RESEARCH

Crowfield Plantation, located near Goose Creek, was acquired by Arthur Middleton in 1729. It was Arthur’s son William who built the large brick mansion house and gardens. The Middletons owned thousands of acres of rice lands around the Lowcountry and hundreds of slaves to work these lands. Historians are not sure if it was William or his father who built the inland rice fields at Crowfield. The fields took in most of Huckhole Swamp. Reservoirs were located on the upper fingers of the swamp; some of the ornamental ponds around the Crowfield house also served as rice field reservoirs. With the exception a 31-year period from 1753 until 1784, Crowfield remained in the Middleton family into the 20th century.

A sketch of Crowfield mansion.

Northampton Plantation is located along Northampton Creek in Berkeley County. The land was granted to Benjamin Simons and Jonathan Russ prior to 1717 and Benjamin’s son, Peter, was planting rice along Northampton Creek by the time of his death in 1724. In 1762, Jonathan Russ sold his holdings to Samuel Thomas. His son, Edward Thomas created a 4,000-acre inland rice plantation at Northampton. In 1794, Thomas sold his inland rice plantation to Lewis Fogartie. A few years later he foreclosed on that mortgage and resold the land to Paul James Warley. Warley planted rice for 14 years and then sold the plantation to Thomas McDowell in 1818. McDowell was not able to make a go of it and sold the land to Jonathan Lucas. Lucas was more successful as he recorded 50,000 pounds of rice on the plantation in 1850, and his son Henry reported 60,000 pounds in 1860.

An 1806 plat of Northampton Plantation

Woodstock was a 925-acre inland rice plantation established by Thomas Bulline and his descendents in the late 1600s and early 1700s. Thomas Bulline (II) began growing rice on the property along Bluehouse Swamp in the 1720s. A 1796 plat of Woodstock shows the outline of the large inland rice plantation fields divided by the swamp. The Bluehouse Swamp forms part of the headwaters of Goose Creek in western Berkeley County. The center of the swamp was channelized in the 18^th century to allow drainage for Woodstock and other local plantations. Rice planting continued on the land into the early decades of the nineteenth century but by 1834, when it was advertised for sale, the house had been converted into a stop on the new South Carolina Railroad.

A portion of the 1796 plat of Woodstock Plantation.

Ponds Plantation was granted to Andrew Percival in 1682 and was the location of an early 1715 Yamasee Indian War fortified house. The Ponds is located at the headwaters of the Ashley River, where the river becomes a creek and a large cypress swamp. The Percival family sold the property to William Donning in 1723. A 60-acre floodplain was converted into inland rice fields during Donning’s ownership. The Donnings and later owners including Colonel John Glaze continued to plant rice at the Ponds after the American Revolution. A plat made in 1796 clearly shows the fields. The plantation was purchased from Glaze’s estate in 1818 by John C. Schulz and it remained in his family until the 1880s. Small-scale rice production continued on the tract as late as the 1850s.

A 1796 plat of Ponds Plantation.

Jack Savanna Plantation was located in Dorchester County along the Horse Savanna that forms a lowland stretching northwest from Rantowles Creek to US Highway 17A. The land was granted to Thomas Hepworth between 1710 and 1711. In 1731, Ralph Izard bought the property and developed a sizable rice plantation. By 1744, Ralph Izard’s son Charles had established an extensive rice growing system in the savanna lands. It was under Charles’ grandson Ralph Izard that Jack Savanna reached its peak in production in the 1770s and 80s. In the late 18th century, the state linked the plantations along the Horse Savanna via a canal built at public expense. The canal helped planters drain their land and provided easy access to markets in Charleston. The land remained in the Izard family until the 1880s.

A portion of a 1773 plat of Jack Savanna.

Dean Hall was an 18^th century Cooper River rice and indigo plantation purchased by Alexander Nisbett in 1725. Nisbett built inland rice fields along the Back River and Durham Creek, a freshwater tributary of the Cooper River. In the late 1700s, the Nisbetts began to build large tidal fields in the Cooper River salt marsh. When William Carson purchased the plantation in 1821, he acquired a flourishing rice plantation. By the mid 1800s, Carson began to rejuvenate the old inland rice fields to offset losses he was suffering in his tidal fields due to salt water incursion along the Cooper River. He also enlarged his old inland rice reservoir to supply fresh water to both the inland fields and the tidal fields along the river.

An 1808 plat of Dean Hall Plantation.

Caper’s Swamp Plantation was located along the headwaters of the Wando River. This part of the river, like that of Horse Savanna, was channelized in the late 18^th century to help inland rice planters with water control and transportation. Caper’s Swamp was a 780-acre inland rice plantation acquired by Richard Capers around 1750. The land stayed in the Capers family for many years and was known as their “Swamp Plantation.” In 1807, executors of Gabriel Capers sold it to Hugh Rose. A plat made at the time of the sale makes reference to inland fields along the Wando Canal and older rice fields even further inland to the south.

An 1808 plat of Capers Plantation.

This small inland rice plantation was granted to Samuel Sumner in 1701 and acquired by Malachi Glaze in 1723. Historians believe Glaze developed the inland rice fields along Spencer’s Creek, a tributary of Eagle Creek in the Ashley River watershed. John Glaze inherited the land from his father and brothers and also bought Richard Spencer’s land to the north. The land stayed in the Glaze family until 1778 when Glaze sold it to John Benfield. By this time, the field system that divided the plantation from west to east was completed. Lewis Poppenheim acquired the land in 1789 and increased the holding to about 700 acres. Poppenheim willed the land to John Strohecker sometime prior to 1853. By this time, rice was no longer grown on the plantation for commercial purposes.

A 1789 plat of Glaze-Poppenheim Plantation.

John Smelie and his sons established a successful rice plantation near colonial Willtown between 1719 and 1727. In 1740, James Stobo purchased this 1,200 acre property and added it to his large estate. James Stobo’s holdings flourished. He grew rice and indigo and quickly gained a reputation for producing the best indigo in the state. When James died in 1781, is sons divided the large estate into several large lots, each fronting rice lands along the Edisto River. A 1791 plat of Stobo Plantation shows the manor house and tidal fields to the south. Apparently the inland rice fields were long abandoned by this time.

A 1791 plat of Stobo Plantation.