A SOUTHERN PLANTATION

THE AVENUE OF OAKS AT BOONE HALL PLANTATION

The Avenue of Oaks at Boone Hall Plantation....Charleston, SC. These trees were planted by the son of the original owner. Some of them are the originals but some have been lost to pure old age (live oaks can live to be 700 years old) and some to of all things, lightning. Makes sense though.
This plantation used to be a cotton plantation, as well as a pecan farm and finally it was used as a brick building plantation. Most of the buildings in Charleston were built from bricks made on the plantation. Here is a picture of rows of cotton. It seemed weird to actually see how cotton grows. I always just invisioned it as a raw material.

The cotton ball startes as a flower and when it blooms....viola, a fluffly soft cotton ball. It feels just like the ones that come out of the package. Weird but cool. The fields were worked by slaves for many years. At the beginning of this plantation there were about 30-40 slaves and they lived in these slave houses. Mind you, only skilled slaves got the luxury of living here. Others, such as field workers only had wooden shacks out near the edge of the cotton fields. Skilled slaves included folks who could sew, carpenters, or a blacksmith. And at one point they figured there were around 350 plus slaves living on the plantation.

This is a re-creation of what they think the inside of the cabin would look like. Since slaves weren't allowed to learn, yes, not allowed to be educated, they couldn't read or write. so as such there is little information regarding them. But the basics would be there. such as the fireplace to cook, table, cutlery and plates. This shows a bed but it would have been in the carpenters home and only after the slaves were freed. The slaves would have to work too many hours while under their masters rule, but once freed, they would "earn" their way. And as such would be able to work on there own land as well as "contract" themselves out. Also, they would have more time on there hands to make their own lives more liveable.

This is one of the original trees on the plantation. Not quite as big as the redwood cedars us westerners are used to but much older and the arms extend out quite far.

This is the Boone Hall home. It was actually rebuilt in 1935 after the orginal home was taken down. A couple from Canada rebuilt it to this. The present owners live upstairs when they are in Charleston but made the lower part into a museum when they found people continually looking into the windows. Imaging sitting down to lunch with a audience. tee hee