Examination of an Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Plantation, Christ Church Parish, Charleston County, South Carolina

YOUGHAL: EXAMINATION OF AN EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURY PLANTATION, CHRIST CHURCH PARISH, CHARLESTON COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA CHICORA FOUNDATION RESEARCH SERIES 65 YOUGHAL: EXAMINATION OF AN EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURY PLANTATION, CHRIST CHURCH PARISH, CHARLESTON COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA Research Series 65 Michael Trinkley Debi Hacker Nicole Southerland Sarah Fick Julie Poppell With Contributions by: Linda Scott Cummings S. Homes Hogue Robert L. McCain Chicora Foundation, Inc. PO Box 8664 ▪ 861 Arbutus Drive Columbia, SC 29202-8664 803/787-6910 www.chicora.org January 2006 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Youghal : examination of an eighteenth and nineteenth century plantation, Christ Church Parish, Charleston County, South Carolina / Michael Trinkley ... [et al.]. p. cm. -- (Research series ; 65) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-58317-064-2 (alk. paper) 1. Youghal Plantation Site (S.C.) 2. Plantations--South Carolina--Charleston County. 3. Plantation life-- South Carolina--Charleston County. 4. Charleston County (S.C.)--Antiquities. 5. Excavations (Archaeology)--South Carolina--Charleston County. I. Title: Examination of an eighteenth and nineteenth century plantation, Christ Church Parish, Charleston County, South Carolina. II. Trinkley, Michael. III. Research series (Chicora Foundation) ; 65. F279.Y68Y68 2006 975.7'91--dc22 2005056061 © 2006 by Chicora Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transcribed in any form without permission of Chicora Foundation, Inc. except for brief quotations used in reviews. Full credit must be given to the authors and publisher. ISBN 1-58317-064-2 ISSN 0882-2041 The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.∞ In the fullness of time All will be shown The unknown will be known In the fullness of time -- Marshall Chapman, In the Fullness of Time ABSTRACT This study provides the results of data houses north the main dwelling, and the slave recovery excavations at Youghal (38CH932), the houses east of the main house. Subsequent hand remains of an eighteenth and nineteenth century excavations included 100 square feet at the plantation and twentieth century dairy farm. Fuller/Auld House, 375 square feet in the area The site is situated on Porcher Bluff Road in southwest of the Fuller/Auld House (termed the what historically has been known as Christ southern colonial area), 300 square feet to the Church Parish, northeast of Charleston, South north of the Fuller/Auld House, 150 square feet Carolina. The investigations were conducted by in a garden area (termed the northern colonial Chicora Foundation during October and area), approximately 50 square feet in and just November of 2003 for The Sintra Corporation of outside the ice house, 200 square feet in the Charleston, South Carolina. This work was western slave settlement, and 400 square feet in proposed, and approved, under an October 2001 the eastern slave settlement. At the conclusion of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the the block excavations, an additional 2,670 square Office of Ocean and Coastal Resources feet was stripped at the site, using a backhoe. Management (OCRM). As a result, the total excavation during the data recovery consisted of 4,245 square feet (1,575 This site was initially recorded in 1987 square feet of hand excavation and 2,670 square as part of an archaeological survey of a 1,000 feet of mechanized excavation). acre development known then as the Charleston National Golf Course tract. A subsequent survey This work revealed the main house, and testing program by Chicora Foundation for thought to have been constructed in the late The Sintra Corporation expanded the site antebellum and lost to fire in 1991. Although westward to include the 3-acre Auld house site, relatively little work was conducted in this area, which was not previously covered by the MOA. the excavations did yield a mean ceramic date of As a result of this work the site was found 1865. eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (Trinkley et al. 2003). The slave settlement was more completely investigated, with the western Additional historical research focused settlement producing a mean ceramic date of on the twentieth century dairying operations. A about 1799 and the eastern one yielding a date brief historical context, tracing the development of 1807. Although no clearly defined structural of dairying operations in Charleston County has remains were identified, the artifact assemblage been developed and oral history – including suggests ephemeral structures lasting into the both whites and blacks – has provided a far antebellum when many plantation owners, in more detailed discussion of plantation dairying response to abolitionist pressures, were erecting than has been available from secondary sources more substantial dwellings. (which are often confusing and contradictory). Although the available mapping Close interval testing was conducted at suggests house servant quarters near the main three of the four areas being investigated by the house, we were only partially successful in the data recovery activities – the area around and effort to identify this area. Although no southwest of the Youghal house, the slave structures could be ascertained from the i excavations, the artifacts do indicate occupation Ethnobotanical studies produced few with a mean ceramic date of 1828, although the food remains, although evidence of corn, artifacts are intermingled with later tenant peaches, and perhaps hickory nutshells was deposits. identified. The wood charcoal, probably reflecting primarily fuel, was dominated by The work at the icehouse gave us pine, although small quantities of various significant insight in the construction and use of hardwoods, such as oak, beech, and gum were this specific type of plantation outbuilding. present. Taken together these remains are While this structure likely dates from the early suggestive of topography ranging from dry and twentieth century, it provides important sandy to low and wet. Similar findings are information concerning the evolution of provided by both pollen and phytolith studies plantation architecture. In addition, it was conducted on the site. Unfortunately no constructed in the midst of sheet midden having evidence of cultigens was encountered, although late eighteenth and early nineteenth century the studies do document the very disturbed dates – probably indicative of the “lost” house climate around the plantation settlement. servants’ quarters. The faunal remains, while a small The area southwest of the main house collection, provide important preliminary produced a sizable eighteenth century information. The southern colonial area and assemblage, the burial of an African American structure resemble the rural pattern and contain child, and an eighteenth century outbuilding. not only a diverse assemblage, but also a range The southern colonial area produces a mean of species – all suggestive of an elite status. In ceramic date of 1755 – clearly dating the contrast, the slave settlements exhibited poorer assemblage from the early development of the cuts of meat. There is also evidence at the slave plantation. Artifacts from this assemblage are settlement that deer were being processed on- characteristic of a middling status plantation. site, suggestive of hunting as an additional The identified structure, probably representing a procurement strategy. Another interesting utility building, provides not only an interesting finding was the identification of a range of fish glimpse into poorly documented early and turtle species from the ice house, suggesting plantation architecture, but also provides a large that this structure may have been used to store assemblage of early materials. items other than milk. Of special importance, however, was the The research at Youghal helps us better recovery of an isolated burial of an African understand the activities taking place on this American child. These remains were exhumed, plantation, further supporting the contention analyzed, and have been provided to Sintra that the plantation was in all respects the typical Homes for appropriate reburial. Not only do the Christ Church working farm. It also raises areas remains provide a value addition to our still requiring additional research, not the least of small assemblage of African American which are burial practices of African Americans bioanthropological data, but the burial raises during the colonial period. important anthropological questions concerning African mortuary customs and the role of this child in the plantation. The northern colonial area, although exhibiting much later mean ceramic date of 1790, suggests at least some aspects of the original (pre-Fuller) plantation spread into this area. Discovered is what appears to be a garden folly or landscape feature of dry laid tabby bricks. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures v List of Tables vii Introduction 1 Background 1 Proposed Data Recovery 5 The Natural Setting 6 Curation 12 Historical Synopsis 13 Introduction 13 The Dearsly Grant 13 The Barksdale Ownership 14 Youghal – The Toomer Plantation 17 Youghal – After the Toomer Ownership 21 Youghal in the Late Nineteenth Century 23 Twentieth Century Activities 23 A Historic Context for Dairying in Christ Church Parish 25 Antebellum Dairy Activities 25 Postbellum Decline 25 Twentieth

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