Down on the Plantation

I am currently visiting my dad and step-mom Kim in South Carolina. Yesterday we drove to Mt Pleasant and toured the Boone Hall Plantation. It was a lot of fun. We got to go on a driving coach tour around the whole plantation, then there was a live demonstration about the Gullah culture that emerged from the slaves. After that we listened to a talk about the slaves and their life on the plantation. We were able to tour the remaining cabins, which contained an audio and/or visual clip, plaques and relics to educate you on the lives of the slaves from their enslavement through emancipation.

This is a photo of "Slave Row". Nine of the original shacks are still standing. The plantation produced bricks at one time and these are built from the rejected bricks. Each hut housed approximately 16 people. Inside I estimate they are about the the size of two queen beds pushed end to end. Boards would have been laid on the rafters of the roof for the children to sleep.

We also went on the tour of the first floor of the main house. The second floor is occupied by the owners of the plantation. The house is very beautiful colonial style furnished with antiques from the period the house was originally built in.


The whole plantation was very beautiful and the experience was educational and fun, but I think the image that I will remember the most was the Avenue of Oaks. The avenue leading up to the house is lined on each side with centuries old Live Oaks draped with Spanish Moss. It was gorgeous. My favorite parts of the house were the library/ball room and the breeze way which both featured floor to ceiling windows, lovely floors (hardwood in the library and original bricks made on the plantation laid in herringbone in the breezeway) and both rooms opened up into a garden courtyard. Unfortunately no photography was permitted inside the house, so you will just have to use your imagination, think Jane Austin.


Avenue of Oaks as seen from the house.