By: Al Hester, Historic Sites Coordinator, South Carolina State Park Service
May 14, 2024
The Featured Projects series showcases historic preservation projects focused on preserving Black history throughout SC. Each project is asked to respond to four prompts. We hope this series helps bring awareness to the stunning number and variety of preservation projects being undertaken across the state, highlights the dedication of our community leaders, and inspires future generations of projects.
Want to feature your preservation project? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.
| Provide a brief summary of your project, making sure to include why it’s important for African American historic preservation. |
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| This project involved documentation of a significant cultural landscape associated with Black history at Hampton Plantation State Historic Site. The project produced a “cultural landscape report”, which is a management document that compiles all known information about a property’s cultural landscape, including drawings, maps, photographs, a historical narrative, and preservation recommendations. Hampton Plantation was an 18th century rice plantation in northern Charleston County located on the South Santee River. Its buildings, rice fields, and landscapes were all created by enslaved people of African descent and their descendants. It is essential that these landscapes be preserved so that the public can learn about the contributions and struggles of enslaved people and the long-lasting communities that they established. More than anything else, plantations are Black history sites that can help tell the stories of Black people, both enslaved and free, not only through architecture but also through landscape features such as former agricultural areas, cemeteries, gardens, and forests. The National Park Service defines a cultural landscape as “a geographic area, including both cultural and natural resources and the wildlife or domestic animals therein, associated with a historic event, activity, or person, or exhibiting other cultural or aesthetic values.” (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/culturallandscapes/understand-cl.htm) |
| What motivated you/your community/your team to begin this project? |
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| As a state-operated public historic site, Hampton Plantation has the mission to preserve the cultural resources under its care, including its cultural landscape. But more importantly, Hampton Plantation’s landscape is an ideal setting for the public to access and explore Black history through landscape. The team and community members of an adjacent descendant community also wanted to document the landscape history better so that the site could be managed more responsibly. We also believed that a well-preserved landscape could help bring the past to life and inspire visitors. For example, walking through the former settlement of enslaved people at Hampton, even though the buildings had disappeared long ago, can provide a moving and more authentic experience of the past. The project produced a cultural landscape report that compiled all the information we found through photographs, maps, and a written description. The site managers have been able to use this information to re-create selected views and vistas, replant missing significant trees, and manage the forests in ways more consistent with their historical uses. We were also able to rebuild a damaged rice field dam and install a recreated rice trunk (water control device) based on historic documentation. Finally, we were also able to use the report to update the site’s National Register of Historic Places listing to include more information about landscape, archaeology, and Black history. |
| What challenges have you faced in this project? |
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| Cultural landscape preservation is always difficult. Landscapes are composed of human-built features as well as natural resources such as trees and forests. By nature, they are dynamic places that are always evolving. It was also difficult to find sources of information that could serve as evidence of the past appearance and function of the landscape. Since landscapes change with time, natural processes, and human use, locations at Hampton looked very different in the 18th century than they did 100 years later. Documenting that change over time was a critical part of the project. Landscape documentation also is challenging because it requires many different skill sets. Our team had to include a biologist, forester, archaeologist, historian, landscape architect, as well as current and past local residents. Each person brought a different view point to the project and made it a collaborative and multidisciplinary effort. |
| How have you solved problems and found solutions? What advice would you give to others doing this kind of work? |
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| Finding good evidence of past landscapes is difficult but very important, and we were able to find new information through oral history and discussions with people who had lived and worked on or near Hampton. We were grateful that they were willing to share their traditional knowledge about the place and its landscape. Because historical documents are often silent about landscapes, people’s memories can help fill in the gaps. Photographs are also useful, and over time we were able to find dozens of these in various archival repositories and libraries such as the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina, the Charleston Museum, the Gibbes Art Museum, the South Carolina Historical Society, and the Indiana Historical Society. Local, private collections of photographs were also very helpful. Photos hold important visual clues of things like roads, tree lines, plant species, fences, etc. This kind of evidence helps to document what has been lost. Archaeology is critical as well, since many of the features that no longer exist above ground have left evidence in the soil. At Hampton, archaeologists excavated evidence of former buildings and work areas and helped us understand how specific places were used and altered over time. |
| For more…. |
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| For guidance on whether your project involves a cultural landscape, and how to document and protect it, you can take a look at materials here (there is also contact information if you have a specific question): https://www.nps.gov/subjects/culturallandscapes/preservation.htm For more information on Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, see https://southcarolinaparks.com/hampton To learn about Hampton Plantation’s landscape, see https://scsps-rmi.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Shortlist/index.html?appid=c3ae24f2903342278c8a53963070f9da For general information about Black cultural landscapes, see https://www.tclf.org/places/view-city-and-regional-guides/african-american |