Behind the Bluff
Uncover best practices to participate in life on your terms. Every week, hosts Jeff Ford and Kendra Till guide listeners with short conversations on trending wellness topics and share interviews with passionate wellness professionals, our private club leaders, and additional subject matter experts offering valuable tips. Each episode conclusion includes Healthy Momentum, five minutes of inspiration to help you reflect and live differently. Subscribe now and discover the keys to living your greatest active lifestyle.
Behind the Bluff
Diving into the Rich History of Palmetto Bluff | Part 2
Ever wondered how the antebellum and Civil War eras shaped the cultural and economic landscape of the American South? Join us on Behind the Bluff as we journey through these transformative years with Katie Epps, Director of Cultural Resources at Palmetto Bluff. Together, we unravel the complexities of plantation life from 1784 to 1865, examining South Carolina's pivotal role in the Civil War and the profound impact of secession. Discover the challenges faced by plantation owners as they grappled with the cessation of the transatlantic slave trade and how these shifts led to structural and architectural changes across the region.
As we move through history, Katie helps us spotlight key figures like John Estill and Wilson, who played crucial roles in Palmetto Bluff's slow recovery post-Civil War. We'll explore the socio-economic shifts and the lingering issues that shaped the Lowcountry, from devastating fires to the evolving landscape of landownership. This engaging episode provides a detailed look at the layers of history that continue to define this unique landscape. Prepare for a rich exploration of the past as we set the stage for the upcoming Reconstruction era discussion.
Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. I'm your host, Jeff Ford, and I am joined today once again with Katie Epps, Director of Cultural Resources here at Palmetto Bluff. If you weren't with us for the first part of this series, maybe pause here, go back and listen, because in this episode we're going to dig into the second historic period of time, and it's going to be roughly through the end of the Civil War today. Katie, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Jeff.
Speaker 1:I was so thrilled to learn more about the historic period up until colonial times. Lots of interesting information there. I can see your excitement, though, to get into this segment today.
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, thanks for coming back. Could you start things off by just giving a more detailed span of the period of time we're discussing?
Speaker 2:Sure, so we're going to be discussing the antebellum period and the Civil War. So antebellum, those dates are 1784 to 1861, and the Civil War is 1861 to 1865.
Speaker 1:So pretty confined period of time.
Speaker 2:It is yeah.
Speaker 1:Now antebellum. When we were planning this out, I had no clue what antebellum means. What does that stand for?
Speaker 2:So antebellum ante means before bellum means war, so it means before war. In the United States it's referred to as before the Civil War. Okay, other countries use this term quite a bit, but it would be based on what their significant war would be.
Speaker 1:Understood, understood. So go ahead and start things off by giving us an overview. What are some of the generalized events that are happening at this time?
Speaker 2:So in general, the plantations are growing, they're expanding, they're becoming more productive and with that also the number of enslaved are growing. They're expanding, they're becoming more productive and with that also the number of enslaved are increasing. The Civil War is obviously a major event and you know South Carolina had a large part to play in it.
Speaker 1:And yeah, so, yeah so populations increasing, the development of the land is that a fair statement starts to grow even further at this period of time.
Speaker 2:That's correct.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, so early 18th century. What happens first?
Speaker 2:They are recovering from the Revolutionary War. So you see a lot of marriages, as I mentioned earlier, marriages sometimes between people who were on different sides, and you see that the plantation's growing. They're growing both in number of being purchased. By the 1800, the plantations have all been purchased, at least once the tracts of land have all been purchased All 20,000 acres.
Speaker 1:Yes, Wow, so it's from this period of time the land's already taken. They are yeah, okay. Now challenges during this time period, obviously the land is getting developed more. There's more people here. What was kind of the day-to-day looking like.
Speaker 2:For the plantation owners really the men, because they're the ones who owned the plantations. There were a few instances where women actually owned plantations or the plantations were in their trust and they were trying to make them productive. They were trying to make the land as productive as possible, both in crops and then in other ways. A lot of these plantations had livestock, so cattle which you would have, beef cows or beef cattle and milk cows could make butter, had sheep, so then they could shear them and have wool, sell wool.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you know A lot more is starting to take fold here. We're starting to see life as it is. So when we were discussing the first early years here, people are actually now settling at Palmetto Bluff. They're not living in the cities as much.
Speaker 2:They are in general. Plantations were never healthy environments. They did not fully understand it, but they knew that disease and sickness were more rampant.
Speaker 1:Rampant at plantations. Okay, so still a challenge is healthcare at this time. Okay.
Speaker 2:So villages like the town of Bluffton, the village of Bluffton were established in the early 1800s as summer resorts for plantation owners.
Speaker 1:Summer resorts? No way. So these are the first look at our resort type life in the low country. Wow, yes. Now, with the war going on, how did this impact Palmetto Bluff?
Speaker 2:Every plantation owner. Unlike the Revolutionary War, every plantation owner was for secession.
Speaker 1:Okay, and secession so we're clear means breaking off from England.
Speaker 2:That's correct.
Speaker 1:Or breaking off from slavery.
Speaker 2:Breaking off from the Union.
Speaker 1:The Union Understood.
Speaker 2:So South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. It's December 20th 1860. In April of 1861, the Civil War starts in Charleston and life is really going on for most people. While the war's happening, while the war starts, is starting to happen, but the Union wanted to sort of choke off. You know the supply lines for the Confederacy.
Speaker 2:It's called the Anaconda effect. So they ended up taking over Hilton Head and Beaufort at the Battle of port royal sound shortly after the start of the civil war, that was in november of 1861. Okay, and it wasn't much of a battle. The confederates were vastly outnumbered. The union came in, confederates fled inland, alerted the plantation owners. So the plantation owners out here at Palmetto Bluff and surrounding areas they fled.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they did not have the backing to stay in this part of the world or part of the country.
Speaker 2:Yes, so some of them signed up and fought for the Confederacy and fought for the Confederacy. The next day, after the Union took over Hilton Head and Beaufort, there was a mass exodus off of the plantations by the enslaved. Many of them went to Hilton Head and some of them helped establish Mitchellville and some of the men signed up and were part of the Union Army.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow. So a lot of decisions had to happen at this time because of the war going on. Now was Charleston a heavily Union-controlled city at this time In 1861?. Yeah, when the war starts.
Speaker 2:Well, so the Union held Fort Stewart, fort sorry, fort Sumter, and one of it's so interesting one of our plantation owners out here, henry Hartstein. He owned Chinquapin and Greenleaf Plantations. He actually was in the Army, sorry in the Navy, and after South Carolina seceded he resigned his commission in the US Navy and he was actually in charge of removing the federal forces, the Union, from Fort Sumter at the start of the Civil War.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So yeah, very he had an integral role. He did yeah.
Speaker 1:Now we've got plantation owners signing up to be part of the Confederacy. We've got the owners because the union is basically taking over this area.
Speaker 2:So they took over Hilton Head and Beaufort, but they didn't.
Speaker 1:Get out this far.
Speaker 2:They did to an extent. Actually, one of the biggest events and there are several during this time period, but one of the biggest events was the burning of Bluffton, the village of Bluffton during the Civil War and most people know about the burning of Bluffton.
Speaker 1:Could you add some detail to that?
Speaker 2:So the village of Bluffton was being. There were Confederates there, but they were more of an outpost area. Most of them were further inland toward Pritchardville and the Union came up the May River. They actually had dropped off soldiers over in Buckingham Plantation. Had the soldiers march up the road.
Speaker 1:Buckingham Plantation close, close to downtown, as it exists today.
Speaker 2:It's close. It's near the bridge.
Speaker 1:Okay, near the Hilton Head Bridge, hilton Head Bridge Okay, so in that area. Yeah, wow, that's a far march. It's a far march, decent yeah.
Speaker 2:And the boats, the ships continued at the May River, started shelling the town, pushed the Confederates that were there out. What do you mean by?
Speaker 1:shelling the town Sorry.
Speaker 2:Artillery, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Now at the time. What types of weapons are they using in this war that might be beyond our scope, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But they're definitely putting it under fire as they go up the main river so the shells yes, the shells start bombarding the town.
Speaker 2:That allows the union to then come in and burn the town and they burned about 70 of the town and these are just villagers at this time they're living there.
Speaker 1:They're, you know, just trying, just trying to live off the land. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Well being a summer resort it actually would not have been occupied by the plantation owners.
Speaker 1:It would have just been.
Speaker 2:There might have been a few people there, but that wasn't where they were. They were still on. They were further inland.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the Confederates really were there and they decimated the Union, decimated the town. About 15 homes and two churches survived. Today, I think, we have about 10 homes and two churches.
Speaker 1:That survived from that time period that are still in downtown Bluffton post-fire. They are Wow interesting.
Speaker 2:Now, besides the fire and obviously the fighting that's going on in this part of the Lowcountry, any other significant events that happen at this time? The plantations they're growing, the enslaved population is growing. That actually creates some necessities that need to be made by the plantation owners. They need to take care of their enslaved a little bit better, and I don't mean well I just mean improvements improvements, because in 1808 legally they had stopped, on paper they had stopped the importation of people for slavery okay that doesn't mean it actually stopped.
Speaker 2:You know, there were plenty of instances where people were still brought over but there was a written law at this time. That's correct, okay and that forced the, the plantation owners, to take a little bit better care, meaning that they just you see differences in how the, the, the cabins that they're living in, are built. They're built instead of on the ground. They're built off the ground. Um, they did know.
Speaker 2:You know, building a structure off the ground was healthier yeah they really just needed them to live long enough to procreate and create more of their labor force, because these plantations would not have been successful without without more and more people, which is proven after the civil war, when none of the plantations can make a a go of it without their labor force.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So it sounds like plantation owners are definitely changing their ways during this period of time. They're changing the infrastructure for the enslaved and there's a a huge need to continue to take care of the land.
Speaker 2:That's correct, yeah okay.
Speaker 1:So as we start to see the economic landscape building here at Palmetto Bluff, how does this set the stage for the 18th and 19th centuries for?
Speaker 2:the 18th and 19th centuries. Well, the, it was, you know, the the economic boon here. Because of the social and economic landscape of Palmetto Bluff and the surrounding areas it was. It would take probably another hundred years to recover in a lot of ways in this area.
Speaker 1:Meaning like the economy was not thriving during this period of time, so it kind of set us back for those later centuries.
Speaker 2:Well, it was thriving before the Civil War and then the recovery was very slow too. Now Palmetto Bluff in general did well because of John Estill coming in, starting to buy up property and then of course Wilson purchasing from him and expanding the property. But in general it was vastly different.
Speaker 1:Understood. So Wilson and these other property owners, that's who comes in next after this period of time or is it during this period?
Speaker 2:It's after, and there's a little transition right after the Civil War, even actually through 1902 or so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, understood.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I know we'll get more into the Reconstruction era after in the next segment, but slavery definitely changed the socioeconomic status during that time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, well, it's been a pleasure hearing more about the impact of the Civil War here. I had no clue that Hilton Head in Bluffton was taken over by the Union and the fire. It sounds like that happens a lot earlier than a lot of folks presume in downtown Bluffton, but there's multiple fires that start to come about as we continue to live here in the Lowcountry over the years. Is that a fair statement?
Speaker 2:uh, fire was always a major issue. Um, you know, on plantations, you see it, the plantations were the kitchen houses.
Speaker 1:The kitchens were built separate from the main house. Oh wow, and that was obviously to keep smells and odors down. Oh wow, not have to rebuild the house because we are almost anticipating fires at this period of time. Wow, and well, katie, this has been great. Once again, I've enjoyed hearing more about the development and the change it it's overall. The plantations are kind of accounted for at this time. We see more people here, and then things seem to really take fold as we move into the 20th century.
Speaker 2:Yes, they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow. Well, listeners, make sure to stick with us because, as you may be aware, if you're a member on property who lives here, there is a lot that begins to happen as Palmetto Bluff grows and even reflecting on the last 20 years, I'm like, wow, um, the hundred years before the last 20 years, uh, have a lot going on. So you're not going to want to miss a part three. Uh, feel free to hang out with me for a few more minutes and we'll give you a dose of healthy momentum for the rest of your week. Does it really matter? Does it really matter? I want you to remember this question, I want you to use this question and I want you to jump to this question when you are frustrated, tired and upset.
Speaker 1:I think this is important because we go about our days and forget that our interactions always add up. No matter how much energy you start your day with, it will always decrease, like the gas in your car decreases the more miles you drive. You see, we all have what I call a daily internal odometer. Unlike a car odometer that tracks miles, this odometer tracks your social interactions, workload and thoughts. Our social interactions, believe it or not, they can be taxing, and it's due to their sheer frequency Most days, the small interactions with others. They accumulate, increasing our internal odometer. They lead to fatigue, even if no single interaction feels particularly intense, but ever have a lengthy or emotionally charged interaction with another human. What happens to your energy? It plummets. Energy it plummets. Work, our workloads, another given, because even if you like what you do 40 hours a week, 50 hours a week it's still a lot. Any way you carve it Salary professionals. Well, you know, your internal odometer hums and your energy it plummets. And even if you're like me, on top of all the social interactions and your workload, you just layer more onto your internal odometer, unintentional, of course, but you do this with your thoughts. Is this a problem? Nah, it's great to always be thinking I mean, I love it. But what we can't underestimate is the power of our thoughts and what they do to our internal odometer.
Speaker 1:Now, the problem with the internal odometer versus your car odometer is that you will reach a point when it shuts down. It can't take it anymore, unlike your Toyota Corolla that just keeps going. And when you reach that point, everything starts upsetting you, even the dumb and silly things. You treat people differently. You're different in your interactions, you start taking things too seriously. Any little thing makes you tick, sound familiar, it's easy to spot. So for this week, I want you to remember that you have an internal odometer that tracks your social interactions, workload and those thoughts. There will be days when it shuts down, and when it does, I want you to embrace the question does it really matter? Does it really matter? Because when you are frustrated, tired or upset, this question it'll bail you out. That brings us to the end of our episode. Today. We are looking forward to finishing off the History of Palmetto Bluff series with Katie Epps next week and until that time, remember to actively participate in life on your terms. Thanks everyone, thank you.
