The Christmas spirit was much in evidence as twenty members of the Seabrook Island Natural History Group (SINHG) visited Boone Hall Plantation earlier this month. During a private guided tour of the main house, beautifully decorated for the holidays, SINHG members learned of the plantation’s status as one of the few remaining antebellum plantations still actively being cultivated. Boone Hall Farms is famous for its annual spring strawberry harvest and nearly year-round produce offered to the public.
During a wagon ride around the grounds, members learned of the plantation’s beginnings in the late seventeenth century under John Boone, one of the state’s earliest settlers, of the lives of enslaved African-Americans who worked the plantation’s more than seven hundred acres, and the many changes of ownership to the present day. The day concluded with a fascinating presentation on Gullah music, customs and culture.
A full roster of SINHG trips for members for Spring 2022 was released last month and can be reviewed at the organization’s website, sinhg.org.
-Submitted by Norm Powers for SINHG
(Photo credits: Post & Courier and Boone Hall Plantation)