The owners left their plantations in the capable hands of African overseers, a practice they kept up well into the American Civil War. Their culture arose from slaves brought to South Carolina and Georgia from countries like Sierra Leone and Angola to work the rice, cotton and indigo plantations thriving in the region. The Gullah culture is rich in heritage particularly on the Hilton Head and Daufuskie Islands, stemming from the slave descendants who stayed and made the area their home. The Gullah are descendants of enslaved Africans who lived in the Lowcountry region. In ill health, with liver and other problems, he made no attempt to rebuild the mansion and sold the entire property, including the sawmill and other business properties, to the Varn Turpentine and Cattle Company in 1926. The destruction of the 14-year-old mansion was heartbreaking to Richard Wilson Jr., who is reported to have wept profusely at the loss and had to be twice carried from the burning building. The Wilsons’ pastoral winters at Palmetto Bluff came to a sudden and tragic halt in 1926 when, during their occupancy, a fire broke out in the attic of their mansion that could not be controlled. One can only imagine the elegance and bounty of the meals served there, with the freshest of ingredients harvested from the surrounding waters and woods, and the produce of Wilson’s extensive farms. Wilson of Palmetto Bluff, S.C.” Guests would stay for weeks, enjoying Mrs. The social pages of the New York Times listed the comings and goings of the New York elite with frequent mention of individuals “leaving today to visit Mr. Visitors arrived at the estate by way of a Savannah Line steamship, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, or the Seaboard Airline train. The Palmetto Bluff estate was designed with guests in mind. entertained lavishly in his magnificent 72-room home, complete with grand ballroom. Wilson, Jr.’s “Palmetto Lodge.” Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, R.T. The Union navy easily defeated the Confederate forces and General Drayton was forced to order a retreat.Ĭontributing to the rich history of Palmetto Bluff, the ruins that grace the Village Green are all that remains of R.T. In this battle, General Drayton faced his own brother, Captain Percival Drayton, commander of a Federal gunboat. One of the plantation owners was Thomas Fenwick Drayton, commander of the Confederate soldiers at Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island during the Battle of Port Royal. In the antebellum era, Palmetto Bluff was comprised of 21 plantations. In 1757, Anson divided his May River estate into parcels that were sold as individual plantations. Instead, after sailing around the globe and capturing Spanish galleons, he returned to England to enjoy his fame and fortune. In 1730, British naval officer Admiral George Lord Anson purchased the property. However, by 1562, when Jean Ribaut arrived at Parris Island, the land of Palmetto Bluff appeared to have been uninhabited. Today, archaeologists find oyster shells, bones, and fragments of clay pots and stone tools as evidence of the prehistoric people. Following these early visitors, generations of Native Americans came to Palmetto Bluff to harvest oysters and fish in the rivers, and to hunt and gather in the forests. The oldest artifacts found at Palmetto Bluff, stone tools made by Paleoindians, date to 10,000 B.C.
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