Around 1806 Williams
Braisford purchased land along the Altamaha River in Georgia. He started one of many rice plantations on
the coastal plain. Eventually it would
grow to 7300 acres. Before the Civil
War, the plantation prospered from the rice crop being tended by 357
slaves.
After the Civil war, the crop
became unprofitable from a combination of loss of low cost labor and
competition from other crop growers in the US and overseas. Much of the land was sold after the war to
pay property taxes imposed by the state.
Despite these setbacks, the property would remain in the family for five
generations.
The plantation house that
remains was built in the early 1850’s and was used by the family until the last
family member, Ophelia Dent, died in 1973.
She was the last of two sisters that operated a dairy farm that allowed
them to keep the property and donate it to the state debt free.
A guided tour of the house
explains the history of the plantation and the lives of those who lived and
worked here. For me, it was a surprise
to learn of the many rice plantations that operated on the river before the
Civil War. There are walking trails
among the many trees and visiting the river bottom areas where the rice was
grown.
This stop proved to be our
last stop on our Georgia trip. As I
mentioned in a previous post, we were returning to the motorhome after visiting
the interpretive center at the entrance and Anneke slipped on a hickory nut and
fell. After a visit to an urgent care,
we decided to head for home.
10 comments:
I'd almost forgotten about Anneke's fall. I hope she's completely recovered by now. I was surprised to find when we visited places in George, South Carolina and even Florida how many rice plantations there were. I had always thought the Southern plantation were all cotton with some tobacco in North Carolina and Virginia. Over 350 slaves is just staggering.
Nice to have a house for Anneke to recover in. Ask me how I know... :cO
I think it's fun visiting these old plantations ... it sure gives a sense of how hard life was back in those days. I like my comfortable motor home (and my bricks/mortar house in Nevada City)!
Anneke is all right?
She is fine, just need some time to recover.
This is one of the smaller plantation homes but still very lovely.
Hope Anneke is doing much better today.
Glad Anneke is fine, I had completely forgotten about that. You guys find the neatest places to visit. Added to our list.
Nice to get out and about hope Anneke get feeling better soon.
Great photos of the old home place. I didn't realize there were so many rice plantations in the south at one time - like you, I thought it was mostly cotton.
What a lovely plantation home and property!!! Love those trees!! I am sorry about Anneke's fall and sure hope she is doing much better!!
You seem to find some very interesting places to visit. Thanks for taking us along.
Post a Comment