CHARLES PINCKNEY NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

HISTORIC RESOURCE STUDY

August 2000

Robert W. Blythe

Emily Kleine

Steven H. Moffson

Cultural Resources Stewardship

Southeast Regional Office

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Atlanta, Georgia
ii

On the cover: Archeological Dig at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1996.

Photo courtesy of the Southeast Archeological Center, Tallahassee, Florida.
iii

Foreword

We are pleased to make available this historic resource study, as part of our ongoing effort to

provide comprehensive documentation for the historic structures and landscapes of National

Park Service units in the Southeast Region. Following a field survey of park resources and

extensive research, the project team updated the park’s List of Classified Structures, developed

historic contexts, and prepared new National Register of Historic Places documentation. Many

individuals and institutions contributed to the successful completion of this work. We would

particularly like to thank Charles Pinckney National Historic Site Superintendent John Tucker

and his staff, and Southeast Archeological Center Chief Archeologist Bennie Keel for their

assistance. This study was made possible through a cooperative agreement with the Georgia

Trust for Historic Preservation.

Kirk A. Cordell

Chief, Cultural Resources Stewardship

Southeast Regional Office

August 2000
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER ONE: THE ARCHEOLOGICAL RESOURCES OF CHARLES PINCKNEY

NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, 1754-1816 19

CHAPTER TWO: THE LOW COUNTRY COASTAL COTTAGE AND SNEE FARM,

1828 - 1941 43

CHAPTER THREE: MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS 53

A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PINCKNEY WRITINGS 57

SOURCES CONSULTED 59

APPENDIX A, HISTORICAL BASE MAP A-1

v
Figure Credits

Fig. 1, National Park Service; Fig. 2, Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, New York; Fig.

3, “General William Moultrie” Rembrant Peal, The Gibbs Museum of Art, Carolina Art Association; Fig. 4, “The Unsuccessful Attack on the Fort on Sullivan’s Island,” Henry Gray, Gibbs

Museum of Art, Carolina Art Association; Fig, 5, “Signing of the Constitution” Louis Glanzman;

Fig. 6, “Charles Cotesworth Pinckney” Charles Frasier, Gibbs Museum of At, Carolina Art

Association; Fig 7; “Thomas Pinckney” Charles Frasier, Gibbs Museum of Art, Carolina Art

Association; Fig. 9, Fig. 10, Fig. 11, Fig. 12, Bennie Keel, Southeast Archeological Center; Fig

14, Charleston County Museum; Fig. 15, Fig. 16, Fig. 17, Fig. 18, Fig. 19, Harper’s Weekly,

January 5, 1867; Fig. 20, Charles Joiner; Fig. 21, Mary Jane Manigault, Smithsonian Institution, Museum of American History, Division of Community Life; Fig. 22, John Michael Vlach;

Fig. 23, Fig. 24, Michael J. Meyers, Southeast Archeological Services; Fig. 25, Emily Kleine

for National Park Service; Figure 26, Marcus Wiffin and Fredrick Koeper; Fig. 27, Fig. 28,

Fig. 29, Fig. 30, Fig. 31, Fig. 32, Steven Mofson for National Park Service, Fig. 33, Fig. 34,

Emily Kleine for National Park Service; Historical Base Map, David Hasty, National Park

Service.

vi
vii

Figures

Figure 1. Vicinity map, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

Figure 2. Charles Pinckney

Figure 3. General William Moultrie

Figure 4. Revolutionary War in Charleston

Figure 5. Constitutional Convention

Figure 6. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

Figure 7. Thomas Pinckney

3

4

5

6

8

9

9

Figure 8. 1783 Plat of Snee Farm Property 20

Figure 9. Fragments of fine china 21

Figure 10. Fireplace tiles 22

Figure 11. Delftware jar fragment 23

Figure 12. Pinckney spoon 23

Figure 13. 1818 Plat of property 25

Figure 14. Sheaf of rice 26

Figure 15. Preparing the rice fields 28

Figure 16. Flood gates 28

Figure 17. Flooded rice fields 29

Figure 18. Working in the rice fields 29

Figure 19. Harvesting rice 30

Figure 20. Milling rice using traditional African methods 30

Figure 21. Sweetgrass basket 33
viii

Figure 22. African dwelling which may be reminiscent of slave dwellings on Snee Farm 34

Figure 23. Colonoware shard 36

Figure 24. Foundations of main house complex 37

Figure 25. Snee Farm rice levee 38

Figure 26. Drayton Hall 44

Figure 27. Snee Farm Main House 45

Figure 28. Snee Farm Main House 46

Figure 29. Barn 58

Figure 30. Corncrib 58

Figure 31. Caretaker’s Cottage 58

Figure 32. Cenotaph 49

Figure 33. Intrepretation of archeological site 54

Figure 34. View of Snee Farm 54
INTRODUCTION

DESCRIPTION OF CHARLES PINCKNEY NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site (the Park) commemorates the life and public services of

Charles Pinckney (1757-1824), a prominent South Carolina attorney and statesman who was

an important drafter of the United States Constitution. The site contains twenty-eight of the

original 715 acres of Snee Farm, a plantation property that Pinckney inherited from his father in

1782 and owned until 1816. Charles Pinckney owned several plantations in addition to Snee

Farm, as well as a large town house at 16 Meeting Street in Charleston.1

 Easily reached from

Charleston by boat, Snee Farm was both a working plantation and an accessible country retreat

for Pinckney.

Public Law 100-421, enacted September 8, 1988, authorized the establishment of

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site. The legislation directed the Secretary of the Interior to

“(1) provide the interpretation of the life of Charles Pinckney; (2) preserve and interpret Snee

Farm, home of Charles Pinckney; and (3) present the history of the United States as a young

Nation.”2

 House of Representatives Report 100-698 elaborated on the site’s purpose by

calling for the interpretation of the history of all the site’s inhabitants, slave as well as free.3

The site lies on the Wando Neck, formed by the Wando River on the northwest, the

Cooper River estuary on the southwest and the Atlantic Ocean tidal marshes on the southeast.

Less than five miles from the ocean, the site lies within the ten-mile-wide Coastal Zone of the

Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Coastal Zone is characterized by flat terrain with numerous fresh

and salt water marshes in low-lying areas, maritime forest communities and cleared agricultural

land on higher ground. Elevations on the Wando Neck range from five to twenty-five feet

above mean sea level. The sand and clay soils of the Wando Neck uplands are remnants of

ancient coastal barrier islands.4 The site is within the corporate limits of the city of Mt. Pleasant,

in Christ Church Parish, Charleston County, South Carolina, approximately ten miles east of the

city of Charleston. Entrance to the site is from Long Point Road, approximately one-half mile

northwest of its intersection with U.S. Highway 17.
2 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

In the eighteenth century, Christ Church Parish contained a number of large plantations

that concentrated on the production of rice, South Carolina’s most important staple crop prior

to the invention of the cotton gin. Relying on large slave populations, Christ Church plantations

such as Long Point, Bermuda, Egypt, Palmetto Grove, Snee Farm, and Boone Hall carried on

operations into the antebellum period. These coastal plantations typically included a main

house, slave quarters, and outbuildings surrounded by agricultural land. On the Wando Neck,

plantations often had river landings for travel to and from Charleston. Declining rice production

and the disruptions of the Civil War resulted in the subdivision of many plantations by 1870.

Truck farming, livestock raising, and limited cotton cultivation became the major agricultural

activities. Conveyed by Pinckney to trustees in 1816 and sold in 1817, Snee Farm had a

number of subsequent owners, one of whom built a new main house, probably in the 1820s.

Snee Farm remained intact as an agricultural property into the twentieth century, although by the

1930s, Snee Farm had more the character of a country vacation residence than a working

farm.5

The burgeoning suburban development of Christ Church Parish in the last twenty years

finally resulted in the break-up of the Snee Farm property. Subdivisions and a golf course were

built on portions of the original Snee Farm property in the early 1970s. A developer purchased

the plantation in 1986 and roads were rough graded and some utilities were installed. In 1988,

the Friends of Historic Snee Farm purchased twenty-eight acres of Snee Farm, including the

main house and surviving outbuildings. Following Congressional authorization of the site, the

Friends of Snee Farm sold the site to the National Park Service at approximately 30% of its

appraised value, donating the remaining value of the site to the Park and thus ensuring the

preservation of the core of Snee Farm.6

 

The site is an irregularly shaped, roughly rectangular parcel approximately fifteen feet

above sea level. A three-acre forested wetland occupies the western portion of the site, where

a drainage ditch forms the site boundary. Mixed pines and hardwoods and several pecan trees

are present east of the main house. Ornamental plantings dating mostly to the 1930s, including

magnolias, camellias, and azaleas, are also present. The remainder of the site is grassed.

Residential subdivisions now surround the site on the west, south, and east. To the north, on the

far side of Long Point Road, is Boone Hall Plantation, a privately owned historic site with a

reconstructed main house, original outbuildings, and extensive grounds.7

Site cultural resources include the main house, a barn/stable, a corncrib, a caretaker’s

residence, and a stone cenotaph to Charles Pinckney’s father. The site’s circa 1820s main

house replaced the plantation house extant during Charles Pinckney’s ownership. Around
Introduction 3

Figure 1, Vicinity map, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

1936, Snee Farm’s owner, Thomas Ewing, added two symmetrical wings to the back of the

house, and constructed a number of outbuildings, including the caretaker’s residence. The

Ewings constructed the current barn between 1944 and 1945. The cenotaph, a replica of one

erected by Charles Pinckney in the 1780s, was placed on the site sometime after World War II,

probably in the 1950s. Snee Farm contains important archeological resources that enhance the

understanding of Charles Pinckney and daily life on South Carolina coastal plantations.

CHARLES PINCKNEY’S NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

Charles Pinckney (1757-1824) was an important political figure in South Carolina and nationally in the early years of the American Republic. A Revolutionary War veteran and a member of

the Continental Congress, Pinckney was one of four South Carolina delegates to the 1787
4 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Constitutional Convention, where he presented a plan for a new government and spoke often in

the debates. A three-term South Carolina governor before 1800, Pinckney was instrumental in

establishing the Jeffersonian Republican Party in his native state. As reward for his part in

electing Thomas Jefferson to the presidency in 1800, Pinckney represented the United States as

minister to Spain from 1801 to 1805. Upon his return to South Carolina, Pinckney resumed his

position as the head of the state Republican Party, serving in the state legislature and gaining a

fourth term as governor. Pinckney closed out a distinguished career of public service with a

term in the U.S. House of Representatives (1819-1821).

A number of factors complicate the task of fairly evaluating Charles Pinckney’s lasting

importance. The plan he presented for a constitution at the 1787 convention in Philadelphia was

lost, making its significance a subject of recurring controversy. An 1861 Charleston fire destroyed his personal papers, forcing historians to rely on Pinckney letters scattered among

numerous collections, his published speeches and pamphlets, and the surviving comments of

contemporaries. Pinckney’s tendency to exaggerate his own merits clouds many of his assertions. In spite of these difficulties, it is clear that Pinckney was a significant national figure who

frequently has been underestimated.

Charles Pinckney was born into the South Carolina low-country aristocracy on October

26, 1757. His father, Colonel Charles Pinckney,8

 was one of South Carolina’s leading lawyers,

and his mother, Frances Brewton

Pinckney, was the sister of Miles

Brewton, a wealthy Charleston

merchant and slave trader. Tutors

prepared young Pinckney for a life

befitting his social status. He studied

French, Greek, and Latin with the

intention of continuing his studies in

England, as was the custom of the

time.9

 However, growing unrest

between England and the American

colonies curtailed these plans.

Charles Pinckney instead studied law

in his father’s office. Upon the

successful completion of his studies in

1779, he was admitted to the South Figure 2, Charles Pinckney
Introduction 5

Carolina Bar.10 After the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Pinckney joined the Charles Towne

Militia Regiment, commanded by his father. In

October 1779, Charles Pinckney fought in the

unsuccessful France-American attempt to retake

Savannah from the British. During this time,

Pinckney also served as a member of the South

Carolina Assembly from 1779-1780, and attended

legislative sessions in Charleston.11

Following the fall of Charleston in April

1781, Charles Pinckney became a British prisoner.

The British briefly paroled Pinckney to his Charleston home and then held him in the prison ship Pack

Horse in Charleston harbor. In the summer of 1781, Figure 3, General William Moultrie

the British agreed to a prisoner exchange and moved

Charles Pinckney to Philadelphia, the place of exchange. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and

General William Moultrie of the Continental Army were held prisoner at Snee Farm. Moultrie

noted, “Col. [Charles Cotesworth] Pinckney and I were in excellent quarters at Mr. Pinckney’s

place called Snee Farm.”12

Pinckney’s father, Colonel Pinckney, fled Charleston with South Carolina Governor

John Rutledge, before the Patriot surrender of the city. Rutledge intended to carry on a state

government in exile in North Carolina. However, Colonel Pinckney never made it to North

Carolina. He returned to Charleston and swore loyalty to British authority, a move that allowed

him to keep his property. Colonel Pinckney’s surrender aroused the wrath of South Carolina

Patriots. As retribution, in February 1782, the South Carolina legislature voted a 12% amercement of Colonel Pinckney’s property to punish his switch of allegiance.13 In spite of pleas by

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and South Carolina Congressman Arthur Middleton that he

return to South Carolina to help his father, Charles Pinckney did not return to Charleston. He

instead chose to remain in Philadelphia until the end of the war. Colonel Pinckney died on

September 22, 1782, leaving Snee Farm and other property to Charles, his oldest surviving

son.

14

In March 1784, the South Carolina legislature selected Charles Pinckney as a delegate

to the Continental Congress, where he served from November 1784 until February 1787.

Earlier, in 1783, Pinckney had demonstrated his interest in government by publishing three
6 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

pamphlets that urged a more reliable funding mechanism for the national government. In the

Congress, Pinckney became acquainted with national figures like John Jay and Robert R.

Livingston of New York, James Monroe of Virginia, and Rums King of Massachusetts. He was

an active member from the start, serving on important committees and earning the respect of

fellow members. In 1786 and early 1787, Pinckney led the congressional effort to strengthen

the national government, then

operating under the Articles of

Confederation. In March

1786, Pinckney was part of a

three-member congressional

delegation sent to New Jersey

to persuade that state’s legislature not to withdraw financial

support from the Continental

Congress.15 Addressing the

legislature, he proposed that

New Jersey “urge the calling of

a general convention of the

Figure 4, Revolutionary War in Charleston

states for the purpose of increasing the powers of the federal government and rendering it more

adequate for the ends for which it was instituted.”16 Pinckney repeated his call for a convention

before Congress in May 1786 and served on a committee that in August 1786 unsuccessfully

recommended seven amendments to the Articles of Confederation.17 In the confederation’s final

years, no politician worked harder than Pinckney to bring about a stronger national government.

Dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation was widespread, and Pinckney was

not alone in calling for a new governmental structure. Alexander Hamilton proposed a constitutional convention in 1780, and in 1783, Hamilton joined Virginia’s James Madison in suggesting

a general convention. When a Virginia-sponsored convention on trade issues drew delegates

from just five states in September 1786, the frustrated attendees proposed a general convention

of the states for May 1787 in Philadelphia. In February 1787, after five states had already

named delegates, the Continental Congress cautiously endorsed the convention.18 Every state

except Rhode Island sent a delegation to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The

South Carolina legislature named Charles Pinckney, his cousin Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,

Pierce Butler, and John Rutledge to represent the state.19

At twenty-nine, Charles Pinckney was one of the youngest convention delegates, but he
Introduction 7

showed no reluctance to present his views. He introduced a comprehensive plan of a constitution early in the proceedings and spoke more than one hundred times from the floor. Pinckney

argued forcefully for a strong federal government, was reluctant to give too much power directly

to the electorate, and worked to protect the special interests of the southern states, particularly

slavery.

Controversy has swirled around the “Pinckney Draft” presented by the South Carolina

delegate on May 29, 1787, immediately following Edmund Randolph’s introduction of the

Virginia Plan, written by Madison. Introducing his plan, Pinckney noted that it was based on the

same principles—a strong national government and a separation of powers—as the Virginia

Plan.20 No copy of the original Pinckney Draft has survived. Thirty-one years after the convention, in 1818, Pinckney supplied Secretary of State John Quincy Adams with a version of his

draft that Pinckney believed was substantially similar to the lost original.21 In 1903 and 1904,

scholars reconstructed the Pinckney Draft from notes found in Pennsylvania delegate James

Wilson’s papers.22 Pinckney’s 1818 draft roughly corresponds to the reconstructed draft but

incorporates substantially greater detail and includes some provisions that Pinckney vigorously

opposed on the convention floor. These discrepancies have led some historians to accuse

Pinckney of deliberately exaggerating his role at the convention, while others suggest that

Pinckney’s memory may have failed him.

Historians’ assessments of the Pinckney Draft’s impact on the Constitution’s final form

vary widely. Many of the ideas embodied in the Pinckney Draft were common intellectual

property in 1787 and cannot be ascribed to him alone. A bicameral legislature, for example,

was a key component of both the Virginia and Pinckney plans, although the specific terms

“House of Representatives” and “Senate” probably came from the Pinckney Draft.23

Pinckney’s influence on the final draft appears clearly in the prohibition of religious qualifications

for federal offices, the protection of the writ of habeas corpus, and the stipulation that the

executive be one individual rather than plural. The Constitution, however, would have been a

far different document had Pinckney prevailed in all areas. He argued in vain for high property

qualifications for federal offices: $100,000 for the presidency and $50,000 for Congressmen.

In common with Madison, he wanted representation based on population in the Senate, rather

than the equal representation for each state that was adopted. Pinckney also joined Madison’s

unsuccessful effort to grant the U.S. Congress veto power over state laws. To protect the

South, where the slave labor-based economy depended on agricultural exports, Pinckney

requested a two-thirds majority for all laws regulating commerce and navigation. Suspicion of a

volatile electorate led him to suggest election of the House of Representatives by the state

legislatures. Both proposals were rejected.24
Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Pinckney’s finest moment at the convention came on June 25 when he eloquently argued

against the relevance of the British governmental model for the United States. In Pinckney’s

view, the lack of a hereditary nobility and the presence of ample open land on the frontier would

have a leveling influence on American society, providing economic and political opportunity for

all. In this address, Pinckney demonstrated an optimism about America’s future and a faith in its

opportunities for personal advancement. These ideas remained hallmarks of Pinckney’s political

philosophy throughout his life.25 Pinckney also demonstrated his vision in convention debates by

unsuccessfully proposing the protection of freedom of the press and other civil liberties and the

establishment of a national university.26

Pinckney led the effort to secure ratification of the Constitution in South Carolina. He

addressed the South Carolina legislature on the document’s merits and played a major role in

the state’s ratifying convention, which approved the document on May 23, 1788.27 The new

national government began operations under the Constitution in March 1789, with George

Washington as president and John Adams of Massachusetts as vice president. Washington’s

cabinet included two strong personalities with opposing views of the nation’s future. Secretary

of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton favored the development of industry and financial institutions as well as strong ties with England. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, by contrast,

wanted an agrarian republic untainted by a rigid class structure and was sympathetic to the goals

of the French Revolution.28

Charles Pinckney to a federal post,

while giving important diplomatic

appointments to both of his cousins,

may have influenced Pinckney’s

move into the Republican Party.

Pinckney also probably perceived

Figure 5, Constitutional Convention the strong appeal of Republicanism

In the 1790s, two national political parties emerged from these opposing viewpoints:

Hamilton adherents became Federalists, while Jeffersonians became Republicans.29 In South

Carolina, Charles Pinckney moved into the Republican camp, while his cousins, Charles

Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney, remained staunch Federalists. Another South

Carolina Constitutional Convention

delegate, Pierce Butler, also became a Republican. President

Washington’s failure to appoint

8
Introduction 9

to upcountry yeoman farmers and planters, who were

gaining power in South Carolina politics. Perhaps most

importantly, the individualism and belief in progress

characteristic of Republicanism reflected Pinckney’s

own expansive and optimistic outlook. Pinckney broke

with the Federalist Party in 1795 over the issue of the

Jay Treaty, which he considered too favorable to

Britain, and remained a committed Republican through

the rest of his life.30

After serving as South Carolina’s governor from

1789 to 1792 and again from 1796 to 1797, Pinckney

in 1798 was chosen U.S. Senator by the state legislature. In the Senate, he vigorously opposed President

John Adams’s Federalist administration. The 1800

Figure 6, Charles Cotesworth

Pinckney

presidential election pitted Republicans Thomas

Jefferson and Aaron Burr against Adams and Charles

Cotesworth Pinckney. Charles Pinckney worked

tirelessly to carry South Carolina for Jefferson and

defeat his cousin’s vice presidential bid. When Jefferson

won the presidency with the help of South Carolina’s

electoral votes, he appointed Pinckney United States

minister to Spain.31

Pinckney accepted his foreign assignment with

enthusiasm and traveled extensively in the Netherlands

and France before assuming his duties in Madrid in late

1801. Pinckney’s initial goal was to settle American

shippers’ claims arising out of seizures by Spanish and

French cruisers of neutral American vessels during war

Figure 7, Thomas Pinckney

with Britain. Pinckney’s mission was complicated by

France’s 1803 sale of the Louisiana Territory to the United States. Spain had been forced to

cede Louisiana to France in a secret 1800 treaty on the condition that France never dispose of

it to another country. The Spanish government was ultimately powerless to prevent France from

selling Louisiana, but the sale and the American claim that part of Spanish West Florida was

included in the Louisiana Purchase soured Spanish-American relations. Pinckney exceeded his
10 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

instructions from Secretary of State James Madison by threatening war with Spain over the

West Florida claim, which he had been told not to press until Minister Extraordinary James

Monroe arrived in Madrid. The American government essentially disavowed Pinckney’s

actions, but allowed him to participate in Monroe’s futile negotiations with the Spanish government in early 1805.32 Madison described Pinckney’s agency in Spain as “very faulty as well as

feeble‚”33 but given the attitude of the Spanish government, no American minister could have

obtained West Florida at the time. Pinckney sailed for Charleston in October 1805.34

After Pinckney’s return to South Carolina in 1806, his Republicanism increasingly

emphasized the protection of southern interests and states’ rights. In contrast to the 1780s,

when he saw chaos looming as a result of the weakness of the federal government, in later years

Pinckney sought to restrain the federal government from unwarranted interference with the

states. He especially feared that northern commercial and financial interests would dominate the

national government to the detriment of the South, which depended on agricultural exports and

slavery. Pinckney’s views foreshadowed those of John Calhoun and others who subsequently

asserted the right of a state to nullify a national law or secede from the union if regional interests

were ignored by the federal government. Pinckney maintained his commitment to Republicanism during his last term as governor from December 1806 to December 1808 and as state

representative for the combined parishes of St. Philip’s and St. Michael’s. In 1816, Pinckney

published a fifty-two-page pamphlet in support of James Monroe’s presidential candidacy on

the Republican Party ticket.35

In 1818, Pinckney was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served

a single two-year term. The status of slavery in the new states to be carved out of the Louisiana

Territory was a great national issue at the time. When northern congressmen attempted to

exclude slavery from a portion of the territory as part of the Missouri Compromise, Pinckney in

1820 delivered a passionate defense of the balance of sectional interests embodied in the

Constitution that he had helped draft thirty-three years previously. Pinckney opted not to stand

for reelection in 1820 and died at the age of sixty-seven in Charleston on October 29, 1824.36

Throughout his adult life, Charles Pinckney was deeply involved in politics and public

affairs. He once confided to James Madison, “you know I always loved Politics and I find as I

grow older I become more fond of them.”37 Pinckney was a key figure in the movement for a

new constitution and played an important role in its drafting and ratification. He founded the

Republican Party in South Carolina and upheld Republican principles throughout a long career.

Pinckney’s career forms a link between the political philosophy of the revolutionary generation

and the states rights secessionism of 1860-1861, which culminated in the outbreak of civil war
Introduction 11

in Pinckney’s hometown of Charleston. Pinckney’s Snee Farm plantation is a fitting location for

interpreting this important early national political figure and the early history of the United States.

SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF HISTORIC RESOURCE STUDY

This Historic Resource Study (HRS) identifies and evaluates, using National Register criteria,

the site’s historic properties. The study establishes and documents historic contexts associated

with the site and evaluates the extent to which the surviving historic resources represent those

contexts. The completed HRS will serve as a tool for future site planning, resource management, and the continuing development of interpretive programs at the site.

The Snee Farm main house was entered on the National Register of Historic Places as a

National Historic Landmark on November 7, 1973. The entire site was entered on the National Register by passage of the legislation establishing the Charles Pinckney National Historic

Site on September 8, 1988. For purposes of National Register documentation, the twentyeight-acre property is classified as a site. The HRS will provide the first National Register

documentation for the three outbuildings, the cenotaph, and the site’s archeological resources

and will update the documentation of the main house.38 The HRS identifies National Registereligible (contributing) properties under two historic contexts identified by the survey team and

described more fully below.

SUMMARY OF IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUATION METHODS

Survey Methodology, Historic Resources

The goals of the historic resource survey are to 1) update the List of Classified Structures

(LCS) database for use by park management; 2) prepare a Historic Resource Study for the

park; 3) supply the National Register Documentation for the park and 4) assemble a comprehensive survey of structures, and a photographic record for each structure built prior to 1950

and considered eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This documentation will be used in complying with sections 106 and 110 of the 1966 Historic Preservation Act.

The survey team examined building files, maintenance records, and historic research

compiled by the park staff and maps located at the park’s headquarters at Fort Sumter National

Monument. The field survey of the site yielded information about the present condition of the

historic resources. Additionally, the team reviewed archival materials at the Southeast Regional

Office of the National Park Service. Research with primary and secondary sources was

conducted at university libraries to obtain information relating to the character of Charles

Pinckney, the history of Christ Church Parish and the Charleston area, the lives and culture of
12 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

low country slaves, and the architecture and land use patterns characteristic of coastal South

Carolina plantations.

The survey of resources encompassed the five structures extant at the park. It also included

the archeological resources at the park. Lists of contributing and noncontributing resources are

appended to each of the two contexts.

Survey Methodology, Archeological Resources:

Field Methodology

Archeological investigations began in 1987, as a requirement for obtaining a development permit

from the Carolina Coastal Council. The primary investigations and the establishment of a grid

system were conducted by Brockington and Associates in 1987. A registered civil engineer,

Lewis E. Seabrook, Jr., established three benchmarks to ensure consistency with the grid. All

archeologists working at Snee Farm employed both manual and mechanical excavation methods. The mechanical methods included the use of a farm tractor and road grader for disking the

surface. All artifacts located after the mechanical excavation were flagged and recorded.

Manual excavations of features included the use of shovels, trowels, spoons, and grapefruit

knives. All features located were mapped and bisected. Shovel tests were conducted at fiftyfoot intervals and a metal detector was used.

SEAC archeologists began excavations in 1991 and installed a permanent grid system

to facilitate archeological work. The methodology employed by SEAC conforms to National

Park Service standards and the standards and methodology established by earlier projects.

English measurements were used for all excavations. Formal excavation units generally measured five feet by five feet. Units were excavated in arbitrary three-inch levels, except where

natural strata were used or where large amounts of rubble prevented excavation in strict levels.

All excavated soil and artifacts were screened through quarter-inch hardware cloth. As time

permitted, some artifacts were washed on site. All artifacts were sorted and placed in field

specimen bags. The project number, site abbreviation, unique field specimen number, and

provenience were then recorded on all bags. Bag lists were maintained to prevent bagging and

excavator errors. Feature and unit excavation forms were used to record provenience, soil

description, material description, and additional comments. The field crew chief also recorded

observations in a notebook. Features and selected artifacts were mapped and photographed

using black and white print film and color slide film. From 1994 forward, SEAC used a laser

transit and data recorder to map the site and automatically recorded the data. The data were

then automatically added to the site map.
Introduction 13

Laboratory Methodology

With the exception of fragile items, artifacts not washed in the field were washed in the laboratory using soft bristle brushes. After washing and air-drying the artifacts, lab technicians sorted

and analyzed them. The contents of each field specimen bag were divided into lots, with each

lot containing similar artifacts. A description including count and weight of each lot was recorded on standardized forms. Technicians used the National Park Service cataloging system

to assign catalog numbers for each lot and artifact. Permanent catalog numbers were recorded

on the individual artifacts with indelible black ink, between two layers of lacquer. The lacquer

used was a ten-percent solution of the acrylic copolymer B72 in acetone. All artifacts were

placed in archivally stable polyethelene zip-lock bags with the catalogue number written on the

bag. Holes were punched in all bags to allow air circulation. The National Park Service,

Southeast Archeological Center in Tallahassee, curates all materials, including field notes, lab

records, and artifacts.

DETERMINATION OF HISTORIC CONTEXTS

This study assesses the eligibility and evaluates the integrity of the site’s cultural resources within

two historic contexts. These contexts relate to broad historic themes identified by the National

Park Service and the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). The thematic

framework of the NPS is outlined in 1994 Revisions of the National Park Service’s Thematic Framework. South Carolina has identified a number of historic contexts, some of which

relate to the HRS contexts. These contexts effectively link the history to the extant historic

resources of the site. The following historic contexts have been developed for this study:

B. The Low Country Coastal Cottage and Snee Farm, 1828-1941.

A. Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site,

1754-1816

Context A relates to the subterranean historic resources which are primarily related to

low country plantation life for both slaves and free persons living on Snee Farm. This context

contains elements of several NPS themes including: Peopling Places, Expressing Cultural Values,

Shaping the Political Landscape, Transforming the Environment, Developing the American

Economy, and the Changing Role of the United States in the World Community.
14 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Context B relates to the architectural resources of the Charles Pinckney National

Historic Site including the main house and the associated outbuildings. This context primarily

relates to the NPS themes of Expressing Cultural Values and Developing the American

Economy.

HISTORICAL BASE MAP DISCUSSION

The Historical Base Map (HBM) depicts existing historic and nonhistoric resources of the park.

The map graphically depicts contributing and noncontributing historic structures based on the

determinations of National Register eligibility contained in this study.
Introduction 15

Notes

1

Walter B. Edgar, Historic Snee Farm: A Documentary Record (Columbia SC: University of South Carolina

Department of History, 1991), 3, 44.

2

Public Law 100-421, September 8, 1988, 102 Stat. 1581-82.

3

“Statement for Management, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site” (National Park Service, 1990), 5-6,

4

Brockington and Associates, “Archeological Data Recovery at Long Point Plantation” (Atlanta:

Brockington and Associates, 1991), 5-6; Draft “General Management Plan, Charles Pinckney National

Historic Site,” Natural Resource Management Section (Atlanta: National Park Service, June 1993), n.p.

5

Preservation Consultants, Inc., “Town of Mt. Pleasant Cultural Resource Survey, 1988” (Charleston:

Preservation Consultants, Inc., 1988), 6-7.

6

“Interim Operating Plan, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site” Draft (National Park Service, 1991), 7.

7

Draft “General Management Plan,” Natural Resource Section, n.p.

8

To avoid confusion, Charles Pinckney’s father will be referred to herein as Colonel Pinckney, reflecting his

Revolutionary War rank.

9

W[illiam] S[avage] E[lliot], “Honorable Charles Pinckney, LL.D., of South Carolina,” DeBow’s Review 33

(July-August 1864): 61. Two DeBow’s Review articles written by Elliott, Pinckney’s grand-nephew, contain

numerous factual errors and romanticize a vanished South Carolina past. Uncorroborated statements in

these articles should be viewed with skepticism.

10Frances Leigh Williams, A Founding Family: The Pinckneys of South Carolina (New York: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich, 1978), 20, 41, 69, 392n; J. Harold Easterby, “Charles Pinckney,” Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1946), vol. XIV, 611.

11Williams, 96, 123, 143; Easterby, 611.

12William Moultrie, Memoirs of the American Revolution So Far as It Related to the States of North and

South Carolina and Georgia, vol. 2 (New York, D. Longworth, 1802), 116.

13Colonel Charles Pinckney was not treated as harshly as some of other Loyalists, perhaps as an

acknowledgement of his son’s patriotism.

15Williams, 200-5, 211-15, 419n; George Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. VI (New York D.

Appleton & Co., 1896), 186-88.

16Bancroft, vol. VI, 188.

17Bancroft, vol. VI, 188-92; Richard B. Morris, The Forging of the Union (New York: Harper & Row, 1987),

252; Williams, 214.

14Williams, 153, 172-188; Arthur Middleton to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney [May? 1782] in Paul H. Smith,

ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, vol. 18 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1991),

547.
16 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

18Morris, 255-57.

19Henry Laurens was also appointed but declined to serve (Williams, 216).

20Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, rev. ed., vol. I (New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1937), 24.

21Charles Pinckney to John Quincy Adams, December 30, 1818, in Farrand, vol. III, 427-28.

22Two versions of the draft were found among Wilson’s papers. An extract of the draft was published by J.

Franklin Jameson in The American Historical Review 8 no. 3 (1903): 509-11 and a more complete outline of

the draft by A.C. McLaughlin in The American Historical Review 9 no. 4 (1904): 735-47. A reconstructed

draft based on these sources and a 1787 pamphlet, Observations on the Plan of Government Submitted to

the Federal Convention, published by Pinckney, appears in Farrand, vol. III, 604-9.

23Compare the third of the Virginia Resolutions, Farrand, vol. I, 20, with Article II of the reconstructed

Pinckney Draft, Farrand, vol. III, 605.

24Ernest M. Lander, Jr., “The South Carolinians at the Philadelphia Convention, 1787,” South Carolina

Historical Magazine 57 (1956), 140, 145-50, 153.

25Farrand, vol. I, 397-404, 410-12.

26Williams, 254.

27Williams, 284-87; John Harold Wolfe, Jeffersonian Democracy in South Carolina (Chapel Hill: University

of North Carolina Press, 1940), 26-27, 34-35.

28Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, The Growth of the American Republic, 4th ed. (New

York Oxford University Press, 1951), 345-52.

29The Republican Party that formed around Jeffersonian principles evolved into the present-day Democratic

Party; it had no connection with the Republican Party founded in the 1850s and currently existing.

30Williams, 310-14; Wolfe, 63-65, 84-85; Mark D. Kaplanoff, “Charles Pinckney and the American Republican

Tradition,” in Intellectual Life in Antebellum Charleston, ed. Michael O’Brien and David Moltke-Hansen

(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986), 101.

31Williams, 288, 320, 327-29, 344-48. See also Secretary of State James Madison’s instructions to Pinckney,

Madison to Pinckney, June 9, 1801, in The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. I

(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1986), 273-79.

32Henry Adams, History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson

(New York Library of America, 1986), 469-70, 487-91; Williams, 348-51; Clifford L. Egan, “The United States,

France, and West Florida, 1803-1807,” Florida Historical Society Quarterly (January 1969), 232-34.

33Madison to Monroe, November 9, 1804, cited in Adams, 495.

34Williams, 352.

35Williams, 352-55; Kaplanoff, 86-90, 117.

36Williams, 355-60. Pinckney’s speech on the Missouri question was reprinted in the July 15, 1820, issue of

Niles’ Weekly Register, 349-357.
Introduction 17

37Pinckney to Madison, October 26, 1800, in “South Carolina in the Presidential Election of 1800,” American

Historical Review 4, no. 1 (1898), 117.

38When the 1973 National Historic Landmark documentation was prepared, the extant main house was

believed to have been built by Colonel Pinckney in the 1750s. Subsequent analysis has established that the

house dates to the first third of the nineteenth century and may have been built on the foundations of a

previous house (see Context B).
CHAPTER ONE: THE ARCHEOLOGICAL RESOURCES OF

CHARLES PINCKNEY NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, 1754-1816

As the low country plantation home of Charles Pinckney, a drafter of the Constitution,

the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site derives its national significance from its association

with the life of Charles Pinckney and the broad patterns in early American history that shaped

Charles Pinckney’s world. Snee Farm and its inhabitants illustrate the complex web of economic, social, and political realities that influenced Charles Pinckney and created early American

culture. The Snee Farm plantation was the country seat of one branch of the wealthy and

prominent Pinckney family. As was typical with the low country elite, the family did not reside

on the farm, but principally in Charleston, visiting the plantation several times a year. Despite the

fact that the farm was not the Pinckneys’ primary residence, there can be little doubt as to its

economic and social importance to the family.

Through the historic resources at Snee Farm, we gain a more complete appreciation of

the cultural and economic environment that influenced the life of Charles Pinckney and in turn

derive a greater understanding of his contributions to our history. Subsequent owners constructed all of the current plantation structures; thus we rely on archeology to unravel the story

of Snee Farm during Pinckney’s era. Archeological investigations to date provide a demonstrable connection between the farm and Charles Pinckney. More broadly, investigations also

reveal important information about Colonial America and the young American Republic, particularly relating to slave life and the emergence of Gullah culture on low country plantations. As the

primary residents on Snee Farm and the majority of the population of the low country, African

Americans played a key role in establishing the unique world of coastal South Carolina. This

context establishes a framework for interpreting the archeological resources relating to the

comprehensive uses of Snee Farm during the Pinckney era by all its inhabitants.
20 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

The purchase of Snee Farm in 1754 by Charles Pinckney’s father, Colonel Charles

Pinckney, reflects the customs of the eighteenth-century South Carolina elite. Colonel Pinckney

was a prominent and wealthy lawyer. The low country landed gentry, however, stood at the

apogee of colonial society because of the immense wealth created by rice plantations. The

possession of plantations and slaves validated social status. Charleston merchants and lawyers,

eager to join the ranks of the planter class, bought plantations, thus consolidating their wealth

and social standing. In keeping with the eighteenth-century ideal, Colonel Charles Pinckney

purchased Snee Farm along with Drainfields and Fee Farm on the Ashepoo River. Whether

their income came principally from the land or a profession, South Carolina planters followed

similar residential patterns, alternating town and country living. Elite families usually spent only

limited time in the early spring and late fall at their country residences. The winter social season

(from January through March) was spent in Charleston, and the malarial fever season (from

May to the first frost) was spent in Charleston, or the upcountry.

Figure 8, 1783 Plat of Snee Farm Property
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 21

Primary document research has revealed little

about how frequently the Pinckney family visited Snee

Farm while Charles was growing up.1 Some information

can be gleaned from the close inspection of scattered

primary and numerous secondary sources. Letters

demonstrate that during the 1775 Christmas season,

when Charles was eighteen, the family was at Snee

Farm. It is possible that they spent many Christmas

holidays there.2

 Charles Pinckney’s 1778 election to the Figure 9, Fragments of

South Carolina House of Representatives from Christ fine china

Church Parish indicates that Snee Farm may have also been a vehicle for Pinckney’s political

ambitions.3 Snee Farm was closer to Charleston than any other Pinckney property, so the

family probably made more frequent excursions to the site. A nineteenth-century property

dispute involving Snee Farm also hints at the family’s strong connection to site. The court

records describe the “handsome garden and adjoining pleasure grounds” that were “carefully

tended and embellished by (Col.) Charles Pinckney, Governor (Charles) Pinckney and the

plaintiff.”4 Colonel Pinckney’s 1787 estate inventory also listed a gardener among the forty

slaves living at Snee Farm.5 The presence of a gardener and the description of the gardens may

indicate considerable attention was paid to the grounds, an expense likely to be incurred only if

the family visited the property often. Archeological investigations further support this theory and

have exposed a number of trenches believed to be associated with the gardens surrounding the

plantation house.

Subsurface remains at the site include numerous objects confirming the family’s use of

the property in the eighteenth century. These objects include silver spoons with the Pinckney

monogram, wine bottle seals with the Pinckney name, crystal goblets, and fragments of fine

china. This evidence, along with the foundations of the site’s structures, does not yield direct

information about Pinckney’s political contributions, but does represent a unique and irreplaceable archive about Charles Pinckney and the Pinckney family.

Archeological evidence indicates that the Pinckney family’s Snee Farm residence was

not a grand structure, but a small, comfortable house more typical of Charleston area plantations

than the lavish Middleton Place or Drayton Hall. The original house was located directly

beneath the standing plantation main house and had a similar footprint. The architectural materials found at the site confirm that the house belonged to someone of Pinckney’s high social

status. Among the rubble of bricks and windowpane glass were pieces of plaster in light blue-
22 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Figure 10, Fireplace tiles

gray, yellow, and white with a 3⁄4-inch black stripe. Some plaster was directly on the brick

rather than on a plaster lath, indicating the existence of plaster-covered chimneys. Large

quantities of distinctive ornamental fireplace tiles were found at either end of the structure.

Brass tacks found at the site suggest upholstered furniture, and brass drawer pulls are evidence

that the home was furnished with fine cabinets and desks. Dating of the artifacts indicates

Colonel Pinckney constructed the residence soon after he purchased the property in 1754. The

house was razed in 1828, most likely shortly after the Matthews family purchased the property.

A diverse accumulation of outbuildings was a defining characteristic of most selfsufficient southern plantations.6

 In keeping with this pattern, several outbuildings complete the

Snee Farm main house complex. Archeologists uncovered the foundation of a kitchen (structure

13) approximately 25 feet from the main house foundation. This is consistent with most plantation layouts, which place the kitchen some distance from the main house in order to remove the

heat, noise, commotion, and fire danger from the main residence. Planters also wanted to

implement a “stricter regimen of racial segregation that was expressed by physical separation.”7

Remnants consistent with a kitchen and specifically with the Pinckney family were recovered

from the site. These include wine bottle seals bearing the inscription “C Pinckney 1766” and

“C. Pinckney.” English tableware, Chinese glass, cutlery, wine bottle glass, windowpane, nails,

bone, and tobacco pipes were also among the more than 20,000 artifacts recovered from this

structure, further confirming its use as a kitchen. The high concentration of wine bottle fragments

and fragments of fine china and crystal confirm the active use of Snee Farm by the Pinckneys,

especially for entertaining.
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 23

A well (feature 312) located 64 feet from

the main house foundation was also part of the

Pinckney-era farm. The well was packed with

plaster that matched the plaster found at the main

house site, indicating that it was filled when the

main house was demolished. The well also contained a silver spoon with the initials of Colonel

Charles Pinckney and Frances Brewton

Pinckney, definitively connecting the well to

Colonel Pinckney’s tenure on the farm. Other

significant artifacts include several fragments

from the same blue Delftware apothecary jar

found in the kitchen. This, along with an 1826

penny located near the top of the rubble, links

the kitchen and well to the Pinckney era. The

main house, kitchen, and well were all demolished shortly after William Matthews acquired

the farm in 1828.

Figure 11,

Delftware jar fragment

Additional dwellings found in the core of

the plantation complex include the brick foundation of a modest structure (structure 14), which

archeologists believe was the overseer’s house

or a slave dwelling.8 This house, though not

grand, had a fireplace extension from which

Delft fireplace tiles were recovered. Remnants Figure 12, Pinckney spoon

of another structure (structure 16) are also

interpreted by archeologists as a slave dwelling. This structure was relatively small and rested

on brick piers. The accumulation of artifacts north of structures 14 and 16 indicates a possible

additional structure, which was most likely a third slave dwelling. These three slave dwellings

are clearly a higher class of structure than the earthen dwellings of the slave village, which are

located about 250 yards to the southwest. The difference in the construction and location of the

dwellings for enslaved people illustrates the well-documented dichotomy between field slaves

and house slaves in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. An additional structure

(structure 11), similar in size to structure 14 but with plaster walls and white-painted brick
24 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

exterior, was at one time thought to be the remains of Charles Pinckney’s main house. Artifacts

recovered from structure 11, including a 1722 penny, indicate it was occupied much earlier than

the Pinckney era. Structure 11 is believed to be a residence used by previous owners.9

Shortly after inheriting Snee Farm in 1782, Charles Pinckney embarked on a long

period of political activity that frequently took him from the Charleston area. From November

1784 to February 1787, Pinckney was a member of the Continental Congress, which met in

Trenton, New Jersey, and New York City. He attended the Constitutional Convention in

Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. In 1790, Columbia became South Carolina’s capital, and

Pinckney’s service as governor (1789-1792, 1796-1797) and in the state assembly (1793-

1796) kept him in Columbia while the legislature was in session. In 1799 and 1800, Pinckney

was in the temporary national capital at Philadelphia for sessions of the United States Senate.

From the summer of 1801 through the end of 1805, he was in Europe serving as U.S. minister

to Spain.10

No plantation records for Snee Farm are known to exist and a comprehensive search of

the letters and newspaper entries from this period has not been undertaken. Historians must

rely largely on published sources for scattered clues to Pinckney’s use of Snee Farm. When

President Washington breakfasted at Snee Farm in 1791 during his grand tour of the new

nation, Pinckney described the property as “indifferently furnished” and “a place I seldom go

to.” Pinckney’s apologies for the furnishings and condition of Snee Farm in his letter to Washington may have represented conventional eighteenth-century modesty and do not necessarily

indicate that the plantation was abandoned.11 Evidence from Christ Church Parish records

suggests Pinckney’s infrequent residency during this time. Pinckney was elected a vestryman of

the parish annually from 1797 through 1802, but only in 1807 did he meet the residency requirement for service. 12 One Charleston County record reported in 1808 that Charles

Pinckney’s properties were “wholly unproductive” and some of his properties were “in perishing

condition the house going to ruin and daily diminishing in value.”13

Gaining a more complete picture of the role of Snee Farm in Charles Pinckney’s life will

require additional investigation of his use of his many other properties. In 1816, when he was

forced to convey most of his real property to trustees to discharge his debts, Pinckney owned

six plantations in addition to Snee Farm: Frankville and Hopton, on opposite sides of the

Congaree River five miles from Columbia, Wrights Savannah on the Carolina bank of the

Savannah River, Mount Tacitus on the Santee River, an unnamed 1600-acre plantation near

Georgetown, and a 1,200-acre tract at Lynches Creek.14 Among these properties may be the

three coastal plantations Pinckney was known to have purchased on credit in 1795-1796 for
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 25

£29,000.15 Wrights Savannah and Mount Tacitus were Laurens family properties inherited by

Pinckney in 1794, upon the death of his wife, Mary Eleanor Laurens Pinckney. These properties were eventually removed from the conveyance for the benefit of his children. Also included

in Pinckney’s 1816 trust conveyance were his lavish townhouse in Charleston and Shell Hall, a

residence in the village of Mount Pleasant.16 Pinckney may also have owned and disposed of

other properties prior to 1816 that are not listed in the trust conveyance.

In 1758, Colonel Pinckney noted that both the farm and his law practice were prospering.17 Although we do not know specifically what life was like on Snee Farm for Charles

Pinckney, we do know that he

derived some of his fortune from

the farm’s agricultural products,

which were most likely the cash

crops of rice and indigo as well as

lumber and provisions. The 1818

plat of Snee Farm indicated fields

of rice, cultivated land, and

woodlands. A typical Charleston

area plantation in the eighteenth

century, such as Snee Farm,

would have produced cash crops

as well as provisions for the

slaves, family residences in

Charleston, and the city markets.18 Although foodstuffs could

be lucrative, most plantation

owners derived the bulk of their

profits from rice, which came to

dominate both the physical and

social landscape in the eighteenthcentury low country. The agricultural domination of rice was so

complete that by 1761, James

Glenn noted, “The only commodity of any consequence produced

in South Carolina is rice.” 19

Figure 13, 1818 Plat of property
26 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Snee Farm’s location along the tidal marshes made rice growing possible, and the 1818

plat indicates rice fields and two or three rice “banks” or levees. The tidal creek and the

remains of a large levee crossing the low-lying areas of the farm are additional physical evidence

of tidal rice cultivation. On one side of the levee the water is brackish and unsuitable for planting; on the other side of the levee cattails are present, indicating fresh water suitable for growing

rice. This levee occupies the same location as the one depicted on the plat of 1818.20 It is also

possible that upland rice, which required less irrigation, was grown on Snee Farm.

Rice was more lucrative than other cereals, but it also required a significantly higher

capital investment, keeping all but the wealthiest planters from the business. Rice could be

profitably grown only on large plantations employing at least 30 slaves.21 The surge in profitability of tidal rice production allowed coastal plantation owners to become some of the wealthiest citizens in the British Empire in the eighteenth century.22 The creation of this wealth was

directly related to the knowledge and labor of the slaves who were living on the plantations and

working the fields. Slave labor was considered an essential ingredient in successful cash crop

cultivation, and as the profits from the rice plantations grew, so did the slave population.23

The production of rice and indigo on plantations was the main stay of the coastal South

Carolina economy in the eighteenth century

and early nineteenth century. Rice, the

primary export crop, tied South Carolina to a

world-wide economic system. However,

without the continual flow of enslaved labor,

the large profits associated with the production of these crops would have been impossible. A triangular trade, based on the

importation of slaves from Africa and the

exportation of rice to Europe and the West

Indies emerged, linking South Carolina to

markets in Europe and Africa. The revenue

generated by this trading system allowed the

southern colonies to become economically

viable and formed the underpinnings of the

South Carolina low country life.

Figure 14, Sheaf of rice

Slavery was such an integral part of

this economic system that the South Carolina
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 27

delegates to the Constitutional Convention fought hard to protect it as the foundation of their

way of life. Charles Pinckney was a vigilant advocate in the slavery debate, defending the

institution against the abolitionist tendencies of the delegates from the Northern states. He

argued that because of slavery there was a “solid distinction as to the interests between the

Southern and Northern states,” and that Georgia and South Carolina “in their rice and indigo

had a peculiar interest which might be sacrificed” if they did not have adequate representation in

Congress. This representation was secured by counting 60% of the South’s slave population in

apportioning representatives to Congress (the three-fifths clause) thus insuring the South larger

Congressional representation. Pinckney also fought hard to allow for the continued importation

of enslaved people until 1808, and the fugitive slave clause (which would forcibly return escaped slaves captured in free states). Because of their tenacious insistence on protecting their

labor system and thus the foundation of their wealth, Southerners won major concessions from

the rest of the nation on almost every issue relating to slavery.24

South Carolina planters made rice profitable, but the roots of South Carolina rice

cultivation stretch 3,000 years into Africa’s past. African strains of rice and cultivation methods

developed independently from the rice varieties and growing methods employed in Asia.25

From Senegal to the Cote d’Ivoire, Africans perfected the intricacies of manipulating tidal rivers

to irrigate their rice fields. The African cultivation methods, and possibly the indigenous rice,

oryza glaberrima, traveled with the bondspeople to the South Carolina coast. Geographic

similarities between South Carolina and West Africa made the low country ideal for rice

cultivation.

South Carolina planters, though familiar with rice, were inexperienced in its production

and relied heavily on their enslaved people’s knowledge to successfully produce the crop.26

Planters preferred slaves with rice-growing skills, whether directly from Africa or from a plantation already involved in rice production. Advertisements in local papers highlight planters’ desire

for slaves experienced in the cultivation of rice. An announcement in the Evening Gazette in

1785 advertised a cargo of “windward and gold coast negroes, who have been accustomed to

the planting of rice.”27 British planter William Stock’s requirements for qualified slaves typified

planters’ preferences: “As to the Negroes, I must get them either in South Carolina or Georgia,

and must choose such as are used to the different cultivation I begin with as Rice, Cotton,

Indigo, etc.”28 Slave traders, eager to meet their customers’ needs, sought slaves familiar with

rice cultivation. Historians estimate that about 43% of all Africans entering South Carolina

during the colonial period were from the African rice-growing regions.29 Although the majority

of these slaves probably had no experience growing rice, the influence of the many hundred who

did cannot be discounted.
28 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Preparing and cultivating the fields and

harvesting rice were laborious and unhealthy jobs

dominated by mud, heat, yellow fever, malaria,

insects, and snakes. Establishing the rice fields was a

particularly onerous process, requiring the slaves to

physically alter the coastal landscape. First the tidal

marshes had to be cleared, drained, and leveled.

Then embankments, or levees, about five feet high

and twelve feet wide, were built surrounding each

field. Draft animals could not be used because they

would have sunk under their own weight in the boggy

soil. Several times a year, the tidal pull on the rivers

Figure 15, Preparing the was employed to flood the fields. In order to regurice fields late water levels throughout the growing season,

slaves built and maintained a complex series of dams,

gates, and sluices. The maintenance of the levees and hydraulics was critical to the success of a

rice crop. If a dam or levee broke, and salt water flooded into the fields, the land would have

to remain fallow while it desalinized.

Rice cultivation was as difficult and unhealthy as creating the fields. Slaves pressed the

rice seeds into the muddy ground with their heels, then flooded the fields to encourage germination. Once the seeds sprouted, the fields were

drained and weeded. Weeding the rice fields had

to be done by hand. The fields were then alternately flooded and drained to keep the soil moist

and the weeds under control, and to deter the birds

and other animals. The final flooding took place

under the watchful eye of the “trunk minder” who

was responsible for gradually raising the water level

in the fields to support the top-heavy rice stalks. Figure 16, Flood gates

Harvesting the rice was done in the late fall.

Once the rice was harvested, it had to be threshed and winnowed, and the white kernel of rice

had to be milled from the indigestible hull. African-born slaves again initially provided the

necessary skills and knowledge for the milling process. Around 1500 BC, West African women

began processing rice by employing a hand-pounding mortar and pestle. This was the primary
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 29

Figure 17, Flooded rice fields

system used in South Carolina until

Jonathan Lucas developed the

water-driven mill in the late eighteenth century.30 After milling, the

final step was polishing the rice to

prevent spoilage. This involved

removing the oily bran horn the

kernel.

The other major crop most

likely grown on Snee Farm was

indigo, which accounted for onequarter of all exports in South

Carolina at the beginning of the

American Revolution.31 Land

difficult to irrigate was ideal for

planting the hearty indigo plant.

Once indigo was planted, it could

be virtually ignored until harvest.

The processing of indigo, however,

was extremely time and labor

intensive. As soon as the leaves

Figure 18, Working in the rice fields were harvested, they had to be

transported to a series of vats

where the leaves fermented while

they were continuously pumped and stirred. The noxious blue liquid was then drained from the

vats and mixed with lye to set. The sediment was then dried into blocks.32 Archeologists and

historians have no direct evidence of the production of indigo on Snee Farm. However, the

processing of indigo required skilled craftspeople such as carpenters and coopers, both of

which were listed in the Snee Farm slave inventory of 1787.

In addition to rice and indgo, Charles Pinckney owned cattle that most likely grazed in

the woodland area indicated on the 1818 plat map. Lumber was possibly harvested from the

woodland area for use at Pinckney’s Charleston and Mount Pleasant homes. Additionally, the

pines in the forest wold have provided turpentine, pitch, and other naval stores. In the 1787

slave inventory, the first slave listed is Cudjoe, who was a driver and a sawyer, further underscoring the importance of the woodlands.
30 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Figure 19, Harvesting rice

Compared with their upland counterparts, low

country slaves worked under a unique labor system.

“Tasking” was virtually unknown throughout much of

the South where gang labor prevailed, but was the

distinguishing characteristic of coastal slavery. Masters

and slaves negotiated a system of labor where planters

conceded control over work time in exchange for a

specific unit of output. The task system measured

work by specific tasks rather than the sun-up-to-sundown gang system employed by most southern plantation owners. Each slave was given an identifiable job

such as weeding or planting. The standard measurement for a day’s work was a square of one-quarter of

an acre, except when a task was particularly arduous

or light. Based on his or her age, skill, and capacity

each slave was classified as a full-task, half-task, or

quarter-task slave. When the task was completed the

slave was free for the balance of the day. This labor

system may be linked to absentee owners’ need to

readily measure a slave’s work. It is also possible that

tasking labor was the legacy of a negotiated arrangement between slaves, who possessed the knowledge

of rice production, and landowners, who relied on their

knowledge.33

Figure 20, Milling rice using

traditional African methods

Tasking provided a modicum of autonomy for

slaves by enabling them to control a part of their time.

Often, assigned tasks could be completed by 2:00

p.m., which left several hours for slaves to satisfy their

own needs. Both men and women kept small gardens

and raised livestock. Slave gardens varied from half

an acre to two acres and consisted of vegetables such as corn, peas, greens, and occasionally

even rice. Slaves also kept hogs and chickens. Both produce and livestock were consumed to

supplement a slave’s rations. What was not consumed was sold in the local markets or traded

for luxuries such as tobacco, cloth, alcohol, or more desirable food.34 One traveler who
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 31

observed the practice of slaves bringing their goods to market remarked: “on the country side

was heard the songs of the Negroes as they rowed their boats up the river on their return from

the city, whither they had taken their small wares - eggs, fowls, and vegetables - for sale, as they

do two or three times a week.”35

In addition to raising domesticated animals, slaves commonly hunted and fished. Depending on the temperament of the master and the proximity of the plantation to woods and

streams, slave owners often encouraged their slaves to hunt. Most slaves trapped their game,

but some masters allowed slaves to uses guns, despite laws prohibiting gun ownership by slaves.

Through the use of gardens and hunting, slaves achieved limited economic independence,

ameliorating their existence as chattel.36

There is archeological evidence that the task system was the predominant labor system

employed on Snee Farm during Charles Pinckney’s tenure. Trash pits containing crustacean

shells and animal bones point to the slaves’ ability to control their own foodways through fishing

and hunting. The fence that may have lined the domestic compound indicates slaves kept

gardens and domesticated animals. A lead shot found in a posthole of one of the slave dwellings

indicates slave ownership of guns for hunting. Additionally, since the task system was the rule in

the low country, we can reasonably assume Snee Farm was no exception.

Large slave populations living in the relative isolation of rice plantations allowed slave life

in the low country to retain distinctly African elements. Large, isolated populations, coupled

with the continual flood of West African bondspeople into South Carolina (at least until 1808)

ensured the survival of many West African cultural traditions. Samuel Dyssli, a Swiss immigrant

traveling in South Carolina in 1731 observed, “Carolina looks more like a negro country than a

country settled by white people.”37 By 1790, the low country parishes were nearly 70% black.

The plantation owners’ tendency to leave the plantations under the command of black drivers

meant slaves often had little contact with whites and obtained only a limited familiarity with

European-American culture. The lack of inter-racial contact, along with an innate preference

for their own cultural traditions,38 effectively kept the enslaved people from wholly adopting

European-American cultural practices. Instead, they retained many West African traditions and

in their unique isolation blended characteristics of myriad African cultures and European and

European-American traditions. The resulting culture is known as Gullah.39

When Pinckney sold Snee Farm in 1817 the slave population numbered 43.40

Pinckney’s slaves undoubtedly interacted with the numerous slaves living on nearby plantations,

forming an extended slave community further strengthening the Gullah culture on Snee Farm.

One product of low country African-American culture is the Gullah language. Gullah is
32 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

not a patois, but a distinctive language with its own rules of grammar. Gullah was the everyday

tongue of low country blacks for generations and is spoken today by many in South Carolina

and Georgia.41 The early roots of Gullah are in the pidgin spoken in Africa among the polyglot

slavers, African slave traders and merchants, and the enslaved people, all of whom needed a

common method of communication. Once the enslaved people arrived at the Carolina coast,

the pidgin evolved in the slave villages and fields into a complex, English-based Creole language,

known as Gullah. African slaves adopted a mainly English vocabulary with the syntax and

intonations common to West African languages. Gullah also makes rich use of word groups to

form nouns, verbs, and adjectives such as: “day clean” (dawn), “beat-on iron” (mechanic), and

“dry long so” (without reason). In 1949, Lorenzo D. Turner first documented Gullah’s origins,

documenting approximately 4,000 Gullah words from 21 different West African languages.

Some of these words include cooter, goober, yam, tote, and okra.42 These words, now common in the English lexicon, illustrate that cultural transmission was not one way. The low country

world was marked by a complex series of interactions among African Americans, European

Americans, and newly arriving enslaved Africans. Blacks and whites influenced each other’s

cultural patterns in countless way, creating ways of living that distinguish the low country to this

day.

Basket making is another Gullah tradition with its roots extending to the West African

coast. The distinctive Gullah coiled sweet-grass basketry bears little resemblance to Native

American or European traditions, but mirrors baskets made in the Senagambia region of Africa.

Traditionally, men made large baskets used for agricultural purposes, and women made smaller

baskets for household use. An evolved form of this distinctive basketry is still practiced by

African Americans living in the Snee Farm area, providing a tangible link to the African past.43

Folktales or parables are another important characteristic of Gullah culture influenced by

both African traditions and the slave experience in America.44 These folktales often tell the story

of a weaker or smaller animal outwitting a larger, quicker animal; a clear allegory to the masterslave relationship. Though the subject matter clearly grew from the slave experience in America,

the majority of the parables maintain African structures and motifs.45

In many ways the landscape of the low country plantation belonged as much to the

slaves as to the planters. On Snee Farm, evidence of the slave contribution is everywhere.

Slaves cleared the land, built the roads, constructed the houses and outbuildings, and planted

the crops. The slaves, as lifelong permanent residents, considered the plantation home. Often

they subtly carved out safe places for themselves against the backdrop of subjugation.46 The

slave village emphasizes this dichotomy of space. The slave village at Snee Farm was located
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 33 

Figure 21, Sweetgrass basket

about 250 yards from the Pinckney residence.47 This distance put the village near the main

house, but nonetheless in a private realm away from direct planter and overseer domination.

Subsurface remains in the slave village area provide evidence of three houses and a

storage shed all in use from about 1750 to 1841.48 The dwelling with the most readable remains measured 16 x 20 feet, with a 5-foot porch extension at the south end. There is strong

documentary evidence and some physical evidence of two additional slave dwellings of similar

size and formation. The dwellings are of post-in-ground construction with the posts about 2 to

2.5 feet apart. Most posts were round with the deeper postmolds indicating posts that supported the structure, and the shallower molds indicating replacement posts. The walls were

either wood frame, or more likely, clay applied over sticks. The roof may have been palmetto

thatch or shingle. The floor was packed earth or wooden plank. The yard surrounding the

dwellings was probably swept dirt. Enclosing the residential area is a series of small, scattered

postholes. These most likely represent loose fencing surrounding the dwellings.
34 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Understanding the vernacular architecture of the slave village provides insights into the

worldview of the bonds people. Architecture can reflect the transmission of cultural ideals and

the transmutation of cultures in new environments.49 The architecture of the Snee Farm slave

village can be understood to show the strong African connections of recently arrived slaves.

Archeological evidence indicates the slave dwellings in Snee Farm’s slave quarters were more

typically African than European.50 In designing their dwellings slaves may have been replicating

familiar African architectural styles. Small rectangular houses with steeply pitched roofs and dirt

floors are typical of the African architectural vocabulary. Much of the living was done outdoors

and the small structures were used only for sleeping and storage. The living patterns evidenced

by the enslaved people at Snee Farm more closely fit their social needs than the aesthetics of the

typical plantation owner. Plantation owners were most likely unaware of the slave dwellings’

connection to Africa. They found the economically constructed houses to their liking, thus

continuing to unwittingly encourage the traditional

African building practices.51

As was typical in Africa, the slave homes

of Snee Farm did not have interior chimneys.

Cooking was a communal activity, and there is

archeological evidence of central cooking hearths

and food preparation and disposal areas located

within the yard. Even when interior chimneys were

provided, such as at Middleburg Plantation on the

Figure 22, African dwelling which may be Cooper River and Lexington Plantation on reminiscent of slave dwellings on Snee

Farm Wando Neck, slaves seem to have preferred to

do their cooking and eating outdoors.52

Scattered around the Snee Farm slave village are pits filled with refuse. The uses of

these pits probably evolved over time. Pits originally would have been dug to supply clay for

the daubing of structure walls. Later, the clay was used for crafting pots. Once the clay was

depleted, they became roasting pits for oysters and clams. Finally slaves filled the pits with

refuse and swept in dirt. These pits further illustrate slave life on Snee Farm by providing insight

into diet and foodways. The refuse in the pits is particularly instructive. The presence of fish

and animal bones provides confirmation that Snee Farm slaves worked under the task system

and had time to hunt and fish. The presence of squash rinds may indicate that they kept

gardens.
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 35

Evidence of the slave diet and foodways is also gleaned from the colonoware53 fragments found at the site. The three sizes of colonoware bowls are confirmation that the diet of

the slaves remained relatively African. Most West Africans traditionally ate little meat. Instead,

the typical diet consisted of a starch such as millet, corn, or rice served with a spicy vegetable

sauce. The vegetables and spices included beans, squash, hickory nuts, cow peas, okra,

eggplant, tamarind, onions, peanuts, sesame seeds, and peppers.54 The slaves probably also

consumed their food in a traditionally African manner. A designated cook prepared communal

meals in a large colonoware bowl or later in a cast iron pot. The accompanying sauces were

served in medium-sized colonoware bowls. Individuals ate their food with their hands from

small colonoware bowls or clean leaves. This extensive use of colonoware explains the massive

quantities usually found at slave sites, including Snee Farm.55

In the early days of colonial South Carolina, slave-holders concerned themselves little

with the spiritual lives of their slaves. Over time, conversion to Christianity became a greater

priority for the slave owners.56 Those slaves who did convert often selectively embraced

Christianity, fusing Christian ideas with their traditional animist beliefs.57 The four blue beads

found in the slave quarters are undoubtedly related to religious practices of the slaves. Blue

beads, though poorly understood, were a central religious symbol and imply religious rituals.58

They were used as signs of marriage, as fertility amulets, and to ward off disease. It is also

possible that the beads were used for adornment.59

In addition to the slave dwellings, there is evidence of a non-domestic storage building in

the village area. The structure measured approximately 8 x 11 feet. This windowless building

had a wooden upper story resting on a brick foundation. A portion of a hinge was found in the

area, suggesting a stout door with a lock. The material evidence surrounding this structure

points to its use as a storage building, locked away from the slaves.

The material evidence of both enslaved and free settlement on Snee Farm brings us

closer to understanding the daily life on a working low country plantation. As a man born into a

life of privilege, Charles Pinckney was part of the complex milieu of low country society. He

was enmeshed in an economic system based on the rice industry and the trans-Alantic slave

trade, which necessarily shaped his attitudes and worldviews. The history of Charles Pinckney

and the slaves he owned are inexorably linked to this site. The archeological resources and

surviving landscape features are key to interpreting the unique world of Charles Pinckney and

his bonds people. These resources provide insight into the social, political, and economic

environment of an eighteenth and nineteenth-century low country plantation. Through archeology, Snee Farm is placed in the context of the United States as a young nation, and its role in
36 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

shaping the lives and contributions of its

free and enslaved inhabitants is illuminated.

Significance

Colonel Charles Pinckney

purchased Snee Farm in 1754 and it

remained in the Pinckney family until

Governor Charles Pinckney sold it to

repay his debts in 1817. The period of

significance for Snee Farm for this

context is thus the period of Pinckney

ownership from 1754-1817. The first

area of significance is the demonstrated

association of in situ archeological

deposits with Charles Pinckney and his

family. Recovered artifacts definitively

associate the Pinckneys with the farm

during these dates. These items include

personalized objects in company with a

rich assemblage of artifacts spanning the

Pinckney era. Due to the dearth of

Figure 23, Colonoware shard

primary source documents associated with Charles Pinckney, these tangible artifacts are particularly critical.

Further contributions to the significance of this site are in the area of plantation and slave

archeology. It is primarily through archeology that slaves are given a voice to provide important

insights into their life ways and worldviews.60 Snee Farm is particularly valuable for its impressive deposits of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century associative artifacts. These artifacts and the associated intra-site spatial patterning bring to light important information about

low country rural life in early American history.

The archeological resources at Snee Farm possess national significance under National

Register Criteria A, B, and D. In order to be eligible under Criterion A, “archeological properties must have well preserved features, artifacts, and intra-site patterning in order to illustrate

patterns of events in history.”61 The resources at Snee Farm are nationally significant for their
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 37

association with the growth and development of the plantation economy, which is an important

theme in the development of the American economy. The resources are also significant at the

state level as examples of the development of properties along South Carolina’s river systems

and slave dwellings and sites in South Carolina.

Under Criterion B, Snee Farm must be “associated with a person’s productive life,

reflecting the time period when he or she achieved significance.”62 Snee Farm is nationally

significant as the only archeological site associated with Charles Pinckney. Pinckney, a prominent South Carolina statesman and important drafter of the Constitution, is significant for his role

in shaping the American political landscape. Snee Farm was one of Pinckney’s favorite plantations, and the recovered artifacts attest

to the time he spent at the site.

Several contexts make Snee

Farm nationally significant under Criterion D. Specifically, as the archeological research continues, we will gain a

more clear understanding of how

Charles Pinckney used this site. The

main house complex, agricultural

features, east yard, and slave village Figure 24, Foundations of main house complex have the potential to yield information

about life ways of both planters and

slaves on low country plantations in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, reflecting

the theme of the development of the American economy. Of particular significance is the

potential for the site to yield information about African-American life ways and the development

of the Gullah culture. Further, Snee Farm is one of the only low country plantations in public

ownership, which allows for unique research opportunities. Archeology on Snee Farm can be

conducted in conjunction with research projects crafted to answer specific questions, and not

simply as part of the mitigation process.

Integrity of Resources

Although there are no remaining above-ground structures from the Pinckney era, the Snee Farm

archeological resources have integrity of location, design, materials, setting, feeling, and association. Archeological sites nearly always have integrity of location, and Snee Farm is no exception. Archeological sites achieve integrity of design under Criteria A & B by artifact and feature
38 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

patterning. The unearthed structures, features, and artifacts of Snee Farm are well ordered and

in a typical plantation design. When taken as a whole, they convey the significance of the

plantation design. The plowing of this site has not damaged or displaced significant artifacts and

thus does not diminish the integrity of the design under Criterion D. The integrity of the setting,

though diminished by encroaching development, is still discernable. The farm’s original 715

acres has been significantly reduced to twenty-eight acres, but the setting still reads as an

agricultural site. The views of the marshes are intact and much as they would have been during

Pinckney’s tenure. With the foundations, post molds, and features clearly evident, the site has

material integrity under all criteria. Development has to some extent diminished the site’s integrity

of feeling, but the site still conveys a quiet, rural feel, much as it did when it was Charles

Pinckney’s country seat. Snee Farm has

integrity of association under Criteria A as

an early American plantation and it is

directly associated with several broad

patterns of history. The site also has

integrity of association for Criteria D

because of the strong connection between

the artifacts and their ability to answer

important research questions about

Charles Pinckney and Gullah life on the

Contributing Resources

Main House Complex Site

Slave Village Complex Site

Historic Rice Levees

Figure 25, Snee Farm rice levee

Noncontributing Resources (under this context)

Structure 12, foundation of late-nineteenth century cotton gin

Structure 15, foundation of mid-nineteenth century smokehouse
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 39

Notes

1

 All Pinckney’s personal papers were destroyed when his home at 16 Meeting Street burned.

2

 “The Letters of Thomas Pinckney,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 58 (1957): 24-25.

3

 Williams, 123.

4 William Matthews vs. Henry Horlbeck et al. 7 April 1844. Charleston Court of Appeals, 1844-1845: 197-200.

5

 Edgar, 5.

6

 John Michael Vlach, Back of the Big House: The Architecture of Plantation Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), 77.

7

 Ibid., 43-45.

8

 It is sometimes difficult to differentiate between slave and overseer dwellings in the archeological record

because their standards of living were similar despite distinct differences in social status. See Michael J.

Meyer, “Intrasite Spatial Patterning on a Colonial Site in the South Carolina Low Country: The Archeology

of Charles Pinckney’s Snee Farm” (Master’s Thesis, Florida State University, 1998), 9; and Vlach, 135-139.

9

 According to Bennie Keel, evidence of a 1722 English coin on top of a brick pier may indicate that an

earlier structure once stood on this site, but was demolished prior to the Pinckney ownership. See Bennie

Keel, “Research Proposal for Archeological Investigations of a Mid-18th Century Structure at Charles

Pinckney National Historic Site, South Carolina” (Tallahassee: National Park Service, Southeast Archeological Center, 17 November 1998).

10 “Colonel Miles Brewton and Some of His Descendents,” South Carolina Historical and Genealogical

Magazine 2 (1901): 144-47.

11 Edgar, 8. Pinckney also hosted Washington at his home at 16 Meeting Street (Elliott, 374).

12 Anne King Gregorie, Christ Church, 1706-1959, A Plantation Parish of the South Carolina Establishment (Charleston: Dalcho Historical Society, 1961), 69.

13 National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey, Snee Farm (NPS, 1991), 15; Charleston County

Report Book, 27 April 1808–7 March 1818: 398-399.

14 These properties were listed in Pinckney’s 1816 trust conveyance (Edgar, 44).

15 Ulrich B. Phillips, “The South Carolina Federalists, II,” The American Historical Review 14 (1908-9): 739.

Phillips does not name the plantations.

16 Edgar, 44.

17 Williams, 15.

18 Susan Hart Vincent, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site Cultural Landscape Report (Atlanta:

National Park Service, 1998), 16. It is also possible that Snee Farm had a nursery, producing trees.

19 Peter H. Wood, Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono

Rebellion (New York: Norton & Company, 1974), 35.

20 Leland Ferguson, to Bennie C. Keel, 11 October 1995.
40 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

21 Julia Floyd Smith, Slavery and the Rice Culture in Low Country Georgia, 1750-1860 (Knoxville:

University of Tennessee Press, 1985), 77; and Joyce E. Chaplin “Tidal Rice Cultivation and the Problem of

Slavery in South Carolina and Georgia, 1760-1815,” William and Mary Quarterly 49 (January 1992): 32.

22 Peter A. Coclanis, “Bitter Harvest: The South Carolina Low Country in Historical Perspective,” Journal of

Economic History 45 (June 1985): 251- 256. A rice plantation owner could expect 20% - 25% annual net

profit on rice.

23 Ira Berlin, Many Thousand Gone, The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America (Cambridge:

Harvard University Press, 1998), 143; and Daniel C. Littlefield, Rice and Slaves, Ethnicity and the Slave

Trade in Colonial South Carolina (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), 99.

24 Paul Finkelman, Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson (Armonk, NY: M.E.

Sharpe, 1996), 12-18.

25 Long before the French and Portuguese ships introduced Asian varieties of rice to some areas of Africa,

Africans were developing their own cultivation methods. It is these methods that dominated early South

Carolina agriculture. It is also possible that the African oryza glaberrima variety of rice was the first to be

planted in South Carolina. It was later replaced with the higher yielding, whiter oryza sativa from Asia. The

introduction of Asian grain, however, did nothing to change African cultivation methods (Wood, 59-60;

Littlefield, 84-96).

26 Judith A. Carney “The Role of African Rice and Slaves in the History of Rice Cultivation in the Americas,”

Human Ecology 26 (December 1998): 4; and Littlefield, 76-79.

27 Wood, 60.

28 Littlefield, 76.

29 Judith A. Carney, “Rice Milling, Gender and Slave Labor in Colonial South Carolina,” Past and Present

156 (November 1996): 7; and Littlefield, 113. It is difficult to determine the actual area of origin and ethnicity

of African slaves. Many slaves were transported great distances within Africa prior to the middle passage.

Slave traders also showed no particular aptitude for determining the ethnicity of their captives. Knowing

that rice growing slaves were the most valuable in South Carolina, it is possible that they simply claimed that

the their human cargo was from the Rice Coast. It is also important to note that not all slaves from the “Rice

Coast” actually grew rice.

30 Carney, “Rice Milling, Gender and Slave Labor,” 6.

31 The indigo produced in South Carolina was of an inferior quality to the indigo produced in East Florida

and the French West Indies. After the American Revolution, the British subsidies of indigo ended and

demand for South Carolina indigo declined.

32 Berlin, 148.

33 Berlin, 154; and Smith, 45

34 Sam Bowers Hilliard, Hog Meat and Hoecake: Food Supply in the Old South 1840-1860 (Carbondale:

Southern Illinois University Press, 1972), 27, 182-183.

35 Fredrika Bremer, The Homes of the New Word: Impressions of America, vol. 1, trans. Mary Botham Howitt

(London: A. Hall, Virtue and Company, 1853), 305. Quoted in Hillard, 183.
The Archeological Resources of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, 1754-1816 41

36 Larry E. Hudson, Jr., To Have and to Hold: Slave Work and Family Life in Antebellum South Carolina

(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997), 16.

37 Leland Ferguson, Uncommon Ground, Archeology and Early African America, 1650-1800 (Washington,

DC: Smithsonian Press, 1992), 59.

38 Ibid., 118

39 The Gullah culture is known as Geechee in Georgia. Gullah is generally believed to be a derivation of the

word Angola, but it also could have referred to the Gola people who lived in present-day Liberia.

40 When Pinckney was forced to sell his plantation because of his debts he had 43 slaves. It is possible that

at its peak Snee Farm had a much larger population. According to the 1810 Census, Charles Pinckney owned

58 slaves in Christ Church Parish.

41 There are approximately 500,000 native Gullah speakers in South Carolina and Georgia. See Salikoko S.

Mufwene, “The Ecology of Gullah’s Survival,” American Speech 72 (Spring 1997): 69.

42 John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1972,1979), 30.

43 Dale Rosengarten, “Spirits of our Ancestors: Basket Traditions in the Carolinas,” in The Crucible of

Carolina; Essays in the Development of Gullah Language and Culture, ed. Michael Montgomery (Athens:

University of Georgia Press, 1994), 147-149,153-154.

44 Many of these stories are commonly known to the majority of Americans as the Uncle Remus Stories,

made famous by author Joel Chandler Harris, who heard them from African Americans in Georgia as a child.

45 Blassingame, 23-24, 31.

46 Vlach, 168-169.

47 It the early days of Snee Farm, it is possible that all the slave dwellings were located much nearer to the

main house. See Meyer, 11.

48 More investigations may uncover at least two other residences. Additionally a slave hospital,

cookhouse, and work sheds could be associated with a plantation of this size. Bennie C. Keel, telephone

conversation, July 13, 1999.

49 Charles Winston Joyner, “Slave Folklife on the Waccamaw Neck: Antebellum Black Culture in the South

Carolina Lowcountry” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1977), 220.

50 Although African-influenced architecture was common, especially in the early eighteenth century, it was

not always the rule. For example, eighteenth-century dwellings for slaves at Boone Hall, an adjacent

plantation, are made of brick and are more European in their design.

51 Vlach, 155, 166-168; and Ferguson, 37, 68-75, 82.

52 Paul E. Brockington, Jr., Linda F. Stine, and Connie M. Huddleston, “Searching for the Slave Village at

Snee Farm Plantation: The 1987 Archeological Investigations” (Atlanta, GA: Brockington and Associates,

1994), 75. Evidence of this is provided at Middleburg Plantation, where the slave dwellings have interior

chimneys and yet there is still evidence of a communal hearth.
42 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

53 Colonoware is low-tired earthen pottery, molded by hand into vessels. Archeologists originally thought

colonoware to be Native American in origin. However, the massive amounts found at African American

archeological sites led archeologists to begin to question this hypothesis. Archeological investigations

have since connected colonoware found in South Carolina to West African pottery. See Ferguson, 7-32.

54 Ferguson, 94; and Brockington, 81.

55 Ferguson, 97.

56 West Africa religious traditions are as varied as its linguistic and cultural traditions. Some slaves arriving

in South Carolina were already Christians, some Muslims, and some had beliefs rooted in animism.

57 Smith, 173; and Margaret Washington Creel, Peculiar People, Slave Religion and Community Culture

Among the Gullah (New York New York University Press, 1988), 2-5.

58 Ferguson, 116; and Brockington, 80-81.

59 Brockington, 80.

60 Theresa A. Singleton, “Archeology of Afro-American Slavery in Coastal Georgia: A Regional Perception

of Slave Household and Community Patterns” (Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, 1980), 1.

61 Jan Townsend, John H. Sprinkle, Jr., and John Knoerl, National Register Bulletin 36: Guidelines for

Evaluating Historical and Archeological Sites and Districts (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the

Interior, National Park Service, 1993), 21.

62 National Register Bulletin 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1991), 15.

63 Townsend, 17-20; and Vincent, 41-44.
CHAPTER TWO: THE LOW COUNTRY

COASTAL COTTAGE AND SNEE FARM, 1828 – 1941

During the first third of the nineteenth century the Coastal Cottage became the favored

house type among the elite low country planters of South Carolina. Although a few showplace

plantation houses like Fenwick Hall, Drayton Hall, and Middleton Place were constructed in

South Carolina in the eighteenth century, social life for the planters centered around their

townhouses in Charleston. Working plantations were more likely to have smaller, comfortable

houses suitable for occasional residence by the owners. The side-gabled Coastal Cottage was

admirably adapted to this sort of use, and the extant house at Snee Farm is a good example of

this house type. Constructed circa 1828, the one-and-one-half-story Snee Farm main house is

rectangular in plan with a side-gable roof, full-width front porch, and a brick pier foundation.

The interior features elaborate molding, paneling, and other decorative details.1

Coastal Cottages were constructed throughout the South Carolina low country, from

Port Royal Sound to the Pee Dee River. Retreat, built circa 1754 in Beaufort County, is among

the earliest known examples.2

 Master builders and joiners, who worked from pattern books,

along with slave craftsmen and laborers, constructed most Coastal Cottages during the first

three decades of the nineteenth century. Although planters may have participated in design

decisions, few professionally trained architects have been connected with these houses.3

Architectural elements common to Coastal Cottages include the rectangular plan, sidegable roof, full-width front porch, brick pier foundation, and Georgian plan. Facades generally

have three or five bays with a central entrance. Additionally, planters’ houses were often clad in

weather boards and included interior chimneys placed along the ridgeline.4

Floor plans for Coastal Cottages were based on the Georgian plan, which appeared in

America in the early eighteenth century. The typical Coastal Cottage consisted of four heated

rooms and a central passage. Coastal Cottages, such as the Perry-Smoak House constructed in
44 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Colleton County circa 1814, featured two central entrances that open directly on the parlor and

dining room, eliminating the central passage. 5 The Grove, built in Charleston County circa

1828, fuses a traditional Georgian plan with two elliptical-shaped front rooms.6 Unusual room

shapes, particularly shapes based on the circle or ellipse, were fashionable during the Federal

period, from about 1789 to about 1830. The second floor of most Coastal Cottages, typically

a half-story, contained bedrooms.

Decorative details reflect the

neoclassical style of design that was

popular at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Elliptical fanlights or

transoms and sidelights often framed

entrances. Interiors were finished with

elaborate woodwork such as keyed

arches dividing the entrance hall and

stair hall. Paneled wainscoting and

finely molded window and door surrounds were accented with crown and

cornice moldings and plaster medallions.

Fireplaces were the focal points of the

public rooms and feature some of the most costly ornamentation associated with Coastal

Cottages.7

 Dean Hall, built in Berkeley County in 1827, features complex cornice moldings,

ceiling medallions, and a stone mantelpiece with slender columns and a decorative panel frieze.8

Planters resided at their plantation houses during the spring and fall, avoiding the summer fever season. The winter social season was usually spent in Charleston, where the low

country elite maintained their principal residences. These larger and more sumptuously appointed homes served as backdrops for much of the season’s entertaining.9

 The fashionably

decorated public rooms common to Coastal Cottages, however, suggest that these houses were

also designed to receive guests and formally entertain. The proximity of Snee Farm to Charleston assured that the plantation was used for entertaining. The elegant detailing in the house

suggests it was often used for guests. Additionally, the evidence of formal gardens adjacent to

the house further indicates the use of the house for pleasure and entertaining.

Figure 26, Drayton Hall

The planter’s house was one component of a large agricultural complex that typically

featured scores of structures. Outbuildings such as kitchens, smokehouses, dairies, privies, and

slave dwellings were integral to the plantation landscape. Many specialized structures were

devoted entirely to the cultivation of rice, indigo, and later, cotton.10
The Low Country Coastal Cottage and Snee Farm, 1828-1941 45

Figure 27, Snee Farm Main House

HISTORIC RESOURCES OF SNEE FARM

William Mathews, a low country planter, built the main house at Snee Farm circa 1828.11

Mathews’s ventures were extremely successful, and his holdings included 352 slaves. By 1848,

he owned five plantations, various tracts of land, and maintained a principal residence in

Charleston.12 The Snee Farm main house is the only extant resource that dates to the Mathews

period of ownership, which began in 1828 and ended when Mathews left the property to his

daughter in 1848.

The previous owner of Snee Farm, Francis G. Deliesseline, purchased the property

from the trustees of Charles Pinckney in 1817 and had the estate surveyed the following year.

The plat indicates rice fields and ditches, farm roads, and a cruciform-shaped formal garden

located to the north of the Pinckney-era main house.13 Many of these features are present in an

1841 Mathews survey. A house located at the north end of the property is joined with a public

road to the south, presently U.S. Route 17, by a long drive running north and south. A row of

slave dwellings is organized along an avenue perpendicular to the main drive. Several other

structures and possibly a garden are located in the vicinity of the main house.14 The main house,

however, is the only nineteenth-century structure that remains at the site.
46 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Figure 28, Snee Farm Main House

Like many Coastal Cottages in the region, the main house at Snee Farm is a one-andone-half-story, five-bay structure with a Georgian plan.15 The side-gable roof features two

interior chimneys along the ridgeline and an engaged full-width porch across the south facade.16

The house is raised on brick piers and constructed with heavy timbers. It is clad with beveled

wood siding.

The floor plan of the main block features four rooms off a center stair hall. The stair is

set along the east wall at the north end of the hall. The front parlors (the southeast and southwest rooms) have doorways that open onto the hall opposite each other and the fireplaces are

in the center of the north wall. The smaller, rear northeast and northwest rooms also open onto

the hall and are heated with fireplaces. The second-floor plan follows the layout of the first floor

with a center hall illuminated by dormers. Each of the four rooms are lit by a dormer and a

gable-end window. Only the southeast and southwest rooms feature fireplaces. The northwest

room has been converted to a bathroom.

First-story windows of the main block are nine-over-nine double-hung sashes with

molded surrounds and wood shutters. The three gabled roof dormers on the north and south

elevations feature six-over-six double-hung sashes with plain surrounds and molded pediments.
The Low Country Coastal Cottage and Snee Farm, 1828-1941 47

The main entrance consists of a six-panel wood door, a four-light transom, and a molded

surround. The corresponding door on the north side is similar but narrower, with a three-light

transom.

Interior woodwork dates to the construction of the house and remains largely intact.

Each room includes unpainted wainscoting. In addition, first-floor rooms are finished with chair

rails and cornice moldings. A keyed arch bisects the stair hall and features molded pilasters and

a reeded underside. The mantelpieces in the southeast and southwest parlors are the most

elaborate of the six mantelpieces in the main block. These appear to be hand-carved and

feature pilasters, center panel friezes, and end blocks.

In the hands of a succession of owners, the main house at Snee Farm remained largely

unchanged for nearly one hundred years. In 1936, Thomas Ewing purchased the property and

enlarged the house. The additions are in the form of gable-front dependencies joined to a porch

on the north side of the house by small hyphens. The northwest wing contained the kitchen,

pantry, and laundry room. The northeast wing included a bedroom, dressing room, and two

bathrooms. The entire arrangement is symmetrical, and construction materials match those of

the main block.

The Ewings also built a freestanding library, now referred to as the caretaker’s cottage,

and a barn. The caretaker’s cottage, constructed in 1936, is located northwest of the house

along the entrance drive from Long Point Road. It is a small, one-story frame building with a

side gable roof, two chimneys, and a screened front porch. The barn was built in 1944 and is

located west of the caretaker’s cottage. It is a large, center-aisle, seven-bay frame structure

with a cross-gabled roof and a cupola. Both structures follow the design of the main house.

The corncrib, built around 1910, is located just to the south of the barn. It is a frame structure

with vented side-walls and board-and-batten gable ends.

A cenotaph memorializing Colonel Charles Pinckney is located southeast of the main

house. Erected between 1949 and 1968, the cenotaph is a 51⁄2-foot-tall, 21⁄2-foot-wide

marble tablet with an incised inscription and the image of a funerary urn. The marker is

nonhistoric and apparently replaced the original marker erected at Snee Farm in the 1780s by

Charles Pinckney in memory of his father, who is buried in the churchyard of St. Philip’s in

Charleston.

SIGNIFICANCE

The main house at Snee Farm is significant at the state and local level under Criterion C as a

representative example of a low country Coastal Cottage. South Carolina’s gentry built Coastal
48 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Figure 29, Barn

Figure 30, Corncrib

Figure 31, Caretaker’s Cottage
The Low Country Coastal Cottage and Snee Farm, 1828-1941 49

Cottages on plantations throughout the low country in the first decades of the nineteenth century.

Architectural features found at the main house at Snee Farm, such as the side-gabled roof, fullwidth front porch, Georgian plan, and neoclassical ornamentation, are characteristic of Coastal

Cottages throughout the region.

The caretaker’s cottage and barn, built during the Ewing period of ownership, and the

corncrib possibly dating from the Hamlin ownership period, contribute to the significance of the

site by providing an understanding of the twentieth-century uses of Snee Farm as an agricultural

property and a vacation home.

INTEGRITY OF THE HISTORIC RESOURCES

The main house at Snee Farm retains most elements of integrity. Location, materials, and

workmanship have not been altered since the house was completed circa 1828, and invoke

feelings and associations appropriate to a nineteenth-century Coastal Cottage. The setting is

partly rural with only remnants of agricultural landscape. A cluster of houses recently constructed south of the site is the most significant disruption of the historic scene. The design,

which was altered with the addition of two rear

wings, retains the distinctive qualities that define a

low country Coastal Cottage. The additions are

set back from the south facade, minimizing their

visual impact on the front and sides of the house.

The outbuildings, including the

caretaker’s cottage, the barn, and the corncrib,

all possess sufficient integrity of materials, design,

setting, and location and are eligible for listing on

the National Register of Historic Places. The

integrity of the caretaker’s cottage has been

compromised by deterioration of its fabric due to

overgrown vegetation and pest infestation.

However, it still possesses its major characterdefining features and is eligible for the National

Register.

Figure 32, Cenotaph
50 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Contributing Resources

Main House, circa 1828, rear additions, 1936-1941.

Caretaker’s Cottage, 1936

Barn, 1944

Corncrib, circa 1910

Noncontributing Resources

Cenotaph, 1949-1968 (managed as a cultural resource)

Rest Rooms/Visitor Contact, 1994

Curatorial Storage, 1996
The Low Country Coastal Cottage and Snee Farm, 1828-1941 51

Notes

1 William P. Baldwin, Jr., Plantations of the Low Country (Greensboro, NC: Legacy Publications, 1985), 33-39,

45-46; Roger G. Kennedy, Architecture, Men, Women and Money in America, 1600-1860 (New York:

Random House, 1985), 45-46, 55.

2 Baldwin, 45-46.

3 Historic Resources of the Lowcountry (Yemassee, SC: Lowcountry Council of Governments, 1979), 63.

4 Historic Resources of the Lowcountry, 63, 95-97, 114; Baldwin, 45-46, 62-63, 99, 114.

5 Historic Resources of the Lowcountry, 96.

6 Samuel G. Stoney, Plantations of the Lowcountry (Charleston: Carolina Art Association, 1938), 80, 223;

Baldwin, 113-14.

7 Historic Resources of the Lowcountry, 63, 95-97, 114.

8 Kennedy, 45-46; George C. Rogers, Jr., Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys (Columbia: University of

South Carolina Press, 1980), 82.

9 Baldwin, Jr., 62-63.

10 Cotton became the predominant crop in South Carolina in the decades after the invention of the cotton

gin in 1793.

11 Buchanan, et. al., “Architectural Investigations at Snee Farm” (Friends of Snee Farm, 1991), 7. Style,

method of construction, and other physical evidence support the circa 1828 date of construction. Additionally, Mathews purchased the estate for $1,230 less than it cost the previous owner Francis G. Deliesseline,

suggesting that Mathews rather than Deliesseline built the existing house.

12 Historic American Building Survey, 9-10.

13 Plat Number 2354.

14 Plat Number 5564.

15 See Historic American Building Survey for complete building description and measured drawings.

16 The site which was originally entered from the south, is currently oriented to the north. The south

elevation of the main house was designed as the main front and will herein be described as the front

elevation of the house.
CHAPTER THREE: MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

The Southeast Regional Office, Cultural Resources Stewardship Division offers the following

management recommendations to help resource managers identify are as for further research,

expand existing programs, and maintain records related to historic cultural resources. These

management recommendations are a direct result of the program to update the List of Classified

Structures (LCS). Included are some preliminary recommendations for the management and

treatment of cultural resources that may require additional funding and which should be incorporated into the park’s Resource Management Plan and reflected in PMIS project statements.

The daily life of Charles Pinckney is somewhat of an enigma. In order to draw a more

complete picture of his life and try to determine how and when he used Snee Farm, a special

history study of Charles Pinckney is currently being undertaken by Marty Matthews of the

University of South Carolina. This study will comprehensively examine Charles Pinckney’s

correspondence, deeds, wills, estate inventories, and suits at law. It is recommended that this

study be published and made available to historians and researchers.

No collected edition of Charles Pinckney’s writings has ever been published. Although

Pinckney’s personal papers were destroyed in an 1861 fire, numerous pamphlets, speeches,

and letters are available in various published and unpublished sources. Collecting Pinckney’s

writings and making them available at the site would greatly benefit scholars and students. If

funds are available, publication of Pinckney’s collected writings should also be considered. A

preliminary bibliography of Pinckney writings is included in this document.

Up to fifty slaves lived on Snee Farm, and their contributions to the cultural and physical

landscape cannot be overstated. A special history study of Gullah culture and life ways is

necessary to gain a more complete understanding of the life of the slaves. This study, currently

underway, should be used to increase the interpretation of Gullah life at Snee Farm and the

contributions of African Americans to its success.
54 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

The site derives much of its

significance from the demonstrated in situ archeological

deposits associated with the

tenure of Charles Pinckney. The

park is in an exciting position to

demonstrate how archeology can

expand on the understanding of

history. The park should continue to expand upon its interpretation of these archeological sites

Figure 33, Intrepretation of archeological site

for park visitors.

As funding permits, additional archeological research should be conducted. There are a

number of other facilities that are expected to exist on a plantation of this size. Archeological

research could uncover these facilities, including a plant nursery, slave cook house, slave hospiFigure 34, View of Snee Farm
Management Recommendations 55

tal, spinning and weaving shop, dairy, stable, barns, blacksmith shop, storage facilities, and

livestock areas. Archeological research may also uncover specialized activity areas related to

indigo processing, animal husbandry, tobacco and cotton production, as well as other agricultural pursuits. Future excavations in the slave village and east yard have the potential to contribute to the understanding of the full context of everyday life for field slaves and house slaves.

Although the farm’s original 715 acres have been dramatically reduced to twenty-eight

acres, the farm still has integrity as an agricultural site. The views of the marshes and fields are

intact and appear largely the same as during Pinckney’s tenure. It is critical that these vistas be

maintained. Development in these areas should be avoided. Additionally, attempts should be

made to identify and reseed the fields with native grasses.

Rice cultivation was the underpinning of Pinckney’s wealth and the daily occupation for

many of the Snee Farm slaves. The existence of the levee is evidence of the dams and levees

that allowed the successful cultivation of the crop. A footpath to the levee should be cleared

and the levee should be interpreted.

Evidence indicates that the original marker or cenotaph to Colonel Pinckney erected at

Snee Farm in the 1780s was placed horizontally on the ground on a low brick platform. The

current replacement marker stands as a vertical tablet, which helps visitors understand that it is a

replacement. The original cenotaph is located at Christ Church, one quarter of a mile from Snee

Farm. Visitors should be encouraged to visit Christ Church to view the original cenotaph.

The presence in the Charleston area of NPS properties relating to the Revolutionary

War (Fort Moultrie), the early national period (Charles Pinckney), and the Civil War (Fort

Sumter) offers a unique interpretive opportunity. Charles Pinckney’s career forms a link between the ideals of the Revolutionary generation and those of the fire-eating secessionists of the

antebellum period. The South Carolinians who led their state out of the union in 1860 believed

themselves faithful to the republican principles of Jefferson, Charles Pinckney, and John C.

Calhoun. Methods of interpreting these linkages at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

should continue to be explored.
A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PINCKNEY WRITINGS

Observations on the Plan of Government Submitted to the Federal Convention, in

Philadelphia, on the 28th of May, 1787. New York: Francis Childs, [October] 1787. Reprinted in Max Farrand, ed. Records of the Federal Convention, vol. 3 (New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1966), 106-23.

Observations to Shew the Propriety of the Nomination of Colonel James Monroe to the

Presidency of the United States by the Caucus at Washington. Charleston, 1816.

Three Letters Addressed to the Public, on the Following Subjects: I. The Nature of a

Federal Union ... II. The Civil and Military Powers ... III. The Public Debt. [signed

Tullius] Philadelphia, 1783.

Three Letters, Written, and Originally Published under the Signature of a South Carolina

Planter: The First, on the Case of Jonathan Robbins; the Second, on the Recent Capture

of American Vessels by Britishers; the Third, on the Right of Expatriation. Philadelphia,

1799. Also published in Charleston as Three Letters, Addressed to the People of the United

States, Which have Lately Appeared under the Signature of “A South-Carolina Planter”.

.. On the Case of Jonathan Robbins ... On the Recent Captures of the British Cruisers ..

. On the Claims of the British Creditors. 1799. Available at Charleston Library Society,

pamphlet series 3, vol. 12.

Speeches of Charles Pinckney, Esq. in Congress; On the subject of having Impartial

Juries, by Lot, in all the Federal Courts. On the independence of the Judges in the same

Courts. On the exclusive Right of the State Legislatures, and under their direction, of the

People, to the Election of the President ... On the defined Privileges of Congress, and

the Liberty of the Press. And, On the Intercourse Bill with France. Philadelphia, 1800.

The first two are reprinted in Maeva Marcus, ed. The Documentary History of the Supreme

Court of the United States, 1789-1800. vol. 4 (New York: Columbia University Press, ),

621-27, 630-36. See also Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States,

Sixth Congress. Washington, D.C.: 1855.
58 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

Letters to Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe concerning 1800 presidential election. Reprinted in “South Carolina in the Presidential Election of 1800.” American Historical Review

4 (1898), 111-29.

Speech to New Jersey Legislature, March 16, 1786. “Account of a Deputation of Congress to

the Assembly of New Jersey.” American Museum 2 (1787): 153-60.

“Speech of Mr. Charles Pinckney .... at a very numerous Meeting of the Citizens of Charleston, the 22nd July, 1795.” In Henry Tuckniss, ed. The American Remembrancer; or, an

Impartial Collection of Essays, Resolves, Speeches, Etc. Relative, or Having Affinity to

the Treaty with Great Britain (Philadelphia, 1795), I.

Address in U.S. House of Representatives on Missouri Question. The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States ... 1789-1824, 42 vols. Washington, D.C., 1834-

56. 16th Cong., 2d sess., 1310-29, February 14, 1820. Reprinted in Niles Weekly Register,

July 15, 1820, 349-57.

Mr. Charles Pinckney’s Speech, In Answer to Mr. Jay ... on the Question of a Treaty with

Spain, Delivered in Congress, August 16, 1786. [New York?], 1786.

Speeches to South Carolina legislature and South Carolina Ratifying Convention. In Elliott,

Jonathan, ed. The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the

Federal Constitution. 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1861. Vol. 4, 253-63, 318-36. Reprint. Philadelphia, 1937.

“On the Election of the President of the United States.” A Series, by a Republican. [Charleston] City Gazette, August 28, September 3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 16, 18, 19, 22, 25, 26, 29, 30,

October 1, 3, 6, 14.

Messages of the Governors. Archives of South Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina.

Forty-five letters from Pinckney to Robert R. Livingston, written 1801-1805 while Pinckney

was minister to Spain. Robert R. Livingston Papers. New-York Historical Society.

Letters of Pinckney to Secretary of State James Madison and to Spanish officials. American

State Papers, Foreign Relations. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.
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Bancroft, George. History of the United States. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1896.

Berlin, Ira. Many Thousand Gone, The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972, 1979.

Brant, Irving. James Madison: Father of the Constitution, 1780-1800. Indianapolis: Bobbs

Merrill Company, 1950.

Brockington and Associates. “Archeological Data Recovery at Long Point Plantation.” Atlanta:

Brockington and Associates, 1991.

Brockington, Paul E. Jr., Linda F. Stone, and Connie M. Huddleston. Searching for the Slave

village at Snee Farm Plantation: The 1987 Archeological Investigations. Atlanta:

Brockington and Associates, 1994.

Brugger, Robert J., et al., eds. The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State, vol. 1.

Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1986.

Buchanan, P., B. Herman, O. Rideout, V. E. Tolson, and M. Wenger. “Architectural Investigations at Snee Farm.” Friends of Snee Farm, 1991.

Carney, Judith A. “The Role of African Rice and Slaves in the History of Rice Cultivation in the

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Carney, Judith A. “Rice Milling, Gender and Slave Labor in Colonial South Carolina.” Past and

Present 156 (November 1996): 108-34.

Chaplin, Joyce E. “Tidal Rice Cultivation and the Problem of Slavery in South Carolina and

Georgia, 1760-1815.” William and Mary Quarterly 49 (January 1992): 29-61.

Charleston County Deed Book, Plat #2355 and #5564.

Charleston County Report Book, 27 April 1808-7 March 1818: 398-99.

Coclanis, Peter A. “Bitter Harvest: The South Carolina Low Country in Historical Perspective.”

Journal of Economic History 45 (June 1985): 251-59.

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Among the Gullah. New York: New York University Press, 1988.

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60 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

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Haven: Yale University Press, 1966.

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62 Charles Pinckney National Historic Site: Historic Resource Study

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APPENDIX A: HISTORICAL BASE MAP