The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-09-14
Plantation Days
In Old Beaufort
(By n. L. Willet.)

(By N. L. Willet.)
Than the South Carolina coast no
section in the United States has been
so ravaged by wars, actually i've IN
number. The earliest was waged by
the Spanish. Then came the contin-
ued wars with the Indians which
ended by the expulsion Of the Yem-
assoc tribe of Indians about 1907.
Along in 1882 came the war with
ENGLAND il which Deveaux in his
march from Charleston to Savannah
ravaged the country. At Sheldon he
burned Sheldon Hall and Sheldon
church. The slave negroes fiocked
to him in immense numbers and were
great nuisance, but, the British
profted by carrying them away in
ships and selling into foreign ports
some three thousand of them. I'M
mense numbers swan out and clung
to the departing ships, but their
hands were chopped off and they were
lost in the seas. In the very begin
ming of our late civil war Beaufort.
Port Royal and Hilton Head and
practically Beaufort county were cap
tured by the northern army. The
white planters left hurriedly never
to return, and their lands were con-
fscated' and given to negroes, ten to
fifteen acres each. Some thousands
of these little homes and holdings
are still held by negroes. At the
end Of the war Sherman's army de-
vastated this Carolina coast country,
burning practically every building
within it's range, among them being
the rebuilt Sheldon Parish church.
Parish System Established.
About 1907, Granville, now Beau
fort county, after the expulsion of
the Yemassees, was offered to set
tiers and heavy bounties were paid
to protestant white men and white
boys. Roman Catholics were pro-
hibited and to prevent further i'm
portation of negroes heavy duty
was imposed upon them. Several
years previous to 1907, an act was
passed which established the pecul-
lar parish system of South Carolina,
which lasted for about one hundred
and fifty years, out Of which grew
the Prince William Parish at Shell
don and the st. Helena Parish around
Beaufort.
Much Cattle Raised.
Along in 1852 we are told, that
the South Carolina coast climate was
healthy and that Indians there grew
to an old age. The soil was fertile,
even sandy soils bringing good corn.
In 1851 many plantations held sew
en- to eight hundred head Of cattle
each. These cattle were free from dis
ease and in winter, it is said, they
were not "pinched" because they
could feed out in the open all the
year. Land was cheap, something like
dollar an acre in our currency to-
day. About 100 some plantations
carried as many as thousand head
of cattle and hogs we're owned in
greatest abundance, these hogs row
ing wild and living off nuts and roots
and several types of bulbs called
Wampee. In the swamps large num-
bers Of beasts roved wild and boun-
ties were placed on the skins of wolf,
panther, bear and wild cat. Every
farmer hired an Indian hunter to
provide game, one hunter easily fur
nishing the year around wild meats
for thirty persons. An Indian could
easily kill from one hundred to two
hundred deer alone in year. Bears
were very common. One pound of
the money of the province was equal
to four pounds today, or one pound
in those days equal to about twenty |
dollars of today. The hire of the |
above Indian hunter was twenty dol
lars a year.
Silk Worm Culture.
The Huguenots had tried out silk |
culture and had failed in it, but in |
1907 Nathaniel Johnson, Of st. |
Thomas Parish, is credited with max
ing seven or eight thousand dollars |
a year out Of silk alone, and many |
plantations made seven or eight |
hundred dollars each year without |
reducing their other work. The ne
gro children fed the silk worms. Silk |
worms were fed on mulberry trees
which grew spontaneously in great
out in the woods. This silk |
1uoe 1arpo1v oynorted to ENGLAND A.