Rice Cultivation | Palmetto Special

Three students take a field trip in "The Palmetto Special" as it travels from Columbia to Georgetown. After a brief stop at Poinsett State Park in Sumter County, the van arrives in Georgetown where they visit the Rice Museum. Some of the processes in the cultivation of rice are reviewed here. Next stop is a daytime visit to the ruins of Prince Fredericks' church and then a return visit that evening for a "ghost hunt."

The Reenactment: The opening scene is the Hot and Hot Fish Club at Waccamaw Neck, c.1850. Young Paul Weston is playing a game of billiards with Hugh Fraser and lamenting his father's recent death. They discuss plantation life, rice and slavery. Paul then leaves to check on some trucks at one of his plantations. There he visits two slaves, Tricia and John Judah, who describe for him the functional operation of the Trunk System. At the request of Mr Fraser, Paul then checks on the progress of work at Prince Fredericks and talks to Mr. Gunn.

Major locations for the reenactnrent were:

• Pawley's Island, South Carolina 
• Annandale Plantation, Georgetown, South Carolina,
• Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Columbia, South Carolina.

Mr. Gunn was a real person. Whether or not he is a real ghost is left up to the individual. The other characters, while based on real people, were fictitious. The situations were representative of the situations that occurred.

Standards

• 3-2 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the exploration and settlement of South Carolina.
  • The inhabitants of the early Carolina colony included native, immigrant, and enslaved peoples. To understand how these various groups interacted to form a new and unique culture, the student will utilize the knowledge and skills set forth in the follo...
    • 3-2.5 Explain the role of Africans in developing the culture and economy of South Carolina, including the growth of the slave trade; slave contributions to the plantation economy; the daily lives of the enslaved people; the development of the Gullah cu...
• 3-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of life in the antebellum period, the causes and effects of the Civil War, and the impact of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
  • South Carolina played a key role in events that occurred before, during, and after the Civil War; and those events, in turn, greatly affected the state. To understand South Carolina’s experiences during this tumultuous time, the student will uti...
    • 3-4.1 Compare the economic conditions for various classes of people in South Carolina, including the elite, the middle class, the lower class, the independent farmers, and the enslaved and free African Americans.
• This indicator was written to promote inquiry into the unique development of ethnic, political, and religious identities in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies.
  • 4.1.CE Identify the effects of changing economic systems on the diverse populations in British North America.
  • This indicator was developed to promote inquiry into how South Carolina developed as a result of the relationship among various ethnic, political, and religious groups.
  • 4.1.E Analyze multiple perspectives on the economic, political, and social developments of British North America and South Carolina.
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the process which led to the formation of the U.S. government, including the convening of the Continental Congresses, the passage of the Articles of Confederation, and the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.
  • This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the economic, political, and social roles of colonial groups, to include free and enslaved people of African descent, Native Americans, and women, during the revolutionary period.
• 8-1 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the settlement of South Carolina and the United States by Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans.
  • The human mosaic of the South Carolina colony was composed of indigenous, immigrant, and enslaved populations. To understand how these differing backgrounds melded into an entirely new and different culture, the student will utilize the knowledge and ...
    • 8-1.5 Explain how South Carolinians used their natural, human, and political resources uniquely to gain economic prosperity, including settlement by and trade with the people of Barbados, rice and indigo planting, and the practice of mercantilism.
• 8-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the multiple events that led to the Civil War.
  • The outbreak of the Civil War was the culminating event in a decades-long series of regional issues that threatened American unity and South Carolina’s identity as one of the United States. To understand how South Carolina came to be at the cent...
    • 8-4.1 Explain the importance of agriculture in antebellum South Carolina, including the plantation system and the impact of the cotton gin on all social classes.
• This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the geographic and human factors that contributed to the development of South Carolina’s economic system. This indicator was also written to encourage inquiry into South Carolina’s distinct social and economic system as influenced by British Barbados.
  • 8.1.CE Analyze the factors that contributed to the development of South Carolina’s economic system and the subsequent impacts on different populations within the colony.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how the three British colonial regions developed in terms of their culture, economies, geography, and labor. The indicator was also developed to encourage inquiry into the unique story of the deve...
  • This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the development of South Carolina as a result of mercantilist policies, which ranged from the Navigation Acts to trade with Native Americans to the use of enslaved people as labor. This indicator w...