Revolutionary War and Plantation Life in central South Carolina

With hesitation at going through another house, last Thursday we went to see the Kensington Mansion in Eastover, SC southeast of Columbia. The construction of this mansion was completed in 1854. In 1996 the Kensington mansion was furnished with the Scarborough -Hamer Collection of decorative arts from the Victorian period (1830-1901). The mansion is now owned by International Paper and is open to the public for tours.

We are finding with many of the museums and mansions, they do not want any picture taking. So I will only be able to show you a few that I took of the exterior of the home. The attraction in going to more of these plantation homes is the history that they tell during the tour. Each plantation has it's own history and they are always interesting. I bought a copy of "My Life in the South" written by Jacob Stroyer telling his memories of plantation life and it's affect on the blacks in the south. He was one of the few slaves who were able to learn to spell and read during their young years of bondage. Because of this ability he was permitted to begin in the trade of carpentry. The belief of the owner and overseers as they permitted him to go into a trade, was by keeping him away from other slaves it would keep the others from thinking that they should also be learning to read. It was against the law at that time for a slave to learn to read. Stroyer had continued his education since the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln. And at the time he wrote the book he was an ordained deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He had begun a course of theological studies at Talladega college in Alabama with the hopes of completing those studies through the sale of his book.

This is the front entrance of the house as you see it upon arriving from the intersection of Highway 601 and SC Rt 764 . After checking in with the tour guide in what was the summer kitchen in a separate building to the right of the house, I wandered around what appears to be the back yard and took a few more pictures. One of the pictures was of the back, only to find out from the guide that it was originally the main entrance as it looks toward the river which was one main means of transportation in those days. The grounds close to the house had magnolia and water oak trees which had been there for more than a two hundred years and are prevalent in this area. It was a beautiful setting and such a small portion of the original plantation which was 5000 acres. They had 485 slaves at one point in time and it mainly produced cotton and raised race horses until Col. Dick Singleton died. His wife found the plantation to be heavily in debt and to avoid loosing the plantation she diversified and sold the horses and some mules to settle some debt. She also began raising corn, sweet potatoes and cattle in addition to the cotton believing that diversification would be better financially. She later was known to be a millionaire. Mrs. Singleton turned out to be a harder task master than Col. Singleton was.

The house has 29 rooms and 12,000 square feet of floor space. No one is permitted to tour the second floor because of the open railing around the hall on second floor which lets light through to the first floor from the glass dome in the roof in the center of the house. They also feel that the closet style stairway would be dangerous for the public because of the tight angle to the steps. They did say that the decorating on the second floor was not as elaborate as on first, as the first floor was where the entertaining was done. It was beautiful!

A Robert Hamer purchased the Kensington Plantation in 1910 and the family lived there until 1941. It was later owned by the Lantham family. And much later when it not inhabited, it fell into disrepair and was used for storing small equipment, grain, and straw. In 1981, International Paper acquired the mansion and restored it to it's former glory. As I said, the benefit of continuing to tour homes with a tour guide, is the history learned during the tour.

Revolutionary War Reenactment:

Saturday Gary went so Camden, SC for a Revolutionary War Reenactment of the Battle of Stono Ferry. There were also military and civilian camps set up for viewing as well as weapon demonstrations.

When he talked with some demonstrators of the 1700 era, a frontier's man and a trader reenactor they presented several facts previously unknown to Gary. The frontier's man explained that the coat he was wearing was a rifleman's coat. The British considered them very deadly for they could shoot and kill at 100 yards with accuracy. Therefore, Gen. Washington had 250 coats distributed to his best shots. When the British saw these they would rather retreat because the rifle was more accurate that the round shot they were using.

The trader explained why South Carolina became an important colony before the advent of cotton. He said that in the 1650's there was a plague on European cattle with a disease similar to mad cow and that the British had an embargo on European cattle and leather goods. By the 1770's there was a great shortage of leather in England, therefore the importing of deer hides was important and created a large trade with the Indians of the South Caroling region. This caused local Indians to slaughter thousands of deer and trade for salt, guns and iron goods.

Gary was also able to tour the Kershaw-Cornwallis House . He also went throughout the main floor of the house and took some pictures. Though the trim is not as elaborate as the Kensington, it just is beautiful! Both homes used wood for heat and thus had fireplaces in the main rooms.