HAMPTON PLANTATION
STATE HISTORIC SITE
Hampton Plantation
1950 Rutledge Road
McClellanville, SC 29458
Phone: (843) 546-9361
Fax: (843) 527-4995
Hampton Plantation is the site of a large antebellum rice plantation. Settled by French
Huguenots in the mid 1700s, Hampton was inhabited and operated by some of the most
prominent S.C. families. The centerpiece of the 322-acre park is a thirteen-room mansion
house, which stands as a monument to historic European architectural styles and the labor
of enslaved Africans. Rice fields, Plantation gardens, and adjacent forests and swamps
make Hampton an excellent learning environment for the study of Lowcountry history.
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Hampton Plantation: Pre-Site
Content Area:
History
Grade Level:
5
what was about to change in the lives of
those living in the Lowcountry. Students will
also examine first-person accounts of life
after the war and will compare and contrast
the lives of a former slave and a former
slave owner.
Time to Complete:
90 minutes
1. What were some of the challenges facing both the former slaves and their former
masters?
Title of Program:
40 Acres and a Mule
2. Why was the Freedmen’s Bureau formed
and was it successful?
3. What were the pros and cons to sharecropping/tenant farming?
South Carolina State Standards Addressed
5-1.2 - Summarize the provisions of the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Amendments to the Constitution, including
how the amendments protected the rights
of African Americans and sought to enhance their political, social, and economic
opportunities.
5-1.3 - Explain the effects of Reconstruction
on African Americans, including their new
rights and restrictions, their motivations to
relocate to the North and West, and the actions of the Freedman’s Bureau.
4. How did life change for the former
slaves? How did it stay the same?
Culmination Assessment
See post-site activities.
Materials and Equipment
• Excerpt from Sherman’s Special Field
Order and accompanying questions.
• First-person accounts of life after the
Civil War and accompanying questions.
Hampton Plantation: Pre-Site
Focus Questions
5-1.4 - Compare the economic and social
effects of Reconstruction on different populations, including the move from farms to
factories and the change from the plantation system to sharecropping.
Program Description
This program will introduce the importance
of the Reconstruction Era (1866-1877) and
will examine why Sherman’s Special Field
Order was important in setting the tone for
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Sherman’s Special Field Order
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Hampton Plantation: Pre-Site
As Union soldiers advanced through the South, tens of thousands of freed
slaves left their plantations to follow Union general William Tecumseh Sherman’s army.
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To solve problems caused by the mass of refugees, Sherman issued Special
Field Orders, No. 15, a temporary plan granting each freed family forty acres
of tillable land on islands and the coast of Georgia. The army had a number
of unneeded mules which were also granted to settlers.
News of “forty acres and a mule” spread quickly; freed slaves welcomed it as
proof that emancipation would finally give them a stake in the land they had
worked as slaves for so long.
The orders were in effect for only one year.
In the Field, Savannah, Georgia, January 16, 1865:
Special Field Orders, No. 15.
I. The islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice fields along
the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering
the St. Johns River, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement
of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation
of the President of the United States.
II. At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine and
Jacksonville, the blacks may remain in their chosen or accustomed
vocations -- but on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to be established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers
detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and exclusive
management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves, subject only to the United States military authority and the acts of Congress.
By the laws of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the
Negro is free and must be dealt with as such. He cannot be subjected
to conscription or forced military service, save by the written orders of
the highest military authority of the Department, under such regulations
as the President or Congress may prescribe. Domestic servants, blacksmiths, carpenters and other mechanics will be free to select their own
work and residence, but the young and able-bodied Negroes must be
encouraged to enlist as soldiers in the service of the United States, to
contribute their share towards maintaining their own freedom, and
securing their rights as citizens of the United States. Sherman’s Special Field Order
(continued)
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–Excerpt taken from Reconstruction: The Second Civil War
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/)
Questions for Sherman’s Special Field Order:
Why was the Special Field Order given?
How long was it in effect?
What was Sherman trying to do?
Who would be in charge of these settlements?
Hampton Plantation: Pre-Site
Negroes so enlisted will be organized into companies, battalions and
regiments, under the orders of the United States military authorities,
and will be paid, fed and clothed according to law. The bounties paid
on enlistment may, with the consent of the recruit, go to assist his family
and settlement in procuring agricultural implements, seed, tools, boots,
clothing, and other articles necessary for their livelihood.
What type of service did they order, or “encourage”, the freedmen to join?
What types of types of things were they not given in this order?
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Francis Butler Leigh Reading
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Hampton Plantation: Pre-Site
Excerpt from Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation Since the War, Frances Butler
Leigh:
“The year after the war between the North and the South, I went to the
South with my father to look after our property in Georgia and see what
could be done with it. The whole country had of course undergone a complete revolution. The changes that a four years’ war must bring about in
any country would alone have been enough to give a different aspect to
everything; but at the South, besides the changes brought about by the war,
our slaves had been freed; the white population was conquered, ruined
and disheartened, unable for the moment to see anything but ruin before
as well as behind, too wedded to the fancied prosperity of the old system to
believe in any possible success under the new….
We had, before leaving the North, received two letters from Georgia, one
from an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the other from one of our
neighbors, both stating very much the same thing, which was that our
former slaves had all returned to the island (Butler Island), and were willing and ready to work for us, but refused to engage themselves to anyone
else, even to their liberators, the Yankees; but that they were very badly
off; short of provisions, and would starve if something were not done for
them at once, and unless my father came directly (so wrote the agent of the
Freedmen’s Bureau), the Negroes would be removed and made to work
elsewhere. On Wednesday, when my father returned, he reported that he
had found the Negroes all on the place, not only those who were there
five years ago, but many who were sold three years before that. Seven had
worked their way back from the up country. They received him very affectionately, and made an agreement with him to work for one half the crop,
which agreement it remained to be seen if they would keep. Owing to our
coming so late, only a small crop could be planted, enough to make seed
for another year and clear expenses…Most of the finest plantations were
lying idle for want of hands to work them, so many of the Negroes had
died; 17,000 deaths were recorded by the Freedmen’s Bureau alone. Many
had been taken to the South-west, and others preferred hanging about the
towns, making a few dollars now and then, to working regularly on the
plantations…”
Questions for the Francis Butler Leigh reading:
Why was Francis returning to her father’s plantation?
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Francis Butler Leigh Reading
(continued)
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Who had told them to return?
How were the two women alike in their reaction to life after the war? How were
they different?
Hampton Plantation: Pre-Site
Why had their former slaves returned to their former master?
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Violet Guntharpe Reading
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Violet Guntharpe, Age 82, when interviewed by W.W. Dixon in Winnsboro, S.C.
Hampton Plantation: Pre-Site
“I was born a slave in the Rocky Mount part of Fairfield County, up close to
Great Falls. I hear them falls a-roaring now, and I see them waters flashing
in the sunshine when I close my eyes.
My pappy name Robert and my mammy name Phyllis. They belong to
the old-time aristocrats, the Gaither family….Marster Richard was a good
marster to his slaves, though he took no foolishness and worked you from
sun to sun. ‘Spect him had about ten family of slaves and about fifty big
and little slaves altogether on that plantation before them Yankees come
and make a mess out of their lives.
Honey, us wasn’t ready for the big change that come. Us had no education, no land, no mule, no cow, not a pig, nor a chicken, to set up housekeeping. The birds had nests in the air, the foxes had holes in the ground,
and the fishes had beds under the great falls, but us colored folks was left
without any place to lay our heads.
The Yankees sure throwed us in the briar patch, but us not bred and born
there like the rabbit. Us born in a good log house. The cows was down
there in the canebrakes to give us milk; the hogs was fattening on hickory
nuts, acorns, and shucked corn to give us meat and grease; the sheep with
their wool and the cotton in the gin house was there to give us clothes. The
horses and mules was there to help that corn and cotton, but when them
Yankees come and take all that away, all us had to thank them for, was a
hungry belly and Freedom. Something us had no more use for then, than I
have today for one of them airplanes, I hears flying around in the sky right
now.
Well, after ravaging the whole countryside, the army got across the Catawba and left the air full of stink of dead carcasses and the sky black with turkey buzzards. The white women was weeping in hushed voices, the niggers
on the place not knowing what to do next, and the pickaninnies sucking
their thumbs for want of something to eat. Mind you ‘twas wintertime too.
Lots of the chillun die, as did the old folks, while the rest of us scour the
woods for hickory nuts, acorns, cane roots, and artichokes, and seine the
river for fish. The worst nigger men and women follow the army. The balance settle down with the white folks and simmer in their misery all through
the springtime, till plums, mulberries, and blackberries come and the shad
come up the Catawba River….”
–Excerpt taken from Before Freedom: When I Just Can Remember
Edited by Belinda Hurmence
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Violet Guntharpe Reading
(continued)
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Questions for the Violet Guntharpe reading:
Why did Violet feel that the freed slaves were not ready for their freedom?
Why do you think she thought that the worst men and women followed the
army?
Hampton Plantation: Pre-Site
Violet talks about the devastation that the army left behind. Was she talking
about the Union or Confederate armies or both? Who did this affect? Why?
Did her opinion on freedom surprise you? Why? Why do you think she felt like
she did?
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Hampton Plantation: On-Site
Content Area:
History
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
Grade Level:
5
Time to Complete:
1 hour and 30 minutes
Title of Program:
40 Acres and a Mule
South Carolina State Standards Addressed
5-1.2 - Summarize the provisions of the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Amendments to the Constitution, including
how the amendments protected the rights
of African Americans and sought to enhance their political, social, and economic
opportunities.
5-1.3 - Explain the effects of Reconstruction
on African Americans, including their new
rights and restrictions, their motivations to
relocate to the North and West, and the actions of the Freedman’s Bureau.
5-1.4 - Compare the economic and social
effects of Reconstruction on different populations, including the move from farms to
factories and the change from the plantation system to sharecropping.
Program Description
This program will discuss the advantages
and disadvantages of the Reconstruction
Era (1866-1877) and how it impacted the
lives of the former slaves and their owners.
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This program will examine how Reconstruction forever changed the lives of those who
had once been dependent on the rise and
decline of the rice market and those who
were made successful from it. It will also
look at how this era specifically affected
those living at Hampton Plantation. Students will be engaged in hands-on activities
that will give them a better understanding
of what challenges were faced by the freed
slaves and their families.
Focus Questions
1. What were some of the challenges facing both the former slaves and their former
masters?
2. Why was the Freedmen’s Bureau formed
and was it successful?
3. What were the pros and cons to sharecropping/tenant farming?
4. How did life change for the former
slaves? How did it stay the same?
Culmination Assessment
See post-site activities.
Materials and Equipment
•
•
•
•
•
Amendment cards
Black and white pictures
Mortar/pestle
Rice
Life on the Plantation after the War and
all necessary pieces
Procedures
I. Introduction and Welcome (Parking Lot)
1. Your Name
2. Safety Issues
3. Divide into groups if necessary
II. What is Reconstruction and how did it
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
acres of abandoned or confiscated
land to black settlers.
3. The greatest success was in
education - an estimated 200,000
African Americans were taught how
to read.
a. Zion School in Charleston
b. Northern men and women
came south to teach
c. Freedmen and women educated each other
4. What were some of the downsides? Why did it fail?
a. Not enough government support.
b. Didn’t give out much land
c. Corruption in the system
- often worked with the former
plantation owners rather than the
freedmen. Gone by 1872.
V. Problems with freedom (Washington
Oak)
A. Illness - smallpox, malaria
B. Lack of provisions - no money to pay
them wages
C. Lack of housing - some continued to
live in former cabins. Some moved to
abandoned houses and lands. Some
literally moved their houses off their old
land and rebuilt elsewhere.
D. Black Codes
1. Were created to eliminate/restrict
freedom. Tried to recreate the idea
of slavery.
E. President Andrew Johnson decided
to revoke the Field Order and give
land back to white owners who took the
oath of loyalty.
1. Why? He was trying to “reunite”
the North and South
2. His order forced freedmen off
land and gave much control back to
the former owners.
3. No alternative except to go to
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
impact the lives of those living in the North
and South? (Picnic area)
A. The era following the American Civil
War (1865-1877), when the Southern
states were joined with the Northern
states to once again form the United
States of America.
B. Who did it affect? Everyone - black
and white, male and female, rich and
poor.
C. The Emancipation Proclamation
(1863) declared “forever free” the
slaves in the Confederate states still in
rebellion.
D. The 13th , 14th, 15th AmendmentsJanuary 31, 1865 (use cards).
III. Life After the War for the Freed Slaves
(Oak Trees behind Rest Station)
A. Give them what they want most after
their freedom - LAND!!!
1. How did they get that land?
a. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15
b. Finding abandoned land
- moving to sea islands and
coastal regions; old, abandoned
plantations
c. South Carolina Land Commission
1. Established to finance the
redistribution of land to freedmen.
2. From 1868 to1879, 4,000
titles were transferred from
white families to black families.
1V. The Freedmen’s Bureau (Washington
Oak)
A. Why was the Bureau established?
1. To help give the new freedmen
rights and to provide food, clothing
and education both to the freedmen
and white refugees.
2. It was authorized to give up to 40
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Hampton Plantation: On-Site
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
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work to earn money and most had
to work for former owners.
VI. Sharecropping vs. Tenant Farming
(Area around Kitchen Building)
Different or the same as Slavery? (Use cards
with definitions)
A. Sharecropping - literally shared what
they grew with the plantation owner
B. Tenant/Renter - paid for house/land
with labor, cash or crop
C. Northerners introduced idea of
Contract Labor - determined on paper
exactly what would happen.
1. Supposed to be overseen by
agent of Freedmen’s Bureau
2. White landowner not happy to be
negotiating with former slaves but
no alternative - must have workers in
the field to get crop planted.
3. Many of the freedmen/women
now refused to do much of the
labor that they had been forced to
do before. For example, they might
harvest the rice but would not work
in fields after that to clean up.
4. Many only signed contracts
because they did not have food and
rations that were promised by landowners.
VII. Life at Hampton Plantation after Freedom (Kitchen Building)
(Do Activity 1/Life on the Plantation –mortar, pestle, fanner baskets, container)
A. Land was being used for different
things.
1. Turpentine and timber - especially the younger freedmen
2. Cash crops by Henry Middleton
Rutledge - Rice, Cotton, Tobacco
3. Other crops that they could eat
- corn, potatoes,
4. Raised cattle for meat - as well as
sheep, hogs and chickens
5. Former slaves helped with all
these areas
B. How did freedom directly affect
where the former slaves lived?
1. Some moved away completely.
2. Some moved their homes down
the road to be close enough to work
but far enough away to not live on
former plantation (Germantown)
3. Rutledge family did employ many
of their former slaves in permanent
positions:
a. Henry Snyder - plantation
foreman
b. William Snyder - chief deer
driver
c. Martha - plantation Cook
d. Will Alston- woodcutter and
general handyman
e. Galboa - plantation fisherman and hunter
f. Judy Moultrie- washerwoman
g. Prince Alston – Archibald
Rutledge’s foreman
h. Sue Alston – Rutledge’s plantation cook
i. Steve Boykin – Rutledge’s
woodcutter
j. Gabriel Myers – Rutledge’s
handyman
1. Question - why were these
different jobs important?
VIII. Conclusion (Mansion)
A. How did Reconstruction succeed or
fail? What should have been done differently? (Listen for responses).
B. Frederick Douglass quote – abolitionist publisher, ex-slave (1817-1895):
“Though slavery was abolished, the
wrongs of my people were not ended.
Though they were not slaves, they were
not yet quite free. No man can be truly
free whose liberty is dependent upon
the thought, feeling, and action of others, and who has himself no means in
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
his own hands for guarding, protecting,
defending and maintaining that liberty.
Yet, the Negro after his emancipation
was precisely in this state of destitution…He was free from the individual
master, but the slave of society. He had
neither money, property nor friends. He
was free from the old plantation, but he
had nothing but the dusty road under his
feet. He was free from the old quarter
that once gave him shelter, but a slave
to the rains of summer and the frosts
of winter. He was, in a word, literally
turned loose, naked, hungry, and destitute, to the open sky.”
IX. Stations 2-4 Life after Slavery game
(Picnic Shelter)
You will need the two containers of
items that are kept in the plantation
kitchen.
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Life on the Plantation After Freedom
Objective:
Encourage students to better understand the struggles the former slaves
faced and to recognize the challenges that freedom brought.
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
Method:
As students travel to different “stations” that are set up around the plantation, they will have hands-on activities or situations that will require them
to use the information that they’ve learned both on the plantation and
through prior classroom learning to solve the questions and situations.
Station 1: Receive a labor contract/pound/fan rice
Station 2: What are your living arrangements? How do you support yourself?
Station 3: What are the restrictions that are facing the sharecroppersblack codes, etc.?
Station 4: It’s the end of the work week. How are you paid- and what do
you spend it on?
Each station will have a card with a scenario, a task or situation, and photographs.
Have students work in groups of 5-7.
Station 1: (Behind Kitchen Building)
The year is 1866 and the war has been over for almost a year. Your
name is William and you have served the Rutledge family faithfully
for many years.
You are now free to work where you want to, but you don’t have any
money, so you stay on the plantation to work for your former master.
The plantation owner is still growing some rice, as well as cotton
and tobacco and wants you to help plant, harvest and process these
crops. Money is tight and machines still don’t work well in the rice
fields. You will still have to do much of this work by hand.
Read the copy of the contract drawn up by the Freedmen’s Bureau.
Pound 1 cupful of rice. Fan the pounded rice and save this rice in
the container. Examine the cotton and tobacco samples as well.
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Life on the Plantation After Freedom
Station 2: (Picnic Shelter)
To supplement what you’re given to eat by Mr. Rutledge, you have a
small garden behind your house.
Examine the supply of seeds that are given to you and determine what
you want to plant in your own garden. Remember, you will have to eat
what you plant, and you might be able to sell what you don’t eat, so
choose carefully. Record on the paper what you’ve chosen and why.
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
You’ve just completed your work day at Hampton helping Colonel Rutledge harvest his small crop of cotton and rice. You’ve come home to
the house that was built for you, but you do not own it or the land that it
sits on. After the war, you were promised 40 acres and a mule, but you
still don’t own any land or any animals except for a few chickens out
back. Your house is made of scraps of wood that were salvaged from
the old slave cabins that once stood on the plantation.
You have enough food leftover that you sell some of what you’ve grown
to Colonel Rutledge. He pays you 50 cents for your potatoes and $3 for
the fish that you caught.
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Life on the Plantation After Freedom
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
Station 3: (Picnic Shelter)
Although your work day is done, you’re not entirely free to leave the
plantation. There are laws and restrictions that make it difficult for
you to enjoy your new freedom. The South Carolina government has
passed a law that says you cannot sell anything without written permission from your employer or a district judge, nor can you leave the plantation without permission.
You’re allowed to hunt some of the animals in the woods, such as wildcats, foxes and raccoons. In addition to eating the meat, you plan to
sell the furs for money.
After hunting for the local deer with Colonel Rutledge, he has asked
you to take the furs into town to sell them. He has to first give you a
note that will allow you to leave the plantation. Read the note. Does
this seem fair? Why do you think the freedmen and women were so
restricted?
Activity: Read the different cards. Some are slave codes and some are
black codes. Place the magnetic pieces under their appropriate columns on the white board. Be careful - some might be harder than you
think!
You sell the furs to a man in McClellanville and make a profit of 75
cents. You also sell the furs from the foxes that you caught earlier and
make a profit of $4.
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Life on the Plantation After Freedom
Station 4: (Picnic Shelter)
There is a store called Bonnie’s Barn down the road where you can buy
things for yourself, and you can also buy things on credit. This can add
greatly to your debt, so spend wisely. You will have to pay this bill at the
end of the month.
What can you buy with the extra money that you have made? Look
at the items on the table and decide what you would like to buy from
Bonnie’s Barn.
How many of each do you want and do you want to spend all your
money now or save some for the future? Remember you have $8.25 to
spend. Record on the paper what you are buying and why you think it’s
important.
Hampton Plantation: On-Site
It’s Saturday afternoon and you’ve finished your work week. Colonel
Rutledge is giving you a weekly ration (food grown on the plantation)
for your hard work. You’ve also made $8.25 during the week from the
extra things that the colonel allows you to do and sell. Your rent is paid
for by your Saturday labor on the plantation, and you have been given
some food from the plantation supplies.
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Hampton Plantation: Post-Site
Hampton Plantation: Post-Site
Content Area:
History
Grade Level:
5
Time to Complete:
90 minutes
Title of Program:
40 Acres and a Mule
South Carolina State Standards Addressed
5-1.2 - Summarize the provisions of the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Amendments to the Constitution, including
how the amendments protected the rights
of African Americans and sought to enhance their political, social, and economic
opportunities.
5-1.3 - Explain the effects of Reconstruction
on African Americans, including their new
rights and restrictions, their motivations to
relocate to the North and West, and the actions of the Freedman’s Bureau.
5-1.4 - Compare the economic and social
effects of Reconstruction on different populations, including the move from farms to
factories and the change from the plantation system to sharecropping.
Program Description
This program will help to conclude the
lesson on the Reconstruction Era and will
provide the students with a closer look at
how the desire for education affected the
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newly freed slaves, both young and old.
It will allow students to compare/contrast
the schools of today with the schools of the
late 19th century. Finally, this program will
encourage students to research and discuss
other aspects of this period of history and
present what they’ve learned to their teacher and fellow students.
Focus Questions
1. What were some of the challenges facing both the former slaves and their former
masters?
2. Why was the Freedmen’s Bureau formed
and was it successful?
3. What were the pros and cons to sharecropping/tenant farming?
4. How did life change for the former
slaves? How did it stay the same?
Culmination Assessment
See post-site activities.
Materials and Equipment
• Picture/information on the Zion School,
Charleston.
• Booker T. Washington quote and activity.
Zion School for Colored Children
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“After the war, many missionaries and teachers moved South to work with
the freedmen. In most cases, the missionaries and teachers were Northern
whites. Harper’s correspondent A.R. Waud sketched a picture of the Zion
School, a Charleston school for black children. He notes the Zion School
was unusual in that the entire staff was black. The school was organized by
the Old School Presbyterian Church in December 1865.
Hampton Plantation: Post-Site
Zion School for Colored Children
Zion School, the last of the Charleston area schools opened and maintained by Northern philanthropists, had 850 black children enrolled and an
average attendance of 720. The staff of teachers numbered 13. Shown
in the illustration is the school principal and teacher, Mr. Van Horn of New
Jersey.
In his report to Harper’s, Waud writes, “Although the Southern People seem
generally opposed to the education of the negroes, still, if they must have
it, they prefer to see colored people in charge of their own race to having
Northern whites as teachers.”
–Image and text taken from Secession to Siege, by Douglas W. Bostick.
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Zion School for Colored Children
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Questions for Zion School for Colored Children Picture:
Hampton Plantation: Post-Site
Who taught the students at the Zion School?
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Where was the school located? Why was this location important?
Who organized the school and in what year was it started?
How many students went to the Zion school?
Why might the former plantation owners be against educating their former
slaves?
Be the Teacher
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Booker T. Washington quote:
–Excerpt from Bury Me Not in the Land of Slaves: Educating the Freedmen,
by Joyce Hanson.
Post-site Activity: Be the Teacher
In groups, research one of the following topics and share what you have
learned with your class:
•
•
•
•
Booker T. Washington
Tuskegee College
Freedmen’s schools
Zion School, Charleston, South Carolina
Hampton Plantation: Post-Site
“Few people who were not right in the midst of the scene can form any
exact idea of the intense desire which the people of my race showed for an
education…Few were too young, and none too old, to make the attempt
to learn. As fast as any kind of teachers could be secured, not only were
day schools filled, but night schools as well. The great ambition of the
older people was to try to learn to read the Bible before they died…men
and women who were fifty or seventy-five years old would often be found
in the night-school…the principal book studied in the Sunday-school was
the spelling-book. Day schools, night school, Sunday school, were always
crowded, and often many had to be turned away for want of rooms.”
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