Boone Hall Plantation
Established in 1681 by Major John Boone, one of the original settlers
of South Carolina, Boone Hall began as a rice plantation and was converted
into a prosperous cotton plantation in the 1800's. The Avenue of
Oaks--a three-quarter mile drive lined with massive Live oaks draped in
Spanish moss--could be seen as Patrick Swayze approached Mount Royal Plantation
in the seemingly endless John Jakes miniseries, North and South.
The
first oak was planted by Captain Thomas Boone in 1843, and his grave marker
is along the avenue.
Bordering the avenue of oaks are nine original slave cabins, which
housed the plantation's house servants and skilled craftsmen, known as
Slave Street. Boone Hall's Slave Street is one of the few remaining
intact in the Southeast and is the only brick slave street in the U.S.
Boone Hall has been featured by Alistair Cooke, Disney, and in multiple
mini-series--Roots, Queenie, North and South and North and South,
Part II. The plantation itself and the outbuildings date back
three hundred years, but the present mansion was built in 1935. |