Historic Landscapes

The South Carolina Low Country

The Low country of South Carolina is identified with a landscape comprised of sea islands, marshes, and swamps which are at sea level. The earliest settlers believed they had come to a healthy country, in contrast to Barbados but within a decade the South Carolina Low country developed a reputation as a "charnel house."

A saying from the eighteenth century described South Carolina as a colony for those who wished to die quickly. Many of those who survived developed a sallow and sickly complexion known as "the Carolina Phiz."

South Carolina was a hospital in the fall and a paradise in the spring. The Low country featured many varieties of azaleas, flowering magnolia, palmetto, yellow jessamine, Spanish moss, love oaks, and the bald cypress tree which were native to the area. The live oak which has become synonymous withe Low country's natural landscape was protected by law even in the eighteenth century. It's shade producing qualities as well its hard and durable wood, which used as ship's timber were valued by the colonists

In 1663, Charles II granted a large tract of land to eight English noblemen, who were given the title Lord Proprietors. Motivated by the promise of immense profits, they established Carolina in 1670. The Lord Proprietors hoped to attract as many settlers as possible from other English colonies such as New England and the West Indies.

By the mid-seventeenth century Barbados had experienced such an explosion in population most of its land was no longer available to new settlers. Advertisements for the new colony of Carolina attracted a great deal of interest precipitating an influx of emigrants from Barbados.

In addition to the Barbadian's, Dissenters, Englishmen, Scots, New Englanders, Jews, and French Huguenots were attracted by the new colony's potential. The Lord Proprietors, in the quest for settlers portrayed Carolina "as a verdant Eden rife with virgin forests, and vast tracts of unclaimed land." This portrayal conveniently neglected the presence of Native Americans who occupied much of Carolina.

A large number of Carolina's immigrants came unwillingly. In the early eighteenth century, the increasing cultivation of rice created a voracious demand for African slave labor. Many of the enslaved were selected specifically for their agricultural knowledge, particularly rice cultivation.

The land along the coast of South Carolina was quickly claimed and settled. By 1720, new arrivals to the colony in the quest for land began to move beyond the coast or upland, which became known as the "upper district."

The term plantation is closely connected with both Southern and low country history but is not originally either a local or regional phenomenon. The plantation system originated in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world for example sugar plantations in Barbados and rubber plantations in Asia.

Under the colonial system during the 17th and 18th centuries, large landholders or planters were encouraged to cultivate and produce single staple crops with the use of slave labor. The production of sugar, tobacco and rubber based on the plantation system made both planters and the mother countries immensely wealthy and totally dependent on slave labor.

The Barbadian's that settled Carolina brought with them the plantation system, which was easily adapted to the cultivation of rice, indigo and cotton. One of the tragedies in the history of the low country was the profitability of the plantation system and the fact that it took the Civil War to bring an end to it.

By 1708, the majority of the low country residents were black. The slaves labored in the fields and performed the backbreaking and never ending duties which represented their existence in the low country. The cultivation of rice was very labor intensive. It requires the constant conversion of profits into slaves and slaves into profits, which became a vicious cycle.

At first rice was grown on dry land like other crops. By the 1750's the land was exhausted and planters discovered they could get better rice production results by diking marsh flats and controlling fresh water that was needed for cultivation by a system of trunks. The irrigation systems used in rice cultivation stimulated growth, controlled weeds and drown insects.

Both the lower Ashley and Copper River were home to many second generation Barbadian families. Their plantations were never major rice producers because of brackish river waters and the lack of extensive uplands for reservoirs necessary for flooding and draining fields.

The War of Jenkins Ear between England and Spain, during the 1740's cut off the export of rice from Carolina. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, a botanist, began experimenting with indigo. Pinckney discovered how to cultivate and process indigo profitably in the low country. Prior to the Revolution, the British Parliament encouraged the production of indigo with a bounty. The ready market for the blue dye brought immense wealth to the indigo planters.

Indigo cultivation was less physically demanding then rice but it required tedious labor in sowing the seed, controlling the weeds, and battling grasshoppers which destroyed up to 30% of annual yields. Extracting the dyestuff required skill and knowledge involving a labor intensive process of steeping in three different vats.

After the steeping process, the black contents from the vats were hung in bags to drain and were then spread out on the ground and cut into small bricks the size of a thick domino, the result was the blue gold of Carolina.

Carolina Indigo faced stiff competition from Guatemala, which produced a much higher grade of indigo. Another problem confronting planters, the indigo plant in South Carolina was near the periphery of its range. Planters in the tropics could make three cuttings a year while in South Carolina only two were possible. With advent of the Revolution, the bounty on indigo production ended and the planters turned solely to rice cultivation.

With the end of the Revolutionary War, large scale rice production shifted from the areas along the Ashley and Cooper Rivers to Georgetown, South Carolina. Georgetown is located 60 miles north of Charleston. During the nineteenth century Georgetown was a thriving port city enabling the planters to ship their rice directly to markets in Europe. Georgetown's topography of swamps and low-lying areas by the tidal rivers was ideal for rice cultivation.

By 1840, the Georgetown District produced nearly one half of the total rice crop of the United Statesand the port exported more rice than any port in the world. The local variety, called "Carolina Gold" was in demand worldwide. The production of "Carolina Gold" was extremely labor intensive and dependent on slave labor.

The Civil War changed the whole way of life both for Georgetown and Charleston. Reconstruction brought social, political and economic upheaval. Following the Civil War, rice production was no longer profitable. Crop failures occurred because of devastating hurricanes and the disruption in work patterns. By the turn of the century, competition from Southwestern rice growers ended coastal South Carolina's monopoly on rice cultivation.

In the 1850's sizeable phosphate deposits had been discovered along the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. With the end of the Civil War phosphate mining in the Low country helped many planters recoupe their fortunes. Drayton Hall conducted a phosphate mining operation, while protecting the overall integrity of the site. Profits from phosphate mining allowed the Drayton family to maintain Drayton Hall during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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