Hobcaw Barony
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
These slave quarters are located in Friendfield Village on the plantation. Due to the large acreage of the plantation, the slave quarters were divided into villages.
This former slave cabin is located in Friendfield Village.
The main plantation house is the replica of the house Bernard M. Baruch lived in with his family.
The Discovery Center is the first building visitors will encounter on the plantation.
A sign details the environmental impact that Hobcaw Barony has on the surrounding areas.
Many organizations currently work with Hobcaw Barony.
A sculpture at the Discovery Center shows the impact that pollution has on wildlife.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The
name “Hobcaw Barony” came from the Native American Waccamaw name for “between
the waters,” which is “hobcaw.” “Barony” came from the fact that the land was a
barony, or a land grant, in 1718. The Waccamaw became the first Native Americans to encounter Europeans in 1521. Many Waccamaw members were taken back
to Spain by explorers Francisco Gordillo and Pedro de Quejo. Spanish settlers
were the first to begin colonizing the land that became Hobcaw Barony. Many
later returned to Spain.
The land was originally surveyed in 1711 and was officially given the name Hobcaw Barony. In 1718, John Carteret (also known as Lord Carteret) was given 12,000 acres on Hobcaw Point by King George I of England. Between the years of 1766 and 1767, the land was surveyed and sold in smaller sections that were turned into roughly a dozen individually owned rice plantations. These rice plantations were very important to the economy and were maintained by slave labor. Most of Georgetown’s rice came from these plantations between the time of the American Revolution and the American Civil War.
Slaves were the main source of labor on Hobcaw Barony. The slaves originally came from Barbados and later South Africa. Georgetown, South Carolina was a major point of entry by 1736 for slaves coming to the United States. During the mid-19th century in Waccamaw River, rice plantations on average had 100 slaves per 1,000 acres. In 1850, the Georgetown area of South Carolina was the world’s second largest rice producer. Almost 85% of the area’s population was Black. After the 13th Amendment was passed, many former slaves and their families continued to live at Hobcaw Barony. Hobcaw Barony continued to produce rice by paying the former slaves low wages, letting them subsidence farm, and granting employee housing. Many of the former slave villages were still occupied by African American rice producers after World War II.
Louisiana became a major exporter of rice after the Civil War, leading to South Carolina’s rice exports decreasing. The land gradually became unused over time. Between the years of 1905 and 1907, the land was bought by Bernard M. Baruch. He bought all 16,000 acres in three purchases to use the land as a winter hunting retreat for himself and his family. While rice was not produced on the land anymore, the water tracts remained on the site, making the land suitable for hunting waterfowl. In 1935, Bernard M. Baruch’s daughter, Belle Baruch, expressed interest in purchasing the land from her father. In that year Bernard M. Baruch began selling parts of Hobcaw Barony to Belle Baruch. By 1956, Belle Baruch fully owned Hobcaw Barony.
When Belle Baruch died in 1964, she had in her will that Hobcaw Barony would be turned into the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. This foundation specialized in the preservation and research of nature and the ecosystem of South Carolina. On November 2, 1994, Hobcaw Barony became part of the National Register of Historic Places. It contains more than 37 historic buildings from the 18th through 20th centuries.
Today, the Belle W. Baruch Foundation and the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve operate Hobcaw Barony. The University of South Carolina operates the Baruch Institute for Marine & Coastal Sciences on Hobcaw Barony. Likewise, Clemson University operates the Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science. Both the University of South Carolina and Clemson University participate in scientific research at Hobcaw Barony.
Sources
Photo: “The Hobcaw House”. Trip Advisor. . Accessed December 05, 2018. https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g54245-d527225-i147736744-Hobcaw_Barony-Georgetown_South_Carolina.html.
Experience Lowcountry Nature, History at Hobcaw Barony. The Litchfield Company. May 11, 2018. Accessed December 05, 2018. https://www.litchfieldbeach.com/blog-entry.php?name=experience+lowcountry+nature+history+at+hobcaw+barony.