The next day I went on a tour of a local plantation. There are a number of them, some larger than others, such as the Magnolia Plantation, Boone Hall, Middleton Place, The Charleston Tea Plantation, and Drayton Hall, which is the one I went to. It is smaller than most of the others and more unique. The plantation mansion was built in the style of an English, Georgian-Palladian mansion. It is the only pre-revolutionary house still in its original condition today. The non-profit organization that has preserved it has kept it in its original condition without trying to restore it and display it in models of what people think it looked like, which is what many of the plantation homes throughout the South do. It was interesting. (I will have photos of the house and grounds in the photos section in a day or two.) The grounds also include the burial ground of former slaves and their descendants. The tour guide took us through the house, but then later also gave a presentation about slavery, its history, and its effects on the plantation and the city. He discussed Sullivan's Island, one of the beach islands near Charleston. At one point in its history, the slave ships were required to dock on this island and all sick slaves were quarantined in one of the 'Pest houses' set up to quarantine the sick. Because of the conditions on the slave ships, that meant an enormous amount of slaves were imprisoned there and died. However, it is hard to find any mention of this part of its history anywhere online. Most of the websites just discuss the island's role in protecting the city through the revolution and other wars. This site is one of the few who mention it. (See link.) In 2008, Toni Morrison donated a bench there to remind people about the role that place played in the slave trade. An organization, Bench by the Road Project, run by the Toni Morrison Society, has placed a large number of such benches in places around the South to commemorate places where the history regarding slavery and African Americans is being forgotten.
That tour took most of the morning and early afternoon. I drove up to Middleton Plantation, but it was too expensive. They charged a different fee for seeing each different part of it, from the house to the gardens, as well as a fee just to enter the grounds. The heat was oppressive, so I ended up going back to the hotel and its pool.
That tour took most of the morning and early afternoon. I drove up to Middleton Plantation, but it was too expensive. They charged a different fee for seeing each different part of it, from the house to the gardens, as well as a fee just to enter the grounds. The heat was oppressive, so I ended up going back to the hotel and its pool.