Boone's Bricks

Hello friends. Since I dislike very much waking up in the morning hours of the day,

I was up quite late. We lazed around for a few hours after I arose before heading off to the Boone Hall Plantation. We arrived at the entrance around 1:30pm but had to turn around and go into town so the parents could stop at a bank and get cash. The machine at the front booth wasn’t working and hadn’t accepted Dad’s card but what are you gonna do. Once the cash was successfully removed from Mum and Dad’s account, we drove right back, managed to get in, and took the long winding drive down the oak tree lined avenue leading up to the plantation house. There was a house tour starting almost right away, so we parked quickly and hurried over so we could catch it. The tour was lead by an older guy who was very nice and liked to ramble a lot. We started on the porch in a group of about twenty where the tour guide gave us a bit of history about the plantation. The current house was built in the 1930’s by Tomas Stone, a Canadian ambassador and is the fourth structure to stand in it’s place. The first

two houses were quite simple really, made of wood, the first of which burned down, the second of which blew down in a hurricane. The third house was more of what you would picture in your mind when you think of a plantation home and the current house retains much of the third houses properties, although it is bigger now. There have been several different owners over the years, starting with the founder, Major John Boone, who was given the property as a land grant in 1681. The plantation was then sold to the Horlbeck family in 1817, who increased the number of slaves from 60 to around 200, making working conditions for the slaves much worse than they were under the Boones, and who expanded the property as well as made new use of the land. Using the clay the property is built on, the Horlbeck’s began to operate a brick making plantation. The bricks were used in most buildings in Chalreston,

including Fort Sumter, which has one million of the Boone Plantation’s bricks. The guide continued to expand on this history, including a bit about the Russian prince who owned the property for a while but then had to sell it and lost a couple acres because of a bad divorce. We went through the library and the dining room, both of which are from the third house, and then through the back rooms which have been added on. The tour ended in the rear courtyard. After we said thank-you to the guide, we headed over to the horse stables to catch the trolley tour of the whole plantation. The trolley wasn’t there yet so we stopped at a café where the boys and I got some sodas and Mum bought a cotton Christmas wreath for the trailer. Once

we’d finished paying for our purchases, the tour guide had arrived so we settled ourselves down in some seats. Our tour guide was also an older man but he seemed to have a bit more energy. His name was Eddie and he had ties to the plantation through his ancestors, who had been slaves. He took us all around the property, showing us all the crops they had planted. There were still some good sized strawberries growing, even in mid-December. He also told us about how, after the Civil War, the plantation lost most of it’s slaves, although some stayed on as now payed

employees. He also told us about how the Union would come into Southern towns and burn down their oak tree avenues, since the avenues were a symbol of strength to the Confederates. He was quite interesting to listen to, even though it was hard to hear him at times. We also saw an alligator resting on the edge of a swamp and Dad seemed paralyzed by his phobia. The rest of our time on the plantation was spent on Slave Street, where they have exhibits set up in each of the old slave cabins. It was quite interesting to read all about their life style during the years of slavery and about life after the

Civil War had ended, Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson came to power, and then about life after Johnson’s term was up. We didn’t get to visit all of the cabins since we had to get back to Kizzy and the plantation was starting to close up. In took us a while to get back into the campground since the lineup for the Festival of the Lights was quite long, but we managed to get back in. Since it was quite a warm night, we decided to try the walking section again and hopefully not get water dumped on us. It all worked out well and we had a good time looking at all the lights. Peace out m8s.

#camping #charleston #southcarolina