified his place of birth as Bluffton, South Carolina. His current residence
303
Mary Cole Farrow Long, Stranger in a strange land: from Beaufort, South Carolina, to Galveston Island,
Republic of Texas: a biography of Judge James Pope Cole 1814-1886 (Belton, Texas: Bear Hollow Publishers,
1986), 122-123.
304
Ibid., 121.
305
Bob Knebel, "Slaves on Moreland Plantation, Beaufort County, South Carolina," July 8, 1998, accessed March
17, 2011, http://www.aagsnc.org/records/cole.htm.
116
was in Savannah, at York and Lincoln Streets. He was twenty years old, had light skin, and was a butler
for Mrs. E.C. Cole (Esther Caroline Cole). He listed his wife as Maria. His father’s name was James
Chalmers and his mother’s Sarah Small. He noted that his father lived in Savannah. His brothers and
sisters shared his mother’s last name. William signed his application in impeccable handwriting,
indicating that he was educated. 306
United States Census records of 1880 showed William Chalmers, twenty-seven years old, living in
Bluffton with his wife, Maria, son Erroll, and daughters Sarah and Sabina. Maria and the children were
listed as black, but William was listed as mulatto.307 Chalmers is not identified in the 1870 census. Sarah
Small, William’s mother, is identified in the 1870 census, living in Bluffton with the brothers and sisters
William had listed on his bank account application. They are all listed as black, and Sarah was thirty-two
years old, meaning that she was fourteen when she gave birth to William and that William’s father was
white.308 There were two James Chalmers from Scotland living in the area. One was the baker in
Bluffton, the other a watchman (handwriting is unclear) in Savannah, the latter more likely to have
fathered William. Additional research through Maria and William’s children and descendants might lead
to stories about the families and Bluffton.
The Cole family flight from Bluffton is documented in an unlikely source, a slave narrative (see Appendix
B). Works Progress Administration, Federal Writers’ Project interviewer Phoebe Faucette spoke with
one-hundred-six-year-old Daphney Wright at some point between 1936 and 1938. Daphney Wright was
306
HeritageQuest Online, "Freedman's Bank Image for William Joseph Chalmers," Series: M816 Roll: 9, Page: 456,
Account 8270, March 13, 1872 (accessed April 30, 2013).
307
HeritageQuest Online, "Chalmers, Will (1880 U.S. Census)," Series T9, Roll: 1221, Page 133, South Carolina,
Beaufort, Bluffton, Original Source: United States. Census Office, 1880 population census schedules (Washington,
D.C.: Bureau of the Census).
308
HeritageQuest Online, "Small, Sarah (1870 U.S. Census)," M593 Roll: 1485 Page 115. South Carolina, Beaufort,
St. Luke's Parish, Bluffton, Original Source: United States, Census Office, 1870 population census schedules
(Washington, D.C.: Bureau of the Census), (accessed April 30, 2013).
117
the only former slave who mentioned Bluffton or any of the Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer
cottage communities in the slave narratives. In addition, she provided names of places and people in
her story of growing up on Moreland Plantation and fleeing the Union Army with the Moreland families
of the Corleys and the Coles. The death of Mrs. Eliza Hutchinson Corley, Esther Caroline Cole’s mother,
is recorded in this narrative. Daphney noted that the surviving family members returned to Moreland
Plantation after the war, but that she stayed behind in Hardeeville where she married, and raised her
family.309 Her story is rich and detailed, and fills in some of the many holes of Bluffton history.
George C. Heyward moved his family from Charleston to Bluffton shortly after the end of the Civil War,
as noted in both Kirk family letters and Pauline DeCaradeus Heyward’s diary. During their association
with the house, from 1866 to 1998, they changed little on the property, adding electricity and plumbing
with a kitchen additon to the main house in the 1930s. The Historic Structures Report showed that the
main alterations to the house took place during the Cole residency.
Further research on this property, including a possible archaeological study and research at the
plantation site on which a slave cemetery remains, might produce information that better informs the
interpretation of this structure. In addition, a collaborative and comparative study of both the
plantation site and the summer cottage site could potentially present a better understanding of the lives
and lifestyles shaped by the rice economy of the antebellum Lowcountry.
309
g::.
118
Squire Pope Property
Squire William Pope, one of Bluffton’s founders, was one of the wealthiest planters in the area, owning
at least three plantations on Hilton Head Island and on the mainland, including Coggins Point Plantation.
Pope served in both the South Carolina Senate and the House of Representatives, representing St.
Luke’s Parish.310 The 1860 United States Census shows that Pope, 71 years old, owned two hundred
slaves who lived in sixty-five dwellings. His plantations amounted to over five thousand acres.311
Coggins Point Plantation was confiscated by the Federal government during the Civil War and its
remains have been destroyed by development. The site is now a planned community, Port Royal
Plantation. Pope’s house in Bluffton was burned in 1863 by Union soldiers. No records of the original
main house exist, but it is believed to have been constructed around 1850. When Pope’s wife and
daughter returned to Bluffton after the Civil War, they moved the surviving outbuildings together and
connected them to form a residence (Figures 10-13).312 There has been no other development on the
property.
The only first-hand account of the Pope presence in Bluffton after the Civil War comes from Sarah
Pope’s letters, which are few. However, the surviving building was once the workspace and possible
residence of Pope’s slaves. This house is the only surviving representation of outbuildings adapted for
use as the main house after the Civil War. Additional study of the house and property may yield
information regarding the lives of the enslaved in Bluffton, as well as the altered lifestyle of
Reconstruction.
310
311
312
119
Figure 10. Squire Pope Property, North Facade (photo courtesy of the author)
Figure 11. Squire Pope Property, West Facade (photo courtesy of the author)
120
Figure 12. Squire Pope Property, South Facade (photo courtesy of the author)
Figure 13. Squire Pope Property, East Facade (photo courtesy of the author)
Garvin House Property
The Garvin House property (Figure 14) has the potential to yield a wealth of information about
antebellum life and the transition to freedom. Cyrus Garvin built this house shortly after the Civil War,
presumably on the land of his former master, Joseph Baynard, whose house stood on the property. The
121
house was destroyed in 1863.313 It is not clear how and when he obtained title to the property. The
house is constructed with a mix of materials, some of which predate the Civil War. Garvin may have
used materials from surviving structures on the property or from nearby properties to craft a residence
in a typical Lowcountry vernacular style.314
Figure 14. Garvin House (photo courtesy of the author)
Garvin raised his family here, making a living off the small lot. The 1870 United States Census reports
that Garvin, forty-nine years old, was a farmer, and his wife, Ellie, forty years old, was keeping house.
Their twelve-year-old son, Isaac attended school. In 1880, Cyrus was still farming and his wife (now
identified as Ellen) was working on the farm. Isaac had grown up, and at twenty-one years old, worked
on the farm. He was married to Jennie, twenty-two years old, who also worked on the farm. Isaac and
Jennie had an infant son, Paul. Neither Cyrus nor Ellie could read or write. Jennie and Isaac could read,
313
Cassie Foss, "Former Bluffton freed slave's home awaits renovation, but lack of money stalls progress." The
Island Packet. January 18, 2010, accessed February 13, 2013,
http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/01/18/1105693/former-bluffton-freed-slaves-home.html.
314
The Living History Group, "The Garvin House: A Preservation & Interpretation Plan for an 1870 Freedman's
Home," Prepared for the Town of Bluffton (Summerville, South Carolina, July 15, 2009), 12.
122
but could not write.315 The 1890 census records were destroyed, and the Garvins did not show up on
the 1900 or 1910 census records. Cyrus Garvin still lived in Bluffton in 1890. On October 21, Bluffton
physician, Joseph H. Mellichamp treated him for a problem with his leg.316
Property records indicate that the Garvin family owned the property until 1961.317 Since then, the
house has fallen to ruin and its survival is in jeopardy. The building was stabilized in 2008 with steel
beams running through the first floor to support the upper floor and prevent collapse. A preservation
plan performed by The Living History Group for the Town of Bluffton in 2009 discusses the following
details:
•
Unique materials and construction techniques
•
Hand-hewn and sawn-cut studs
•
Recycled crate materials used as wall boards
•
The fine carpentry of the builder
•
Blue painted door and window trim
These and other details contribute to an understanding of the life of a freedman during the era of
Reconstruction and beyond.318 In addition, this site remains largely undisturbed. An archaeological
study could reveal details of a typical lot layout prior to the Civil War, changes to accommodate
Reconstruction, and the lifestyle of the Gullah Geechee people who inhabited this space.
315
316
Joseph Hinson Mellichamp, 1829-1903, "Bluffton physician's book, 1890-1891," no. 34/0243 (Charleston, South
Carolina: South Carolina Historical Society, n.d.)
317
Cassie Foss, "Former Bluffton freed slave's home awaits renovation, but lack of money stalls progress." The
Island Packet. January 18, 2010, accessed February 13, 2013,
http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/01/18/1105693/former-bluffton-freed-slaves-home.html.
318
The Living History Group, "The Garvin House: A Preservation & Interpretation Plan for an 1870 Freedman's
Home," Prepared for the Town of Bluffton (Summerville, South Carolina, July 15, 2009).
123
Praise House
In October of 1862, before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, a group of slaves established the
First African Baptist Church of Bluffton. It later changed its name to the First Zion Missionary Baptist
Church.319 It is not clear where the congregation met and no original structure is identified. The Church
currently has a contemporary structure in the historic district of Bluffton. The church also owns a praise
house on a grassy lot on Simmonsville Road, near a commercial area (Figure 15). It is an inconspicuous
structure that has remained unused for almost forty years.
Figure 15. Praise House (photo courtesy of the author)
319
Tom Barton, "Hilton Head church that saw 'dawn of freedom' for slaves celebrates 150 years," The
IslandPacket.com, January 26, 2012, accessed May 2, 2013,
http://www.lowcountrynewspapers.net/archive/2012/01/26/story/hilton-head-church-saw-dawn-freedom-slavescelebrates-150-years.
124
The praise house arrived on Simmonsville Road in pieces in 1953. It was originally used as both a school
house and praise house in Belfair Plantation, also in Bluffton. The original date of construction is
unknown. However, the building was the center of life for the Gullah Geechee community on Belfair
Plantation. In 1949, the Mingledorff family from Savannah bought Belfair with plans to raise cattle on it.
A 2010 article in The Bluffton Breeze reported that in 1949 Belfair was open land with only the old,
crumbling tabby mansion on it.320 However, the Gullah Geechee people who lived there were asked to
move. Walter Mingledorff gave them the school/praise house and the lot on Simmonsville Road on
which to move it, providing that the community move the building. They did. Oscar B. Frazier, Sr., Rev.
Jimmy Buncombe, and others took the structure apart and removed and straightened the nails so that
even the nails were reused. It took three months to rebuild, but many of the community members had
strong memories associated with the building, both for education and for worship, and wanted to save
the building. Congregation members also had long and deep roots in the larger Bluffton community.
Some of the church members worked in the Bluffton Oyster Company. One ran a theater, another a
store. The first black undertaker and policeman were members who worshipped or were educated in
this building. Mrs. Jennie Kitty helped establish the first day care center in Bluffton in 1970.321
Praise houses originated in antebellum Lowcountry plantations. They may have been separate
structures near the slave streets or one of the slave cabins, which doubled as a place of community
interaction, organization, and worship. In addition to its personal past, the praise house in Bluffton
represents Gullah Geechee religious heritage. Bigger churches and improved transportation to them
320
Michele Roldan-Shaw, "Bud Mingledorff Remembers Belfair," Bluffton Breeze, September 2010, accessed
October 18, 2012, http://blufftonbreeze.com/201009/_Bluffton-Folk.php.
321
Robyn Passante, "Praising the Past," Lowcountry Newspapers Archive, April 11, 2002, accessed October 17,
2012, http://www.lowcountrynewspapers.net/archive/node/97871.
125
minimized the need for praise houses as the center of small community life for many of the area Gullah
Geechee people. The buildings are falling to ruin or being demolished throughout Lowcountry.322
The praise house is in a poor location to receive the attention it deserves and to service the community
as a reminder of community history and cultural heritage. An appropriate study and preservation plan is
necessary to allow this building to share its stories. Moving the building into the historic district may be
a viable option, allowing the history of this building and its associated people to be visible in the present
and informing the future.
Many more properties in Bluffton can potentially tell the story of Gullah Geechee heritage. Some are
identified in an assessment study for a heritage trail in Old Town Bluffton completed in 2012 (Appendix
C). However, when researching the society, politics, religion, and economy that shaped the physical
environment, it becomes evident that many sites and structures are story sites for both black and white
inhabitants. The two cultures merge at points, generating a broader collective identity, an identity that
extends beyond Bluffton. Bluffton history and heritage are layered. Its built environment provides
documentation of the past and of living heritage.
Bluffton’s Future
Bluffton has an opportunity to rewrite its history and make it part of public history by designing and
implementing heritage tourism programs, including a heritage trail. Through such programs, Bluffton
can provide visitors with the experience of history and heritage discovery, meeting its goals for
increased tourism, while ensuring the preservation of its unique heritage. Bluffton’s historic sites
322
Jeff Kidd, "Praise houses are a portal into the past," IslandPacket.com, March 10, 2010, accessed September 14,
2012, http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/05/1161830/praise-houses-a-portal-into-the.html.
126
establish relationships to each other through unifying themes identified during research for heritage
tourism programs. Each site is more meaningful when it tells part of a larger story in Bluffton’s history
and brings that story to life.
Old Town Bluffton currently promotes a growing tourism industry. It is surrounded by other, larger
tourist destinations, such as Hilton Head Island, Beaufort, and Savannah. The town encourages
economic development and has seen an increase in dining establishments, shops, art galleries, and
other businesses. The town wishes to increase Bluffton’s attractiveness to visitors and to thereby
increase visitor expenditures.323 Tourism is remarketing itself as an experienced-based means to
discovery.
Bluffton’s history is rich and compelling, but it is not always visible or accessible. The cultural resource
survey for the National Register of Historic Places nomination identified a number of buildings deemed
“significant” at that moment in time. However, with careful research focused on the people who
crafted the built environment, new cultural resources will surface, those that demonstrate a relationship
to the people of the past and that resonate with people in the present. The National Park Service
recommends using the National Register nomination forms as a starting point for research by which
stories are developed. Bluffton has this starting point. This starting point is enhanced by the
documentation that is available, such as the letters, slave narratives, diaries, etc., as well as by the wellpreserved cultural landscape of Old Town Bluffton and some surrounding sites.
Bluffton can connect its history and its heritage through a heritage tourism program that makes a new
323
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce's Visitor & Convention Bureau, "2012-2013 Bluffton
Marketing Plan," Think Hilton Head Island & the Lowcountry, 2012, accessed October 3, 2012,
http://www.thinkhiltonheadisland.org/article-details?hhaid=158, 3.
127
historical perspective part of public history, history that resonates with residents and visitors. Research
necessary for a heritage tourism program casts a spotlight on hidden, forgotten, or lost history and
heritage. In addition, this kind of research moves outside the boundaries of the National Register
Historic District, encouraging a broader cultural resource survey. Heritage tourism raises the profiles of
marginalized groups and expands the sense of place and collective identity while emphasizing the
unique character of place.
By viewing the built environment from the perspective of themes, the relationships among properties
and people become clearer, the history more textured, and the heritage value of individual properties
higher. Some themes that emerged from preliminary research in the assessment study are as follows:
•
Education
•
Economy
•
Antebellum Bluffton
•
The Civil War
•
Postbellum Bluffton/Reconstruction
•
Architecture
•
Spiritual life
Research areas proposed in the assessment study include family histories, church histories, businesses
and industries. Both the themes and research areas are inclusive of all ethnic and racial backgrounds,
reflecting the lives lived in Bluffton. In addition, a heritage tourism program will focus research on
themes identified in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Plan. The
management plan has identified five properties that embody Gullah Geechee cultural heritage. They
are:
128
•
Campbell Chapel AME Church
•
First Zion Praise House
•
Garvin House Freedman’s Cottage
•
Heyward House Slave Quarters
•
Oyster Factory Park
The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Plan states that these sites have the
potential to tell stories of national significance. Five sites within such a small geographic area confirm
the importance of Bluffton as a space where cultural heritage was shaped, enforced, and sustained.
Gullah Geechee culture is subtly embedded in other sites as well, for example, the Squire Pope property
and the main house and kitchen of the Cole-Heyward House property.
Identifying sites and stories to include in a heritage tourism program is only a first step. Heritage
managers must address many issues that impact preservation plans for properties, including the
following:
•
Ownership of the property and owners’ responsibility or obligation to preserve the property
•
Methods of preservation, current and future
•
Heritage ownership. Whose heritage and whose story is it?
•
Identification of stakeholders
•
Methods of gathering stakeholder input
•
Challenges to community collective identity
•
Publicizing of dark heritage
•
Public access of properties
•
Determination of identity, that is, local, regional, national, or international
129
•
Authenticity
•
Visitor profiles
•
The importance of context of place, if the Praise House, for example, is to be moved
•
Adaptive reuse
The design process of a heritage tourism program will determine the methods of presenting history and
heritage, that is, the best ways of telling the emerging stories. The National Register Bulletin, Telling the
Stories: Planning Effective Interpretive Programs for Properties Listed in the National Register of Historic
Places, presents numerous options for interpretation, including talks and tours, curriculum-based
studies for school groups, living history, workshops, seminars, and special events.324 It also offers
electronic media as methods of interpretation or as aids in interpretation. Heritage managers in
Bluffton can consider all options appropriate for its setting, residents, and visitors.
Bluffton’s unspoiled historic resources and the town’s current focus on improving and expanding its
tourism offerings present opportunities to develop a heritage tourism program. The designation of the
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor supports research necessary to expose the heritage of the
Gullah Geechee people who were a strong influence in Bluffton’s development and transformation.
Research is supported by two types of documentation:
•
Traditional documentation such as letters, diaries, newspapers, etc.
•
Non-traditional sources such as clues in the built environment, burial grounds, and descendant
input.
324
23.
130
The result will be an asset to the community, Lowcountry, and beyond. If carefully managed, a heritage
tourism program in Bluffton can contribute to the larger story of United States history.
131
Chapter 6: Conclusion
History requires constant attention. Evidence of achievement must be unearthed,
underlined, spotlit. Memories of discrimination and suffering must be maintained. And
sometimes evidence of existence, of presence within the larger story, must be
discovered and defended. This is because much of history lies forgotten or buried.
Before becoming part of heritage, history must be rediscovered.325
—Ned Kaufman in Place, Race, and Story
History is never final. New history is created with every passing moment. Because of its dynamic
nature, it is often recorded with inaccuracies and omissions. Recent preservation and conservation
philosophies and practices have engaged local communities in identifying what to preserve and
determining why to preserve it. Local values and cultural heritage emerge, giving new meaning to
places and artifacts. New perspectives prompt a re-examination of assumptions about history that can
result in rewritten history.
The United States was founded on the institution of slavery, yet this topic is still sensitive and often
avoided. African American history and heritage originated in an oral culture, so almost no historical
documents recorded the experience of Africans in the early years of the United States. Efforts to avoid
confronting the topic of slavery and the absence of documented accounts of it have encouraged two
parallel histories of the American experience, with the African American perspective marginalized.
Historic sites do not always have the information needed to accurately and confidently interpret African
American experience.
The designation of National Heritage Areas is an opportunity to examine cultural heritage from a local
325
. Ned Kaufman, Place, Race, and Story: Essays on the Past and Future of Historic Preservation (New York:
132
perspective and connect it to a larger context, that of regional or national collective identity. It provides
a reason for research, exploration, and discovery that leads to a rewriting of United States history,
pushing local heritage out of the shadows. In 2006, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor was
designated a National Heritage Area. It focuses on the cultural heritage of one segment of America’s
African American population, the Gullah Geechee people. The management plan encourages research
that leads to heritage tourism. The heart of the corridor is South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where an
antebellum rice economy enforced Gullah Geechee culture.
Some research identifies the absence of the white planter family from rice plantations as a contributing
factor to the survival of Gullah Geechee culture.326 But little to no research explains these absences, nor
is there documentation on where the white families and their house slaves were located during these
absences. The loss of Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage communities during the Civil
War and the need to transition into the Reconstruction era erased the history of these places from most
people’s memories. Yet they were an integral part of Lowcountry rice plantation life and made the
management and success of the plantations and the southern economy possible. This research
identifies the Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage community as a cultural landscape
based on its relationship to Lowcountry plantations, particularly rice plantations. Studies of rice
plantation life and culture must include this cultural landscape as part of the whole story.
This thesis is a starting point in understanding how the migration patterns between plantation and
summer cottage community and the lifestyle that straddled the two geographic landscapes created a
distinct cultural identity for both blacks and whites who shared the spaces. It is an opportunity to center
a marginalized population and history by presenting a more balanced record that is supported by
326
72.
133
continuing research. Further research that links Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage
communities to plantations will increase community value and preservation of historic sites that might
otherwise not meet criteria for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bluffton, South Carolina lies within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. It was one of the only
Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage communities to survive the Civil War. It survived with
twenty-one structures intact. It has not suffered mass development and retains much of the original lot
and street layout, so sites are still able to present evidence of lives lived on them. Bluffton has become
a tourist destination and it celebrates its history. But Gullah Geechee historic properties and history are
underrepresented for a number of reasons, including a declining Gullah Geechee population. By using
the physical remains of the built environment, surviving documents, descendant voices, and further
studies, Bluffton has an opportunity to share a story of national significance. Bluffton’s history is unique,
and Bluffton may be the best preserved example of a Lowcountry antebellum planters’ summer cottage
community that survived the war. In fact, it may be the only opportunity to share this part of United
States history through the built environment of this cultural landscape.
This research leads to the following recommendations for Bluffton:
•
Perform periodic cultural resource surveys that extend beyond the boundaries of the historic
district.
•
Assess properties based on their potential to tell stories that map to themes identified through
historical and ethnographic research, as well as their architectural value.
•
Identify “lost” histories of people, for example, the life of Confederate General Thomas F.
Drayton, who fought against his Union soldier brother in the Battle of Port Royal at the start of
the Civil War.
134
•
Identify and give voice to the formerly enslaved as information is revealed through research.
•
Research the founding of the African American churches in Bluffton.
•
Describe economic transitions and identify story sites that demonstrate the transitions.
•
Design, implement, and manage heritage tourism programs using the tangible historic landscape
as a means of illustrating and unifying Bluffton’s history.
•
Establish relationships among people, places, and eras that give Bluffton a unique sense of place
and of collective memory.
By expanding its tourism offerings to include a heritage tourism program, Bluffton can support the
mission of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. In addition, it can promote an effort to
recapture the history of its origins and evidence of a people capable and willing to reinvent themselves
while maintaining a sense of place through several significant periods of change and transition. Heritage
tourism can introduce Bluffton to a wider audience, promote effective preservation practices in the
town, and inform local public policy. It can encourage research that challenges current understanding of
Lowcountry, the South, and the United States. It can offer a marginalized culture a more centered
position in the town’s history. By rewriting history in support of a heritage tourism program, the cultural
heritage of the town and its people will be better preserved.
Using Bluffton, South Carolina as an example, other communities may realize that not all history is
evident or recorded in traditional ways. Rich and complex history that formed a place’s identity and
heritage may be hidden or altered. It awaits rediscovery.
135
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Appendix A: Locations of Bluffton Residents’ Plantations
The following map identifies locations of plantations of several Bluffton residents and their proximity to
Bluffton. It notes two plantations of General Thomas Drayton, two of Squire William Pope, one of John
Cole, and one of Dr. John W. Kirk.
327
327
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Appendix B: Slave Narrative, Daphney Wright
Project #-1655
Phoebe Faucette
Hampton County
Folklore
DAPHNEY WRIGHT
106 Year Old Ex-Slave328
Just around the bend from the old mill pond on the way to Davis Swimming Pool lives a very old
negro woman. Her name is Daphney Wright, though that name has never been heard by those
who affectionately know her as "Aunt Affie". She says she is 106 years old. She comes to the
door without a cane and greets her guests with accustomed curtsey. She is neatly dressed and still
wears a fresh white cap as she did when she worked for the white folks. Save for her wearing
glasses and walking slowly, there are no evidences of illness or infirmities. She has a sturdy
frame, and a kindly face shows through the wrinkles.
"I been livin' in Beaufort when de war fust (first) break out", she begins. "Mr. Robert Cally was
my marsa. Dat wuz in October. De Southern soldiers come through Bluffton on a Wednesday
and tell de white folks must get out de way, de Yankees right behind 'em! De summer place been
at Bluffton. De plantation wuz ten miles away. After we refugee from Bluffton, we spent de fust
night at Jonesville. From dere we went to Hardeeville. We got here on Saturday evening. You
know we had to ride by horses—in wagons an' buggies. Dere weren't no railroads or cars den.
Dat why it take so long.
328
g::.
149
"Mr. Lawrence McKenzie wuz my Missus' child. We stayed wid him awhile, 'til he find us a
place. Got us a little house. We stayed four years dere, 'til de war wuz over. Dey sent de young
ladies on—on farther up de country, to a safer place. Dey went to Society Hill. My old Missus
stay. Sae wuz a old lady. When de Yankees come she died. I wuz right dere wid her when she
died. She had been sickly. After de war dey all went back to de old place. I had married up here,
so when dey went back I stay on here.
"I been right here when de Yankees come through. I been in my house asittin' before de fire, jes'
like I is now.
"One of 'em come up an' say, 'You know who I is?'
"I say, 'No.'
"He say, 'Well, I is come to set you free. You kin stay wid your old owners if you wants to, but
dey'll pay you wages.'
"But dey sure did plenty of mischief while dey wuz here. Didn't burn all de houses. Pick out de
big handsome house to burn. Burn down Mr. Bill Lawton' house. Mr. Asbury Lawton had a fine
house. Dey burn dat. (He Marse Tom Lawton' brother.) Burn Mr. Maner' house. Some had put a
poor white woman in de house to keep de place; but it didn't make no difference.
"De soldiers say, 'Dis rich house don't belong to you. We goin' to burn dis house!'
"Dey'd go through de house an' take everything'. Take anythin' they could find. Take from de
white, an' take from de colored, too. Take everything out de house! Dey take from my house.
Take somethin' to eat. But I didn't have anythin' much in my house. Had a little pork an' a week's
supply of rations.
150
"De white folks would bury de silver. But dey couldn't always find it again. One give her silver
to de colored butler to bury but he wuz kill, an' nobody else know where he bury it. It wuz after
de war, an' he wuz walkin' down de road, an' Wheeler's Brigade kill him.
"Been years an' years 'fore everythin' could come together again. You know after de war de
Confederate money been confiscate. You could be walkin' 'long de road anytime an' pick up a ten
dollar bill or a five dollar bill, but it wuzn't no good to you. After de greenback come money
flourish again.
"De plantation wuz down on de river. I live dere 'cept for de four years we refugee. Dat been a
beautiful place—dere on de water! When de stars would come out dere over de water it wuz a
beautiful sight! Sometimes some of us girls would get in a little 'paddle' an' paddle out into de
river. We'd be scared to go too far out, but we'd paddle around. Sometimes my father would go
out in de night an' catch de fish with a seine. He'd come back with a bushel of fish 'most anytime.
Dey were nice big mullets! He'd divide 'em 'round 'mongst de colored folks. An' he'd take some
up to de white folks for dere breakfast. My white folks been good white people. I never know no
cruel. Dey treat me jes like one of dem. Dey say dey took me when I wuz five years old. An' I
stay wid dem 'til freedom. I am 106 years old now.
"Dem people on de water don't eat much meat. Twenty-five cent of bacon will last dem a week.
Dey cut de meat into little pieces, an' fry dem into cracklings, den put dat into de fish stew. It
surely makes de stew good. When dey kill a hog dey take it to town an' sell it, den use de money
for whatever dey want. Dey don't have to cure de pork an' keep it to eat. Dey jes' eat fish. Dey
have de mullets, an' de oysters, an' de crabs, an' dese little clams. Dey have oyster-stew. Dey
have roast oysters, den de raw oysters. An' dey have dey fried oysters! Dat sure is good. Dey fish
from de boat, dey fish from de log, an' dey fish 'long de edge of de water wid a net. When de tide
151
go down you kin walk along an' jes pick up de crab. You could get a bucket full in no time. We'd
like to go up an' down an' pick up de pretty shells. I got one here on de mantel now. It ain't sech a
big one, but it's a pretty little shell.
"I is always glad to talk 'bout de old times an' de old people. We is livin' in peace now, but still
it's hard times. We ought to be thankful though our country ain't in war."
Source: Daphney Wright, Scotia, S.C.
152
Appendix C: Assessment Study for a Heritage Trail in Old Town Bluffton
The assessment study presented in this appendix was submitted to the Town of Bluffton mayor and
Planning Department in the late Fall of 2012. It is currently under review and discussions regarding
support, design, and implementation continue.
153
Assessment Study for Old Town
Bluffton Heritage Trail
Prepared by
Carolyn M. Coppola
M.F.A. Candidate, Historic Preservation
School of Building Arts
Savannah College of Art and Design®
10/31/12
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Assessment Study: Bluffton Heritage Trail
Page ii
Table of Contents
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................... iv
1.
Overview ............................................................................................................................................... 1
2.
Study Area ............................................................................................................................................. 2
3.
Background ........................................................................................................................................... 4
4.
Assessment Study Development .......................................................................................................... 7
5.
Research Areas and Heritage Trail Themes .......................................................................................... 8
Research Areas.......................................................................................................................................... 8
Themes .................................................................................................................................................... 18
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor ............................................................................................ 19
6.
Implementation Tasks and Timeline ................................................................................................... 21
7.
Cost Factors......................................................................................................................................... 23
8.
Assumptions and Dependencies ......................................................................................................... 24
9.
Conclusions and Future Considerations.............................................................................................. 25
Appendix A – Economic Study Data ............................................................................................................ 27
Notes ........................................................................................................................................................... 29
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List of Figures
Figure 1. Old Town Bluffton and Study Area ................................................................................................ 3
Figure 2. Pennsylvania History Trails ............................................................................................................ 5
Figure 3. Calhoun Street............................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 4. Surviving outbuildings on Squire William Pope, Jr.’s Bluffton property, circa 1850 ..................... 8
111 Calhoun Street
Figure 5. Squire Pope's Bluffton property (date of photo unknown) .......................................................... 9
Figure 6. Cole-Heyward House, circa 1840 ................................................................................................. 10
70 Boundary Street
Figure 7. Grave of Maria Chalmers, Cole Slave, Slave Cemetery of Moreland Plantation, Palmetto Bluff 10
Figure 8. Church of the Cross, circa 1857 ................................................................................................... 11
110 Calhoun Street
Figure 9. Calhoun Street Dock Today .......................................................................................................... 12
Figure 10. Town Dock, circa 1920 ............................................................................................................... 12
Figure 11. Seven Oaks, 1850 ....................................................................................................................... 13
82 Calhoun Street
Figure 12. Seven Oaks (date of photo unknown)....................................................................................... 13
Figure 13. Garvin House, circa 1865 ........................................................................................................... 14
Warf Street, Oyster Factory Park
Figure 14. Garvin House (date of photo unknown) ................................................................................... 14
Figure 15. Zion Church Praise House, date unknown ................................................................................. 15
Simmonsville Road, near Route 278
Figure 16. Campbell Chapel AME Church, 1853 ......................................................................................... 16
23 Bounday Street
Figure 17. Bluffton Oyster Factory, 1940 .................................................................................................... 17
Warf Street, Oyster Factory Park
Figure 18. Bluffton Oyster Factory prior to 1940........................................................................................ 17
Figure 19. Varn & Platt Canning Company, circa 1913 ............................................................................... 18
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1. Overview
The purpose of this report is to provide a preliminary look at the research, outreach, collaboration, and
resources necessary to design and implement a heritage trail in Old Town Bluffton. It will be used to
gather support for the project from stakeholders, secure funding, and inform future planning. It is the
first step in designing and implementing a heritage trail in Old Town Bluffton. When complete, the
Bluffton Heritage Trail will educate residents and visitors about Bluffton’s heritage and highlight its local,
regional, and national significance.
Old Town Bluffton enjoys a successful tourism industry, enhanced by the surrounding tourist
destinations of Hilton Head Island, Savannah, and Beaufort. Bluffton has become a singular destination
providing fine dining, history, entertainment, boutique shopping, and a thriving art community. Old
Town Bluffton is within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. This Corridor was designated by
an act of Congress as a National Heritage Area in 2006, meaning it contains historic resources of national
significance. The Corridor Management Plan identifies five sites in Bluffton in its resource inventory.
The Corridor spans the coastal areas of four states, the heart of which is in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
The designation of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and its support for heritage tourism
within the Corridor provide an opportunity to include a cultural heritage component to Bluffton’s
tourism offerings, highlighting the intertwined lives of Bluffton’s population from its earliest days to
contemporary times, presenting a new, more complex view of town history. Presenting Bluffton’s
heritage through its historic sites, including those identified in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage
Corridor management plan will emphasize the town’s unique characteristics and sense of place that
make Bluffton a “state of mind.”
This report includes the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
A general description of heritage trails
The purpose and process for developing the study
Potential research areas and themes, as well as a list of themes identified by the Gullah Geechee
Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Plan
A list of project tasks and cost factors
A list of program dependencies and assumptions
Rationale for implementing a heritage trail in Old Town Bluffton
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2. Study Area
A heritage trail is a network of natural and cultural sites, activities, and facilities that encourage people
to get the most out of the environment. It can help visitors and residents to understand a particular
place. It informs, educates, and entertains.
The goal of the Bluffton Heritage Trail project is to design, develop, and implement a heritage trail that
presents a balanced, cohesive, and personal history of Bluffton and the heritage of its inhabitants. This
can be accomplished by doing the following:
•
•
•
Identifying historic resources in Old Town Bluffton that can potentially illuminate stories that
map to one or more themes (identified later in this document).
Designing methods to make these stories available to the public, for example, through signs, a
multi-media presentation, docent-led tours, self-guided tours that integrate technology, etc.
Creating a maintenance program for the trail.
The heritage trail will encourage tourists, residents, and workers to explore Bluffton through a
contemporary method in public historical interpretation. A heritage trail will strengthen the
connections between Bluffton’s cultural heritage assets to provide a more compelling visitor experience.
A dynamic, story-telling approach brings history to the general public. It will increase pedestrian traffic,
thereby increasing revenue to local government and businesses.
The Study Area includes the central portion of Old Town Bluffton, outlined in the following map (Figure
1), and bounded by Warf Street, May River Road, Boundary Street, and the waterfront of the May River.
Page 2
i
Figure 1. Old Town Bluffton and Study Area
This area contains a concentration of historic properties within close proximity to each other that can
provide significant and diverse stories of Bluffton’s history and explain its present position. In addition,
several sites in this defined area are identified on the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
Resource Inventory. The location of these properties provides an opportunity to address interpretation
themes listed in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Plan. The location of
properties facilitates pedestrian routes and expands visitor focus beyond the main corridor of Calhoun
Street.
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3. Background
Old Town Bluffton is rich with history, a unique history. Bluffton was founded as a summer cottage
community for area plantation owners to escape the “unhealthy season” on the plantations. This
migration between plantation and summer cottage communities was a practice common in the
Lowcountry and it distinguished Lowcountry plantation life.
Bluffton contains many historical structures, some of which survived the burning of the town during the
Civil War. It is also a study in cultural landscape, as its very location on the May River not only made it
an appropriate place to spend unhealthy summer months, but influenced the town’s economic shift and
survival after the Civil War, and again, after the construction of the bridge to Hilton Head Island.
Bluffton’s history has been protected and shared by many. Since 1998, the Bluffton Historical
Preservation Society has been housed in the Cole-Heyward House on Boundary Street, showcasing this
treasured property to many Bluffton visitors through docent-led tours, publications, and numerous
educational and entertainment events. In addition, the Preservation Society shares the town history
through walking tours, maps providing some history of various properties, social media, and
collaboration with community organizations. The town also plays an active role in preserving Bluffton’s
history and has recently placed interpretive signs on historic public properties. These contain narratives
and historic photos.
Among many notable goals in the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce 2012-2013
Bluffton Marketing Plan are those to increase overnight visitation in Bluffton and to increase Bluffton’s
attraction, thereby increasing visitor expenditures. Strategies include targeting markets such as affluent
consumers and group tour planners who are interested in cultural and historic activities. The Bluffton
Marketing Committee plans to advertise through Smithsonian.com and PreservationNation.org, two
sites that promote and support heritage tourism, as well as in Preservation Magazine, the publication of
the National Trust for Historic Preservation The Chamber has budgeted funds to print the current
walking tour map of the historic district.
A heritage trail is a natural extension of this focus, offering more ways to attract cultural and heritage
travelers to the area. It will also increase educational opportunities for residents and visitors and
promote economic development to support new visitors and residents.
U.S. Census data identifies accommodations and food services as the largest industry in Beaufort
County. It also shows arts, entertainment, and recreation as one of the smallest, meaning that there is
opportunity to engage visitors in more activity in the Beaufort County area. A Bluffton heritage trail can
provide points of interest for visitors.
When complete, the Old Town Bluffton Heritage Trail will be a collection of self-guided walks based on
unifying themes. These can be combined in any way. For example, a visitor wishing to view or learn
about sites meaningful to Bluffton’s economic history can follow a trail map designed to highlight that
aspect of the town’s history. A visitor interested in the Civil War can follow another trail. Visitors can
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follow trails for each theme or follow as many as desired in a combined trail. Individual sites on the
overall trail will fit into multiple themes. Themes can be color coded on a map. Hand-held audio-visual
devices can offer choices of trails or combinations of trails. They can also offer historic photos of sites or
a series of photos, enabling visitors to experience a transition in time while listening to related stories
and information about the site and town.
The following is an example of a heritage trail map, color coded to reflect different themes (Figure 2). It
shows the overlap of some themes at individual sites. While this map reflects a state-wide scale, similar
community-wide maps are equally effective in illustrating the diverse offerings of a heritage trail system.
Figure 2. Pennsylvania History Trails
ii
Visitors to a town website can be enticed to visit places on a map such as this one, which could be made
available in a printed version in the town, as well as part of a portable audio-visual device presentation.
The Town of Bluffton has completed many of the items outlined in the 2006 Old Town Master Plan,
including the addition of wayfinding signage, streetscaping, the preservation and improvement of the
Oyster Factory Park, the stabilization of the Garvin House, and others. The Town Council Staff Report of
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March 13, 2012 outlines an impressive number of completed development, rehabilitation, business
expansion, business and residential unit increases, and public space projects. An active merchants’
association promotes economic development. All of these accomplishments are necessary components
to a successful heritage trail.
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4. Assessment Study Development
This study started with three main questions:
•
•
•
What stories can be told about Old Town Bluffton, including those that demonstrate the
interpretive themes identified by the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management
Plan?
Where can these stories be told (at what sites)?
What resources or assets are available to help tell these stories?
This study was conducted by gaining familiarity with existing assets as identified by A Guide to Historic
Bluffton (published by the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society) and the Old Town Bluffton Historic
Walking Tour map, reviewing town history, and getting a feel for the study area’s sense of place. By
walking around the study area, relationships between properties and historical events were more
visible. Preliminary research strengthened those relationships, forming ideas for themes in the study
area as well as validating themes identified in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
Management Plan.
iii
Figure 3. Calhoun Street
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5. Research Areas and Heritage Trail Themes
A new Heritage Trail is an opportunity to educate residents, workers, and visitors on Bluffton’s physical
and cultural heritage assets. Its multi-faceted history will be reflected by multiple themes, including
themes consistent with those of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. It will invite people of
many backgrounds and interests to explore Bluffton. Research will reveal properties that are associated
with themes. Once preliminary research is complete and themes finalized, Old Town Bluffton resources
can be inventoried. Resources associated with local and Heritage Corridor themes will be identified as
appropriate for inclusion in the heritage trail.
Research Areas
Research areas are identified by their potential to reveal a fuller heritage of Bluffton. The following is
not meant as an all-inclusive list, but as a starting point for research and dialog.
•
Pope family
The Popes were a founding family in Bluffton’s history. According to Bluffton Historical
Preservation Society records, five members of the Pope family owned six properties in Bluffton
when it was burned in 1863. The Popes were tied to many other families. For example, the
mother of John Cole (who built the Cole-Heyward House) was Susan Jane Pope, daughter of
James Pope, Jr. She was first cousin to Squire William Pope, Jr. John Cole married Gertrude
Pople, daughter of Squire William Pope, Jr. The “Fripp House” was built by James L. Pope.
Documentation and remaining physical properties (Figures 4 and 5) may lead to an
understanding of the migration patterns of Bluffton plantation owners and of slavery and
freedom in Bluffton.
Figure 4. Surviving outbuildings on Squire William Pope, Jr.’s Bluffton property, circa 1850
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iv
Figure 5. Squire Pope's Bluffton property (date of photo unknown)
•
Kirk family
Another founding family, three members of the Kirk family owned homes in antebellum
Bluffton. While no structures remain in Bluffton, family letters may reveal insight into the daily
lives of these plantation owners and the Gullah population.
•
Drayton family
While no buildings survive in Bluffton, General T. F. Drayton had his summer cottage in Bluffton.
He made his home in Bluffton when he married Emma Pope. His plantation at Palmetto Bluff
was over 4500 acres and he was one of the largest slaveholders in South Carolina. A West Point
Graduate and classmate of Jefferson Davis, Drayton was appointed a general in the Confederate
army, while his brother chose to fight for the Union. The two brothers fought on opposing sides
at Port Royal. Research at Palmetto Bluff may reveal facts about the Drayton family daily life
and the life of the enslaved. The slave cemetery is still maintained on Drayton’s former
plantation site.
•
Cole family
The Coles were in Lowcountry since the early 18th century. St. Luke’s Parish (in which today’s
Bluffton is situated) was established in 1767. In 1788, a group of planters built the first church.
One in the group was John Cole Jr. (1755-1793). John Cole III was a non-resident land owner in
St. Luke’s Parish, living in St. Helena’s Parish and also having a plantation in Prince William
Parish. John Cole IV built the Cole-Heyward House (Figure 6) and died as a result of tuberculosis
contracted while fighting the Civil War. His primary residence was at Moreland in Palmetto
Bluff. All Coles were active members of The Church of the Cross. Further research, including a
potential archaeological study at Moreland, may provide a more personal look at plantation and
summer cottage community life for both the plantation owners and the Gullah population.
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Figure 6. Cole-Heyward House, circa 1840
Figure 7. Grave of Maria Chalmers, Cole Slave, Slave Cemetery of Moreland Plantation, Palmetto Bluff
•
Heyward family
Several branches of the Heyward family resided in Bluffton, both before and after the Civil War.
The postbellum owner of the Cole-Heyward House, George Cuthbert Heyward moved to
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Bluffton from Charleston to reestablish himself in a new business. His family had servants in
Bluffton. His descendants and those of other Heywards still reside in the area, a testimony to a
connection to place. Further research can reveal more personal stories and family connections
to highlight the family’s contribution to the town and its development. It can also reveal
information about the servants in Bluffton after the Civil War, for example, where they lived and
how they arrived in Bluffton.
•
Joseph Mellichamp
Dr. Mellichamp was the village Doctor, but also a well-respected botanist. He was also related
to the Popes, who introduced him to Bluffton. He was known to treat all residents, before and
after the Civil War, without regard to race or ability to pay. He served as a doctor for the
Confederate army. Further research may lead to an understanding of the support businesses in
summer cottage communities. Dr. Mellichamp likely was a full-time resident of Bluffton.
•
Church of the Cross
The current antebellum structure is either the third or fourth structure to house the church
members (Figure 8). A previous building contained a gallery for the slave population. Prior to
the construction of this building, Church of the Cross erected a chapel about a mile from
Bluffton in which the enslaved population could worship. At times, the church sent ministers to
the plantations to offer services for the enslaved population who were not part of the village
life. Further research may make the relationships of blacks and whites within the church a little
clearer. Church records may also reveal information regarding births, baptisms, marriages, and
deaths among parishioners.
Figure 8. Church of the Cross, circa 1857
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•
Calhoun Street dock and waterfront
The dock and waterfront (Figures 9 and 10) were a source of transportation, industry, and
entertainment for Bluffton throughout its history. Further research may provide stories and
details of how the waterfront reflected Bluffton’s changing economy.
Figure 9. Calhoun Street Dock Today
Figure 10. Town Dock, circa 1920
•
v
Seven Oaks
Built in 1850 by Colonel Middleton Stuart and Emma Barnwell Stoney (Figures 11 and 12).
Colonel Stuart commanded Company E of the 11th South Carolina Volunteers in the Civil War.
After the Civil War he became a plantation manager in South Carolina and Texas after the War.
Colonel Stuart sold the Bluffton house in 1866 and it changed ownership several times, ending
up in the Baynard family, another prominent family in the area. During the 1920s, Elizabeth
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Sanders operated a boarding house there to accommodate the travelers arriving at the Calhoun
Street dock. This property and its change of uses represent the transformation of Bluffton from
antebellum to contemporary times. Further research may lead to more personal stories of the
people and lifestyles associated with the property, as well as Bluffton’s changing economy.
Figure 11. Seven Oaks, built in 1850
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Figure 12. Seven Oaks (date of photo unknown)
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•
Garvin house
The first freedman’s house built on the May River and in Bluffton (Figures 13 and 14). The
Bluffton Historical Preservation Society archives has some research on this property. Further
research can highlight the opportunities for freedmen in a cottage community, as opposed to a
plantation, the ability for freedmen to purchase property, and the laws that supported it. In
addition, historic documentation notes that Cyrus Garvin was a trustee of a new African
American church in Bluffton. African American religious life can be explored here as well.
Figure 13. Garvin House, circa 1865
vii
Figure 14. Garvin House (date of photo unknown)
•
First Zion Baptist Church and praise house
The Zion Church building is a contemporary one. However, the church was formed in 1862. It
owns a praise house that was moved in the 1950s to a location outside of Old Town (Figure 15).
Further research on the praise house and on the history of this church and congregation can tell
us more about African American life in Bluffton.
Page 14
Figure 15. Zion Church Praise House, date unknown
•
African-American church gospel choirs
Music has always been a part of the African American spiritual experience. The churches in
Bluffton have long enjoyed celebrated choirs. Further research can show the role of music and
song in Bluffton heritage.
•
Campbell Chapel AME church and founders
This antebellum structure (Figure 16) was sold by its white congregation after the Civil War
when the congregation became too small to support multiple churches, so it merged with
another congregation. The church website notes that nine freed slaves founded the new
church. Further research may lead to a better picture of who those people were and their role
in rebuilding a community in Bluffton after the War.
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Figure 16. Campbell Chapel AME Church, 1853
•
St. John Baptist church
The historic structure of this African American church was demolished years ago, but the church
website indicates that Cyrus Garvin, the first freed slave to build a house in Bluffton, helped
establish the church. Further research is needed to confirm this.
•
Methodist church
The Methodist Society was organized in 1853 in Bluffton. Its original building was lost after the
Civil War to hurricane damage and its new building erected in 1974. Since the congregation has
long been part of Bluffton society, more research may highlight Methodism in both plantations
and the cottage community and the interactions of both plantation families and African
Americans within the church sphere.
•
Plantation summer communities
Plantation summer communities were not standard outside of Lowcountry. Places like Bluffton
have conditions that created a unique history of migrant plantation families. Lowcountry
planters left their plantations for about six months a year, sometimes longer. Bluffton’s
proximity to a number of well-established plantations afforded owners better management of
their plantations. Further research is necessary to explore these ideas.
•
Bluffton Oyster Factory
While the current building was erected in the 1940s (Figure 17), an oyster factory has been on
this property since 1899 (Figure 18). One of five operations in Bluffton until the 1930s, the
Bluffton Oyster Factory is the last commercial oyster shucking house on the U.S. east coast.
These businesses employed migrant Polish immigrants and local African Americans and kept
many people afloat through the Great Depression (Figure 19). Dormitory-style housing was built
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alongside the canneries for migrant workers and for those who could not make the daily journey
between home and the factories.
Figure 17. Bluffton Oyster Factory, 1940
viii
Figure 18. Bluffton Oyster Factory prior to 1940
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Figure 19. Varn & Platt Canning Company, circa 1913
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Themes
Themes refer to the ideas that connect the resources (buildings, structures, land) to the values of the
community. These are the ideas on which stories of Bluffton history and heritage can be based. The
following is a preliminary list of themes and subthemes:
•
•
•
•
Economy
o Bluffton’s beginnings as a community for plantation owners
o Use of the river for fishing, oyster factories, shipping, etc.
o Commerce
o Arts community
Antebellum Bluffton
o Lifestyle of plantation owners
o Slavery
o Lives of the enslaved (names and stories as available)
o Businesses
Postbellum Bluffton
o Rebuilding
o Shift in population
o Shift in economy
o Land ownership for African Americans
o Spiritual life
Spiritual life
o Antebellum church services for both plantation owners and the enslaved population
o Postbellum praise houses, then African American churches
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•
•
•
•
•
Architecture
o Vernacular Carolina Cottage style
o Lowcountry style
Education
o Establishment of academy in antebellum time
o Establishment of schools for African Americans
African-American heritage
o Contributions to the shaping of the town throughout its history
o Choice of Bluffton as a home after Freedom
o Preservation of culture in a planters’ summer cottage community
The Civil War
o Military action in Bluffton
o Burning of Bluffton
o Population evacuation
o Bluffton men in the Confederate army
o Bluffton women’s support for the Confederate army
Land ownership for African Americans
o Demonstrated in Garvin House and others
o Demonstrated in the purchase of property for churches and the purchase of existing
church buildings
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Plan describes the commission’s goals for
interpreting Gullah Geechee heritage across the corridor. The commission has identified the following
six primary themes by which the stories of the Gullah Geechee can be expressed to the public through
interpretation and education programs:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Origins and early development
Quest for freedom, equality, education, and recognition
Global connections
Connections with the land
Cultural and spiritual expression
Gullah language
The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Commission has identified the following
properties in Old Town Bluffton as resources in the corridor:
•
•
•
Campbell Chapel AME Church
First Zion Praise House
Garvin House Freedman’s Cottage
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•
•
Heyward House Slave Quarters
Oyster Factory Park (in which the Garvin House remains and the Bluffton Oyster Factory are
located)
Research areas and local themes for the Bluffton Heritage Trail will link to most of the corridor’s
identified themes.
Page 20
6. Implementation Tasks and Timeline
The following list of tasks is not linear. Some tasks will occur concurrently.
For discussion purposes only.
Assumptions:
•
•
•
Heritage trail signs will be consistent with current Old Town signs, and meet town sign
ordinances, and be coordinated with the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
management commission plan for branding.
The trail plan will map to the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor management plan.
Work can begin in January, 2013 and will take approximately 24 months.
Task
Time to complete
Begin public stakeholder meetings to review
plans, finalize research topics, identify oral
history resources, and identify sources of
historical documents and other research
sources.
1 month
Identify cost factors and funding sources.
1 month
Begin identifying production companies to
produce audio-visual components.
2 weeks
Identify components of trail that will require
approvals from town planning, zoning, ARC,
etc.
2 weeks
•
•
•
Begin conducting in-depth research,
including oral interviews as
appropriate.
Inventory properties.
Outline physical layout of the
heritage trail and themed subtrails.
6 months
Begin drafting trail scripts, sign captions,
audio-visual scripts, walking tour maps,
pamphlet information, and town website
updates.
6 months
Edit all drafts.
1 month
Responsible Party
Page 21
Task
Time to complete
Once new information is finalized, begin
updating Bluffton history book. Consider
translations.
3 months
Hold stakeholder review of audio-visual
components, history book draft, signage text,
etc. Accept and review comments and input.
6 weeks
Finalize, publish, and install trail materials.
3 months
Responsible Party
Celebrate at the grand opening of the “new”
Old Town.
Page 22
7. Cost Factors
Cost factors will be better defined by an implementation plan that minimizes variables, such as the need
for signage, tour guides, and other potential cost areas. However, the assessment stage does identify
general cost considerations. To implement a heritage trail plan, staff or consultants will be required for
a number of responsibilities including the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Organize meetings, work with stakeholders, compile and distribute data and drafts, collect
feedback, etc.
Research and draft materials, such as the tour script, local history book or book update, maps,
signage, etc.
Design and lay out all materials.
Produce audio-visual components.
Prepare and distribute RFPs for audio-visual work and collect and review proposals.
Write grants.
Act as tour guides, if the plan also allows for guided tours as well as self-guided tours
Funding will also be necessary for the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Printing
Production
Installation
Maintenance of the trail, signs, and devices
Self-guided tour audio-visual devices
Town website updates to include a tour “teaser”
Funding may also be required for a tour orientation space and staffing to distribute and collect selfguided tour devices and maps.
Because of so many accomplishments of the Master Plan, such as streetscaping and the installation of
wayfinding signs, branding, etc., most significant costs are already accounted for. Federal and State
grants may be available for some of the remaining work.
Page 23
8. Assumptions and Dependencies
The following issues must be considered in the development of the Old Town Bluffton Heritage Trail:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Any new signs should match the current Old Town branding and retain a consistent look and
feel.
People of varied backgrounds can connect with Bluffton’s history. Collecting stories from its
diverse population during research should ensure this connection, enabling residents, workers,
and visitors to relate to stories on the trail. It is very important to solicit input from the Gullah
residents of Bluffton.
Working with stakeholders, residents, historians, employees, etc. will create a clear and
consistent message.
Two buildings are currently open to the public and several other sites are public spaces. Other
properties are private residences and businesses. Tours must be coordinated to respect privacy
and to avoid disruptions to the activities of residents and businesses. For this reason, the
placement of signs needs to be considered. It is possible that images on the audio visual devices
and on the maps may have to suffice as identifiers.
Pedestrian links must be safe, well-maintained, comfortable, and provide wayfinding methods,
ideally with lighting. Signs must not impede pedestrian flow.
The design of the trail should take into consideration amenities that exist, for example,
restaurants, shops, parks, restrooms, etc. to help increase visitation to these places.
Handicap accessibility should be integrated into the plan. Even if a property is inaccessible, such
as the Cole-Heyward House, a virtual tour may be integrated into the audio-visual component of
the tour.
A facility must be identified and prepared for the tour start, possible orientation (short film), and
for pickup and return of tour audio-visual devices.
Page 24
9. Conclusions and Future Considerations
Bluffton is perfectly positioned to design and implement a heritage trail. It lies within a National
Heritage Area with a goal to promote preservation of both place and cultural heritage in a geographic
location that can potentially tell a story of national importance. Bluffton retains significant resources
(structures and landscapes) that, combined, tell very unique stories. Bluffton resources represent
Gullah Geechee heritage in an overlooked cultural landscape, that of a Lowcountry plantation summer
cottage community. Bluffton has an opportunity to present its history and heritage through the lens of
its unusual origins – and be the first antebellum cottage community to do so.
The establishment of heritage trail is consistent with the goals of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton
Chamber of Commerce 2012-2013 Bluffton Marketing Plan and the Old Town Master Plan. It is also
consistent with the heritage tourism goals of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
Management Commission. Five resources are listed in the Resource Inventory of the Gullah Geechee
Cultural Heritage Corridor Management Plan, meaning that, if interpreted, these resources would
convey stories associated with themes identified in the management plan.
Trail materials and experience will not only enlighten tourists, but can act as an educational tool for local
and other school districts, making the “bigger picture” of Bluffton’s history part of public history.
Materials can be used for both classroom and field trip purposes.
Resources can be identified and interpreted immediately while plans and funds for future work, for
example, on the Garvin House, can be phased in over time. To continue to add to the knowledge base
and expand to broader audiences, future considerations can include the following:
•
•
•
Translations. Bluffton has a high concentration of Spanish-speaking people. To encourage their
visitation and participation in Old Town activities, it may be useful to translate some of the
heritage trail materials.
A children’s program. To increase family visitation to the Old Town Heritage Trail, the trail must
engage children. For example, a children’s program can be a modified audio-visual tour or a
series of activities along the tour route.
Archaeology studies. Not only does the very act of a “dig” attract the curiosity and attention of
residents and visitors, but the information recovered can potentially reveal new details of
everyday life in Bluffton, particularly regarding the lives of the formerly enslaved population
who left few documented accounts of their journey to freedom and their contributions to the
character and culture of Bluffton as we know it today.
The Old Town Heritage Trail will seamlessly blend with current Bluffton pedestrian layout and branding.
It will increase pedestrian traffic and revenues of local businesses. It will create opportunities for
business growth. It will promote a stronger sense of place and community and increase civic pride.
Furthermore, the heritage trail can be used as a model for other communities who wish to recapture
Page 25
their history and heritage and bring it to a contemporary audience who will preserve that heritage for
future generations.
Page 26
Appendix A – Economic Study Data
The following data supports heritage tourism as an economically beneficial activity in Beaufort County
and South Carolina:
•
From the Cultural Heritage Tourism 2012 Fact Sheet published by the National Trust for Historic
Preservation (culturalheritagetourism.org/documents/2012CHTFactSheet_000.pdf):
What benefits does cultural heritage tourism offer?
Tourism is big business. In 2010, travel and tourism directly contributed $759 billion to the U.S.
economy. Travel and tourism is one of American’s largest employers, directly employing more
than 7.4 million people and creating a payroll income of $188 billion, and $118 billion in tax
revenues for federal, state and local governments. (Source: U.S. Travel Association, 20111)
In addition to creating new jobs, new business and higher property values, well-managed
tourism improves the quality of life and builds community pride. According to a 2009 national
research study on U.S. Cultural and Heritage Travel by Mandela Research, 78% of all U.S. leisure
travelers participate in cultural and/or heritage activities while traveling translating to 118.3
million adults each year. Cultural and heritage visitors spend, on average, $994 per trip
compared to $611 for all U.S. travelers. Perhaps the biggest benefits of cultural heritage
tourism, though, are diversification of local economies and preservation of a community’s
unique character. (Source: Cultural & Heritage Traveler Study, Mandela Research, LLC)
•
From a study by the Research Department of the U.S. Travel Association for the South Carolina
Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, August 2012:
Beaufort County “…posted just over $1.0 billion in domestic traveler expenditures to rank third
or 9.7 percent of the state total. These expenditures generated $197.5 million in payroll as well
as 11,900 jobs within the county.”
•
From A Development and Economic Impact Study of the South Carolina National Heritage
Corridor: A Roadmap for Economic Development by the University of South Carolina-Clemson
University Tourism Research Partnership and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Travel & Tourism
Industry Center, August 2010:
o The Corridor has the geographical scope and grassroots networks to expand tourism
interpretation across the state using new technologies such as GPS and hand-held
applications.
o Survey respondents preferred to have more opportunity to experience local communities
and cultures, meaning the Corridor’s cities, towns, and communities.
o Survey respondents indicated that education and interpretation are important to the
Corridor experience.
Page 27
o
o
The return on investment for the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor (HC) is
impressive. Visitors to the 14-county region annually generate $624 million in direct
economic impact. In addition, 9,389,120 tourists visited these counties in 2009. These
visitors spent an average of $45.83 per day and stayed in the corridor an average of 1.45
days. The Corridor’s economic impact is even more remarkable: $1.0 billion in total output
impact; $375 million earnings impact; $91.4 million indirect tax impact; and 17,867 jobs.
Some tourism market segments have substantial economic impact on the HC, including
outdoor recreation, heritage tourism, special-event tourism, nature-based tourism, and
culinary tourism. Outdoor recreation had the greatest number of visitors (751,000) and the
highest total economic output ($47.1 million). Heritage tourism had the second lowest
number of tourists among these market segments (235,000), but the second highest total
economic output ($35.9 million). Heritage tourists spend $114 per day while in the corridor,
almost three times what was spent by outdoor recreation visitors. These numbers suggest
that outdoor recreation and heritage tourism in the Heritage Corridor are distinct, yet
complementary markets.
Page 28
Notes
i
Town of Bluffton Growth Management Department, "Staff Report, March 13," 2012.
Pennsylvania Trails of History, 2012 (website), accessed October 20, 2012,
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/trails_of_history_sites/1800.
iii
The Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, A Guide to Historic Bluffton (Bluffton: The Bluffton Historical
iv
Ibid., 24
v
Ibid., 11.
vi
Ibid., 28.
vii
Ibid., 59.
viii
Ibid., 59.
ix
Lewis Wickes Hine, "A crowd of negro oyster shuckers. On the Atlantic Coast the negroes are employed more
than the whites, but they do not work the little ones so much. Varn & Platt Canning Co. Location: Bluffton, South
Carolina," (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, February 1913).
ii
Page 29

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