The horse stables at Goodwill Plantation were used from 1858 to 1978 to house the best horses used for riding. When the Civil War began there were 114 slaves at Goodwill Plantation. But that soon changed after the June 2, 1863, raid on Heyward’s Combahee River plantations by Union forces. The plantations were left in charred ruins, 725 slaves were taken, and five horses were stolen.

After this raid the Confederate government ordered that all slaves within 25 miles of Beaufort be sent inland. Slaves from all the Heyward Plantations were shipped by train to the Gadsden train station. From there they rode wagons and walked the 12 miles to Goodwill Plantation.

While at Goodwill, this large group of slaves was were put to work building eight miles of dams and dikes, some as high as 15 feet, for rice cultivation in the river bottom lands. The rice fields were flooded from the river and by the creek which fed the 80–acre mill pond which was first built around 1730. Over the years there have been five mills on this mill pond.

This sketch of the slave supply building by Grover Rye depicts how it looked from 1858 to 1930 when it was destroyed by lightning. The slaves were issued cloth, syrup, ground corn, dried peas, and cured meat from this building. In 1865 when Sherman’s men reached Kingville, 11 miles from Goodwill Plantation, the owners of the plantation took action. Cattle were turned out and driven into the swamps. The horses and mules were put on a barge at Basin Landing and taken across the Wateree River to the Sumter side. The wagons were taken to the mill pond and their wheels were taken off. The wagons were then thrown into the pond.

The Yankees didn’t come to Goodwill that day. They turned up highway 48 (Bluff Road) toward Columbia and another battle was fought in front of Congaree Baptist Church. That afternoon all the Goodwill slaves were gathered behind the main house on the street where two slave houses still remain.

Prior to the Civil War there were three rows of 10 slave houses each. Two of the original slaves houses remain. This sketch by Grover Rye depicts how the slave street might have looked in 1858. They saw ashes falling from a wind blowing from the west. Later that evening they saw a red glow in the sky, Columbia was burning.

After the war was over a Yankee officer came to Goodwill and demanded that all slaves be brought to the street. After the slaves gathered, he announced they were free. The rest of the day, the freed slaves celebrated. The next day they got up and went to work as if nothing had changed. At the end of the Civil War there were over 1,000 freed slaves at Goodwill Plantation and 52 slave houses.

Charles Heyward later made arrangements for the slaves who had come from the Combahee plantations to go by train to Charleston where they walked to Beaufort. In January 1866, when they were leaving they came by the main house where they found Charles Heyward sitting on the porch. The former slaves gathered around the porch and told Heyward they were going back to the Combahee and would be waiting there for him.