Rice Culture In South Carolina

1. Rice Culture In South Carolina Part of A Presentation for Georgetown School District by Carol Poole and Becky Dingle November 2004

3. The Introduction Of Rice Culture Rice is a delicious food that many people in America love to eat, but it has not always been a part of our diet. Rice culture originated in the hot, wet regions of Asia and was introduced by travelers who had been to that part of the world. It is fairly certain that rice was brought to this country by slaves from West Africa but other possibilities exist.

4. Rice Culture Moves Over The Sea No one knows for certain when the first rice came to America, but rice culture was almost unknown in Europe before the Africans were being brought to America. Travelers from Asia probably introduced rice into Africa and the Africans developed a rice culture many centuries ago.

6. Rice Comes To America After people developed a taste for this new delicious and nutritious food crop, many landowners wanted to try to grow it here. People from West Africa had long grown rice successfully and slave ships soon began combing the shores of Africa in search of people to help bring rice culture to America. Those African people came as slaves and a long, sad chapter in American history began.

11. Each Plantation Became Like A Kingdom, Including *waterways, rice fields, slave villages, gardens, and roads *ruled over by the planter, a king in his own right, with his sons as his dynasty. Marriages were among close family in order to keep the power and wealth in the family *his subjects were the slaves, overseers, field hands, artisans, children, and parents, young and old alike

13. Benefits Of The Kingdom Were Not Equally Shared By All�. The landowners were among the wealthiest people in the world at that time The workers worked with little gain and no hope of freedom The rice culture could only exist under the institution of slavery When slavery was abolished the rice kingdom eventually died too

17. At The Height Of The Rice Empire, Three Local Planters Were Among The Wealthiest Men In The World� Plowden C. J. Weston � Hagley Plantation on the Waccamaw River (link #1) John Hyrne Tucker � Willbrook and Litchfield Plantations (link #2) Joshua John Ward- the richest of them all � owned six plantations, totaling more than 10,000 acres, the largest slaveholder in the United States, possessing more than 1100 slaves (link #3) After reading Links 1-3, go to Link #4

20. Not Everyone Agreed With This View

21. Differing Perspectives�. If you were a rice planter you would see the process of growing rice differently than those who did the labor. Go to Link #5 to discuss how both sides might have felt about rice growing and the necessity of the slave culture. Remember that the people who would be presenting the opinions on this topic lived in different times than you do.

22. Now that you have seen the different perspectives, take a look at this: It was by slavery that the rice empire flourished. When slavery died, so did the empire. Waccamaw Neck formed the center of slavery in South Carolina. In 1860 Georgetown County recorded the largest slave population in America. Of nearly 21,000 residents of Georgetown County in 1860, more than 18,000 (85 %) were slaves. Defenders of slavery argued that their slaves fared better than if they were in sweat shops and factories in the North or in England. Before any changes could be made the War Between The States began.

23. The End Of An Age� Many of the big houses of the rice plantations have disappeared, or fallen into ruins. The land has been bought up by developers and made into fancy resorts for visitors or exclusive housing developments. The tourists of today speed down Highway 17 through Waccamaw Neck on their way to the beach, completely unaware of the former glory of the region that has now been swallowed by time and nature.

26. Now, you decide�. What is the most important lesson that you can learn from the story of rice culture in Georgetown County and in all of the American South? Go to Link #5 for a quick assessment.