Friendfield Plantation is a 3,305-acre
plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
near
Georgetown, South Carolina
Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, South Carolina, Georgetown County, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census ...
composed of parts of six former historic plantations and Friendship House, built in 1931-36.
[ with ] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1996. Contributing elements of the listing include 23 buildings, 15 other structures, and 14 sites.[
In the 1850s, some 230 African Americans were enslaved on Friendfield Plantation and they produced 900,000 pounds of rice annually. Among them was Jim Robinson, born into slavery in 1850; one of his descendants is former First Lady ]Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...
(née Robinson.)
Overview
The current owner is Oscar Johnson Small II and his second wife Robbie Kephart.
The founder and first owner was James Withers (1710-1756), a brick maker in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...
who also became a planter. He developed a plantation along the Sampit River
The Sampit River begins in a swampy area of western Georgetown County, South Carolina, Georgetown County, South Carolina, USA. It flows in an easterly direction to Winyah Bay at Georgetown, South Carolina, Georgetown. Only small crafts can nav ...
for indigo
InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...
and rice from 1734 onward, based on the use of enslaved labor.[Frances Cheston Train]
A Carolina Plantation Remembered
'' The Social Register Association'', Summer 2013 He bought slaves from Barbados
Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...
, where they had been transported from Africa and were sometimes seasoned for a period of time. In 1818, Francis Withers (1768-1847), a grandson of James, built a new house on the Friendfield Plantation.
In the Low Country, where slaves developed a concentrated culture on large plantations, and slaves from Africa continued to be imported, African Americans developed what became known as the Gullah or GeeChee culture. It has been recognized as distinct for its creole African roots in language, cuisine and culture, and adaptations to the region. Paternal ancestors of First Lady Michelle (Robinson) Obama, including Jim Robinson, were among the Gullah enslaved laborers on the Friendfield Plantation.
Francis Wither appointed his son-in-law, Dr. Alexius Mador Forster, III, MD (1815-1879), to manage the plantation, but it fell into disrepair after the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. An extended agricultural depression in the country brought down commodity prices. Combined with struggling with the change to free labor, planters faced a sudden lack of economic resources. After the war, Withers had the land cultivated mostly by sharecroppers
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...
, freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...
who paid a portion of their crop to use the land. Michelle Obama's ancestor Jim Robinson, who became free at age 15, is believed to have been among them.
Friendfield Plantation passed out of the Withers family in 1897 when Elizabeth Hunt Warham Forster (1820-1906) sold it to B. Walker Cannon. (It had passed from the Withers bloodline in 1847 when Francis Withers died, as Elizabeth was his step-daughter.)
The property was later purchased by Patrick C. McClary, Sr., who used it as a duck hunting club. This was a common use for plantations by wealthy owners in the early 20th century. In 1926, the Friendfield House burned down in a fire.
In 1930, the plantation was purchased by Radcliffe Cheston, Jr., an investment banker from Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
. In 1932, he had a new Friendfield House built, designed by noted Philadelphia architect Arthur Ingersoll Meigs (1882-1956).
Up until the 1950s, African-American sharecroppers lived on the plantation and worked the fields. But during the early 20th century, thousands of African Americans left the South to go north in the Great Migration to industrial cities, seeking better opportunities and an escape from Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...
oppression. Michelle Obama's paternal grandfather Fraser Robinson, Jr. migrated to Chicago from the Georgetown area. He and his wife LaVaughn (née Johnson) returned to the Low Country from Chicago after retirement.
In 1989, the property was partly purchased by Daniel Thorne; it was co-owned by him and Frances Cheston Train, a daughter of Radcliffe Cheston. In 2015, Oscar Johnson Small II and his second wife Robbie Kephart bought the property.
References
{{National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Colonial Revival architecture in South Carolina
Buildings and structures completed in 1830
Houses in Georgetown County, South Carolina
National Register of Historic Places in Georgetown County, South Carolina
1830 establishments in South Carolina
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Plantations in South Carolina
Gullah history