Bonny Hall Plantation was first settled in 1732. The home of Walter Blake was burned in 1865. This house was built in 1897 by George Egan. The South Carolina Historical Society Fall Tour was held at ACE Basin plantations on October 25. My wife Linda and I used the tour as an excuse to spend the weekend in Charleston. We stayed at the Ansonborough Inn, built in 1900 as a warehouse and restored as a hotel in 2000. The Rue de Jean restaurant refreshed our love of French cuisine. The always excellent 82 Queen Restaurant satisfied our need for Southern cooking.

On Saturday, we took the boat tour to Morris Island. Two excellent reenactors told of the Battle of Battery Wagner between the forces of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard and the black soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th.

The Sunday was at the junction of the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers, a 350,000–acre region filled with wildlife, forest, and unspoiled swamps – a natural and historic treasure of our beautiful state.

Twickenham Plantation was part of a land grant to the Izard family in the early 1700s. Later residents of the plantation fought in the Indian Wars, the American Revolution, and the Civil War. They signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Secession. The original home was burned by Sherman’s forces. The current house was built in 1878 by Major John Henry Screven. As we toured the ten homes and plantations that date back to 1729, their shared history became clear. Slaves cleared the swamps, planted rice and cotton, and harvested Carolina Gold. Their plantation masters who had business connections in New England, Europe, and the Caribbean sold the rice crop for immense profit. Between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, these planters became the wealthiest men in North America.

The Jacob Folk House was moved from Ehrhardt and recently restored. Carolina’s landed aristocracy was destroyed when Sherman’s troops ravaged their homes, farms, and crops in 1865 and freed the slave work force. Fortunes were lost and social unrest ruled until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Scalawags and carpetbaggers seized much of the property. Nature began to reclaim the land. By the First World War, most of the plantations were in the hands of Northern investors and converted into hunting retreats.

Over the last 100 years, Northern financiers rebuilt many of the old homes and, as winter visitors, realized the value of preserving the natural environment. In 1988, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, the SC Department of Natural Resources, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and private landowners formed a coalition known as the ACE Basin Task Force. Westvaco Corporation, the Lowcountry Open Land Trust, and Nemours Wildlife Foundation joined the Task Force in 1998.

White Hall Plantation, owned by the Thomas Heyward, was destroyed during the Civil War and damaged by Hurricane Gracie in 1959. This house was built by Charles Lawrence in 1925. The mission of the ACE Basin Project is to maintain the natural character of the basin by promoting wise resource management on private lands and protecting strategic tracts by conservation agencies. A major goal of the protection efforts is to ensure that traditional uses such as farming, forestry, and recreational and commercial fishing and hunting will continue in the area.

I have driven through the area many times between Charlestown and Beaufort. I have kayaked the rivers and creeks between Yemassee and Hunting Island, but this was my first opportunity to see how the plantations Sherman torched have been given a new life. This time without slaves and rice. This time for the benefit of hunters, fisherman, birdwatchers, hikers, bikers, and boaters.
This row of slave cabins in the ACE Basin is similar to many antebellum plantation Main Streets.