Magnolia Plantation
Recently Lucy and I had the chance to
visit Magnolia Plantation just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. We planned
an all day visit to the sights at Magnolia including four different tours of
the 600 ac. estate. One tour features a trip through the mansion, and a
personal history of previous family members who were involved in the estate
bringing it forward to present day Magnolia. The second tour was a trip around
the outskirts of the plantation including history of slave holdings, and also
their importance in respect to the accomplishments of the landowners to develop
the beautiful gardens and how tourism is an important part of their existence. The
third tour had to deal with the slaves and how they lived and what was expected
of them. Also how the families of former slave owners still works and manages
the gardens today. The fourth tour was the boat tour and that involved a
pontoon boat ride around the plantation on former rice fields that were worked and planted with slave labor
and how since the civil war,have returned to their natural state and support a
variety of wildlife. And along with this
is an included Audubon tour that takes you through swampland and lets you see
up close more alligators than you care to tangle with in any one given day.
This is the main plantation house at Magnolia, this is the third such house to be built here with the previous 2 being burned . This is built on the side of the original foundation for the other 2.
Although not in the order we viewed the
various tours , but the house was central to all that went on at Magnolia
plantation as it was what housed the Drayton family , descendants of English who
migrated here from the Honduras, where they were owners of a sugar cane
plantation and initially tried to grow sugar cane with slave labor but found
the area too far north and eventually settled into producing Southern Carolina golden
rice known as such for its pale yellow color and exceptional cooking qualities.
Not much of it is grown today and is a rare find in grocery stores due to its
need for its high use of water. All this was grown with slave labor at that
time and Magnolia and other Carolina plantations made a fortune managing their
slaves and selling their grain to the world through the port at Charleston
harbor. This money was used to build a rather large 2 story structure of brick
and was quite impressive with its colonial brick work, only to have the first
plantation house struck by lightning, and then being replaced by another on the
same spot to only be burned by Union troops after the South surrendered. Then the
present day house was built and the location for the house was shifted away
from the oak lined driveway to its present location directly beside the
remnants of the old house.
Surrounding the house is the gardens Magnolia
is known for as a result of Thomas Drayton’s desire to shower his wife with a non-formal
romantic garden with meandering paths going from here to there in a large
format to points of interest like bridges across lagoons to the riverside with
plantings of a variety of different flowering plants designed to provide a year
round show of color. What started off as a private garden he would share with
other friends and dignitaries as was the custom of the day turned into a public
garden after the war when Thomas Drayton was in need of cash and lacking the
means to hire labor after losing his slaves and also losing his rice business
due to the intense labor it required to plant and harvest was no longer
applicable since slave labor was abolished. His rice fields were left to grow wild,
and after a failed attempt to strip mine phosphorous for fertilizer left the
land in an unusable condition and as blight on the landscape around Magnolia. He
sold off some of his other assets like another cotton plantation where slave
labor was also used, and determined to find
a way to make a living on Magnolia. At which time from advisement from friends
and family opened his plantation to viewing of his gardens by the public. He would
meet a literal boat load of patrons at the riverfront and would furnish a
dinner and spend the afternoon showing them around his plantation to great
success. He took this money and expanded his plantings, as well rebuilt the
mansion that was destroyed by union troops , and having found success at tourism
continued to expand on that.
Some of the large oaks lining the driveway up to the main house. tour operators seem to lack skills when to stop trams and allow people off at points of interest like the drive to allow tourists to take pictures.
Various family members after that also
expanded on the plantation, including adding on to the present day house and
increasing the size of the gardens. The house was modest in size once you move
beyond the porches , which because of their size lends one to believe their
size is what they are because of cooling the air before entering the house as
it would be without air conditioning back in the days before electricity. Most
plantation houses were only meant to be used in winter, fall, and spring when
the air turned cooler, and summers were spent along the ocean in huge mansions
designed to catch the ocean breeze. The present day house is offset from the
large oak tree lined driveway but still looks over an expansive front lawn. At
one time there were over 20 slaves’ quarters and over 150 slaves when rice
harvesting was in its heyday. Fifteen slaves were required for house duties,
including helping Mr. Drayton plant his gardens. The kitchen was in the
basement of the hose and a large rainwater collection system including the
placement of a cistern was added to the house making it appear as though there
are 3 floors in the house. In reality the third floor only leads to the
cistern. The cistern was added when Mrs. Drayton felt that the reason for
kidney ailments were due to poor water quality associated with ground water. This
helped with the kidney problems in the main house but I noted that the slaves
in quarters who regularly drank the same
ground water as the owners did not have a cistern added to their quarters . The
guide mentioned slavery and how important they were to the development of Magnolia,
and how the family at the time of the civil war could have almost been treated
as abolitionists at the time of the civil war. Yet they still owned slaves up
to the time they were forced to give them up. Their treatment of those slaves
was also in the same order as other slave owners at the time.
A view from the expansive porch. they wouldn't allow pictures inside the house.
The house tour of the plantation house
lent itself to the old days as they were in the time of the civil war, and one
could easily imagine plantation life back in those days, as the owners would
bark orders and slaves would tirelessly carry out the precise details for fear
of retribution in the form of punishment. Eyes never in direct contact with the
owners, and instead staring down with a lot of yes sirs, and yes mams, thrown
in assuring that every order was clearly understood. The days spent on the
porches trying to endure the impossible heat and humidity of the Deep South. Dressed
up socialites including an Orson Welles who once visited the Magnolia
plantation for a visit with Thomas Drayton’s daughter, strolling up and down
the flower lined paths, perhaps sipping a fruity cool mint drink on the expansive
porch under the shade of mighty oak trees on either side of the house. This tour although not the most impressive but
when taken with all the tours there, added to the overall experience of
magnolia and showed how the owners benefitted from the exploitation of those of
who they were in charge of, as was the custom in those days.
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