Redcliffe Plantation, Beech Island, South Carolina

“Cotton is King.”

James Henry Hammond

This past Friday, Joe and I had some errands to run that morning and later in the day so we decided to find something to do close to home. On my list of places to see was Redcliffe Plantation in Beech Island, South Carolina. When we usually think of Beech Island, we do not think of country but instead of a busy area and James Brown since his last home was in this town.

We put on our navigator and off we went. This plantation is only 9 miles from Augusta so it is an easy drive. We take a turn and all of a sudden we are in the country and it is only 5 miles from the Savannah River. We saw the sign for the plantation with a row of beautiful unique pine trees lining the road. We turned in and drove down a dirt road to get to the plantation and saw the plantation home. It looked so lovely and stately.

We pulled outside of the visitors center and went inside where we were greeted warmly by Theresa Hipps, our tour guide for today. She said we could just walk the grounds and see the slave cabin, stables, and property for no cost or if we wanted a tour of the plantation home, it would cost $7.50. I told her we wanted the tour and she said to meet her under the shade tree near the slave quarters at 11. She advised us of a nice walk down the lane that was the old main entrance to the home to see the year old Magnolia trees that are over 150 years old. We took a nice stroll and so enjoyed those magnificent trees. We also saw beautiful old live oaks that graced the property.

We then went inside the slave quarters. There used to be four of these houses but now there is only two. One is to walk in and see how the slaves lived on this property and the other was converted into a garage. These homes were duplexes with one family per side and each side had a fireplace. These were built to hold as many as 20 people per duplex but most held between two and six people. The room was very small and hard to imagine a family living in that space. 

 James Henry Hammond was very detailed oriented and that is the one of the few good things I can say about him. He had hand printed a Plantation Manuel. That was on a table in the slave quarters to see and it listed all the slaves by first and last name, how much they cost, duties when healthy, sick, pregnant, and old, the food supply and even their punishments which included 100 lashes for the worst punishments. So sad and hard to imagine it was like that then. The good thing about his ledger is that it is good for genealogy as it was a well kept record. The most important slave on this property was the cook and he paid a thousand dollars for her and her two daughters. His slaves were valued at a million dollars and were more valuable than the property or land. Over the years he owned more that 700 slaves.

This plantation had 400 acres and was used mostly for gardens, orchards, and vineyards. When he came back home from a trip to Europe is when he did get into agricultural pursuits. The tried growing experimental crops like broccoli and cauliflower which were not usually grown here in the south. Now the land has been cleared so none of the fruit trees or vineyards exist anymore.

The stables were neat to see and the building was very pretty but unusual in that there were window on the one side up high where the horses couldn’t reach them. There was also a step down for the horses to get into the stable which was also unusual. One one side is parked a two wheeled carriage. There was also a cistern just outside the stable for watering the animals.

As we walked to the main house, we were told there used to be an outside kitchen building here as well as outhouse but in later years the kitchen was moved to the basement. We walked up onto the front porch that goes the whole length of two sides of the home and sat down on the rocking chairs and enjoyed the view and the breeze. What an amazing view it still was but must have been even better in the days when you could see further to Augusta and all the orchards and vineyards. We waited there till Theresa went through the basement and turned on the fans and opened the front doors to let us in. She was such a knowledgeable guide and just lovely. While sitting on the porch, we noticed the hand spun spindles around the porch and how they were all just a little different. She explained this mansion cost James Henry Hammond $22,000. The wood in and on the house was from the property when they cleared the land, so that and his slave labor kept the costs down. The house was designed by Louis Berkmans and built in 1857 and is a Greek Revival Plantation home.

When we walked into the house, we entered a large hallway that went from one side of the house to the other and noticed the high 14 foot ceilings. She pointed out the portrait of Mr. Hammond near the front door. He was not a good man yet he served as a US Representative from 1835-1836, served as the 60^th governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844, and a US Senator from 1857 to 1860. He was a major advocate and speaker for slavery. He married his wife, Catherine Elizabeth Fitzsimmons when she was 17 years old for her dowry and not out of love. By marrying Catherine, he became a wealthy landowner and at one time owned 22 square miles, four plantation homes and over 300 slaves. He planted a lot of cotton and corn on his lands and made quite a bit of money which made his quote, “Cotton is King.”

From his wife’s family, Wade Hampton II and Ann Fitzsimmons, (Catherine’s sister) had four girls were all sexually abused by him when they were just teenagers. Wade Hampton II derailed his political career for a decade because of this. He also had affairs with few of the slaves and in particular a girl name Louisa, who he raped when she was 12 and bore his children. His wife left him over this this for two years and wouldn’t come home till she was gone. What an awful that he did this horrible thing to these ladies. The Hampton’s daughters never married.

When he was serving in the US House of Representatives, he went to Europe due to his bad health. When he was there he bought many beautiful pieces of art and furniture that he brought back to display in his home. In fact, he made a list that was two pages full of all the things he bought and how much it cost. There was one painting that he asked an artist to paint and it was a replica of the Raphael painting of the Transformation of Christ but at half the size. It cost him a thousand dollars but in today's money would be much more. It is a beautiful piece.

His accomplishments when he was governor was the establishment of the Citadel in Charleston and he reorganized the states militia. James Henry Hammond died in 1864 on the sofa in the library before slavery was abolished.

There is some amazing furniture in the home. The 1840’s piano is so detailed with a beautiful wood finish. The beds in the house are beautiful and they all had wheels so they could be moved to where there was the best breeze.

The library was amazing with over 2,000 books and beautiful wooden bookshelves. This was the man’s cave in his day where the men would gather after a meal to smoke and talk. There was a fireplace and on top of the bookshelves it was adorned with busts of famous people from history. One shelf in particular had three busts on top. He put three of what he considered the most important people in history, Alexander the Great, Hammond, and Caesar. He bought the busts in Europe. There was also a book that was titled, “Cotton is King and Pro-slavery Arguments” by Elliott, Christy, Bledsoe, Harper, Hammond, Cartwright, and Stringfellow. As you can see he was a writer in this book and was proud of his contribution. His Great Grandchild, John Shaw Billings, the last of four generations that lived there.

Upstairs was not as formal as the downstairs but still had beautiful furnishings. The hallway upstairs was used as a study with a beautiful writing table, a Persian table from France, and a tin hat bathtub. There was also an old toilet that was like a composting toilet.

The views from upstairs are amazing and you could see the hills in Georgia and Augusta. At one point there was a porch upstairs just outside the front door but it only lasted about twenty-five years after this house was built before it just rotted and had to be torn down. Some of the history here sadden us, but we have to face the good and the bad of our country’s history and learn from it. It also was sad to see this family has no more heirs.

We hope you’ve enjoyed your tour with us of this lovely plantation home and that you can visit here some day. Thanks Theresa for the great tour.  We learned a lot.  Till next time.