South Carolina (part 2)

This is MJ at midnight after a long "hard" day with a burnt Rudolph nose and red forehead. I shouldn't admit this, but I was too tired to change, so I collapsed on the bed with my clothes and earrings on and fell asleep with the light on from sheer exhaustion. :)



In the morning I had a change of plans and decided to check out the Boone Plantation before leaving South Carolina. I thought the plantation would look exactly as it did in the 1800's, with large cotton fields, operational cotton gins, bricklaying, and bright beautiful colors. I guess things change after a Civil War and a couple hundred years...

This is the driveway to the plantation made of oak trees that are over 200 years old and Spanish moss. Forrest Gump was going to be here, but they chose a different plantation so he wouldn't have to run so far down the lane. However, scenes from The Notebook, Queens, and North and South were all filmed here.





They did leave a small patch of cotton plants to show those of us touring what they look like. The brick building show below being supported by wood is the old cotton gin. On the tour, I learned that the "gin" actually stands for "engine". :) I also thought it interesting that the bricklaying made a lot more money than the cotton did, since the term "cotton" and "plantation" often go hand in hand.





This is the plantation home and the gardens on the sides. Someone lives there, so even though we were able to tour the bottom floor of the house, we couldn't take pictures. Nothing special to take pictures of though. Sort of reminds me of the homes from Pride and Prejudice. My buddy Chris pointed out just last week that Encyclopedia Brittanica is now out of print thanks to the wonderful digital age. Therefore, I had to share with you all that they still have an 1800 first edition of Encyclopedia Brittanica. :) Oh yes, one more piece of trivia that I found fascinating! The woman giving the house tour (who inevitably was wearing a long pink dress) told us that although it was perfectly alright to expose your cleavage, it was forbidden for women to expose their ankles! (To all you guys out there... Do you find ankles seductive?) And keeping in mind this was before the modern day stoves with good ventilation, it was actually against the law to have a kitchen in the home (fire hazard) so they cooked everything outside.







They gave tours around the plantation that reminded me of hayrides in the fall (without the hay). The first picture below is the salt water river/marsh that showed up in The Notebook (the scene where Noah jumped in the water from the boat). On the other side of the marsh was a freshwater pond covered in pollen.





The Boone Plantation used close to 200 African American slaves, also known as Gullah. The house slaves (housekeepers, cooks, nannies) were able to sleep in red brick cabins behind the Avenue of the Oaks. All the other laborers (e.g., bricklayers and cotton pickers) had to sleep in tents outside by where they worked. The slaves were chosen when they were only SIX years old! In part that's because they didn't live that long from exposure to the elements and non-stop hard labor. It's also because kids listen to you when they are still young. The older you get, the harder it is to convince them what is "best" for them (not to mention they become stronger and more defient with age). The slaves also brought their skills with them from Africa on the boat. This included intricate basketweaving.









They first made cotton, and then started to replace the cotton with pecan trees.



There were over 700 acres to the Plantation that were farmed. Most of that, once let go, became forest over time. Current staff use about 80 acres to plant strawberries, corn, pumpkin, and other crops. The big empty field is a polo field and although they still have polo ponies that graze there, they also use that space as a parking lot for big events. Notice the purple wisteria in the trees. That lined the trail of the forests and had a beautiful fragrance!