The Barbados & the Carolinas Legacy Foundation and the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor partnered on a mission to raise awareness of the historic connection that binds South Carolina and Barbados. Through special events, programs and tourism promotion, the project brings awareness to the historic connection and encourages exploration of places tied to this history.
By the late 1660s, Barbados – fueled by the production of sugar – had become the wealthiest English colony in the Americas. The rather sudden boom of “sugar wealth” altered the society and economy of Barbados, and the island’s new culture quickly became the standard for other English possessions in the West Indies.
This new wealth also brought a population boom as people flocked to Barbados, an island 1/5 the size of present-day Charleston, to make their fortune. By 1670, Barbados’ population was estimated at 60,000 inhabitants, with approximately sixty percent being African slaves. As precious cultivatable land became increasingly scarce, plantation owners began to look to the North American mainland.
As a result, Charles Towne was established in 1670 by the eight Lord Proprietors on what came to be called the Ashley River. Over the next three years, well over half of the white settlers and enslaved Africans who arrived in the Carolina colony came from Barbados, bringing with them the successful colonial model that would shape the social and economic future of South Carolina for centuries to come.
The political influence of the Barbadians is evidenced in the political structure as well as the leadership that emerged from the island – seven of the first 21 governors were either Barbadian or had close Barbadian ties. The Barbadians also had an enormous economic influence on the new colony. Their experience and capital, complemented by their entrepreneurial spirit, made the plantation system a reality, although cotton and rice, not sugar, ultimately surfaced as the major cash crops for South Carolina.
Over three centuries later, “The Connection” still exists. The threads of West African and Caribbean influences are woven into the tapestry of South Carolina’s culture. These influences are present in sometimes faint ways, such as in our wonderfully rich culinary, art, and music traditions; and, sometimes in very prominent ways, such as the inspiring Gullah culture and tradition of the Carolina Lowcountry.
The South Carolina National Heritage Corridor and the Barbados and Carolinas Legacy Foundation invite you to experience “The Connection” between the Palmetto State and Barbados. We invite you to learn more about the shared history between two of the earliest English settlements in this part of the world.
Almost interchangeable, these images, one of Bridgetown and one of Charleston, show the similarities of African-influenced culture.
Although removed from Africa, the enslaved peoples retained and practiced much of their culture. The headdresses and instruments shown here are similar to those found in West Africa. Courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
The Holetown Monument commemorates the first English landing in Barbados by Captain John Powell in 1625 (not in 1605 as stated on the main plaque on the monument). Barbados was claimed on behalf of King James I of England and remained as an English territory until Independence in 1966.
THE CONNECTION A Brief History
Despite previously unsuccessful colonization attempts, dreams of territorial expansion and mounting economic pressures in the Caribbean settlements strengthened English resolve to stake their claim on the North American mainland. Carolina held the promise of providing England with what it required: a colony which could serve as a source of raw materials and a challenge to Spanish claims in the south Atlantic. Spain had twice attempted to settle Carolina at Port Royal between 1521 and 1587. In 1562, French Protestants also arrived at Port Royal, but they abandoned it after two years.
In the 1620s, England had begun establishing a presence in the Caribbean and laid claim to Barbados and two other Lesser Antilles islands. Although a Portuguese mariner Pedro a Campos briefly landed at Barbados in 1536 during a voyage to Brazil, it wasn’t until 1627 that Englishman Henry Powell came to Barbados to establish the first settlement on the island. Ten enslaved Africans were obtained during the voyage and were among the first arrivals.
A stretch of the Atlantic Coast near Bathsheba, St. Joseph circa 1955. The National Archives UK
The Holetown Monument commemorates the first English landing in Barbados by Captain John Powell in 1625 (not in 1605 as stated on the main plaque on the monument). Barbados was claimed on behalf of King James I of England and remained as an English territory until Independence in 1966.
In the early years settlers struggled to survive on the island. Soil and climate conditions proved cotton and tobacco less than suitable for cultivation and their labor force was comprise predominantly of white indentured servants. Fortunes turned for the Barbadians when Dutch settlers who had recently been driven out of northeast Brazil by the Portuguese, introduced sugar planting to the island. Enslaved Africans began to replace white indentured servants who cost more and were often difficult to control. With the help of English capital, Barbados quickly developed an immensely successful sugar industry, and became the first plantation boom-economy in Englishspeaking North America.
Barbados quickly became the richest colony in North America, with exports that were more than double that of all other island colonies combined; however, with over 55,000 people inhabiting 166 square miles, it also quickly became the most congested. Small farmers found it increasingly difficult to compete with large plantations, and available land became expensive and scarce. Many of these small farmers left for New England, Virginia, Surinam in South America and other Caribbean islands, particularly Jamaica. The need for new land renewed ideas of exploration of a Carolina colony.
Ligon’s Map of Barbados in the True & Exact History of the Island of Barbados, 1657
Original at The John Carter Brown Library, Brown University
A plantation laborer cuts the sugarcane stalk into setts for planting. Photograph No D 77050 Official Barbados photograph compiled by Central Office of Information National Archives UK
Eight Lords Proprietors had been the driving force behind earlier efforts to establish a colony on the continent. The Proprietors were noblemen who had received land grants and higher ranks in English nobility as a reward for helping to restore King Charles II to the throne of England after his father, King Charles I, was executed during the English Civil War. The names of these eight men – Sir John Colleton; Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon; George Monck, first duke of Albemarle; William Craven, first earl of Craven; Anthony Ashley Cooper, first earl of Shaftesbury; John Berkeley, first baron Berkeley of Stratton; and his brother Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia; and Sir George Carteret – still mark many of the counties, towns, streets and rivers throughout the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
England had made two previous attempts to settle Carolina. In 1663, a group of New Englanders settled around the Cape Fear River, but returned to New England some months later claiming dissatisfaction with the land. That same year a group that called themselves the Barbadian Adventurers expressed an interest in settling Carolina. They hired William Hilton, for whom Hilton Head Island is named, to explore the Carolina coast. He returned with favorable reports about the land near the Cape Fear River. With a crew of 22 and supplies for seven months, the settlers left Speightstown, Barbados, on August 10, 1663, on a ship named the Adventure. They arrived at the Carolina coast on August 26, but the group could not reach an agreement with the proprietors, and the first English attempt to settle Carolina failed.
To make the venture more attractive, in 1665 the Proprietors promised prospective settlers large land grants, religious freedom and the right to set their own laws. A second wave of settlers also arrived at Cape Fear and by 1666 the colony had 800 inhabitants. But a year later the community was abandoned and residents scattered to Virginia and New England. The colony’s failure was initially blamed on a lack of support from the Proprietors and attacks from the Native people. Historians have also argued that the
second attempt to settle Carolina in the mid-1600s failed because England and the Proprietors had more pressing issues at home: England was at war with Holland, bubonic plague struck London, and the Great Fire caused widespread destruction in the capital city.
The two failed attempts to settle Carolina did not deter Lord Ashley Cooper, who has been called the “spark plug” in efforts to establish the colony. He convinced other Proprietors to substantially increase their investment and recruit experienced settlers from other colonies, particularly the successful colony of Barbados, in another attempt to make Carolina a reality. In the third attempt, the Proprietors again promised religious freedom, generous land grants and the absolute power over enslaved people.
In August 1669, three ships - Albemarle, Port Royal and Carolina - set out from England with Carolina as their destination. After a brief stop in Ireland, the fleet began a fortyday voyage to Barbados where the Albemarle was lost in a storm. It was replaced with a locally made sloop called The Three Brothers. After five months in port to take on supplies and Barbadian settlers the expedition set sail on February 26, 1670, along a circuitous route to Carolina. The voyage was not easy. The Port Royal ran aground in the Bahamas. When the other ships sailed to Bermuda a storm forced The Three Brothers to Virginia. On January 12, 1669, the Carolina limped into Bermuda. The Carolina eventually made landfall on March 15, thirty miles north of present-day Charleston at Bull’s Bay.
The settlers originally had planned to establish a colony at Port Royal, south of Charleston, but a Kiawah chief urged the Englishmen to locate on the Ashley River. Historians have suggested that the chief wanted the English close as protection from the plundering Westo Indians. After comparing it with Port Royal, the settlers agreed on the Ashley River site. By settling several miles upriver on a high bluff, they would not be seen from the harbor and it also would be easier to defend against Spanish attack.
Sir John Colleton 1st Baronet
Edward Hyde 1st Earl of Clarendon
George Monck 1st Duke of Albermarle
William Craven 1st Earl of Craven
In April 1670, about 130 colonists settled at a location they named Albemarle Point. On May 23, The Three Brothers arrived at Albemarle after a harrowing experience with Indians and Spaniards off the coast of what is now Georgia.
Initially, most of the colonists were English, with a few from Barbados. But over the next two years more than half of the white colonists and the enslaved Africans came from the tiny island. The Barbadians constituted a majority in the colony for the first two decades, but after the turn of the century the number of white settlers from other European countries would overtake the majority of the population.
Raising cattle was the colony’s first largescale agricultural endeavor. With mild weather and open grassland the colony was a natural for cattle. Carolina’s resources were also suitable for raising hogs. While Barbadians were familiar with cattle, Africans were more experienced at herding cattle on open grassland. Black labor soon replaced whites in the herding of swine and cattle on the open range. In 1708 the adult
male slave population in the colony was 1,800, and nearly 1,000 of them were cowboys or “cattle-hunters.” Black cattlehunters rounded up herds and drove them to pens where cattle were selected for slaughter. Before cattle could be slaughtered the law required that its owner first had to be identified – a problem that was quickly remedied by branding the cattle. Cattle drives, the cattle branding and cowboys were part of the colony more than 150 years before the practices existed in the American West.
Anthony Ashley Cooper 1st Earl of Shaftsbury
John Berkeley
1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton
Sir William Berkeley Governor of Virginia
Sir George Carteret
This map is the first large format map of the newly settled Carolina Colony, preceded only by the much smaller and relatively simple maps by Robert Horne (1666) and John Lederer (1672) and Richard Blome (1672). The Ogilby-Moxon map would come to be known as The First Lords Proprietors Map, with a second Lords Proprietors Map appearing in 1682 .
On November 1, 1670, the settlement at Albemarle Point was renamed “Charles Towne.” Three days later, the Proprietors sent reports to Barbados that the colony was thriving, the Indians were friendly and land was plentiful. The public relations effort paid off. The Carolina made a return voyage to Charles Towne in early 1671 with 64 new settlers from the island. Soon they were followed by other planters who brought their slaves and servants. In December 1679, the Proprietors ordered the settlement moved from Albemarle Point to Oyster Point, at the tip of a peninsula flanked by the Ashley and Cooper rivers, named to honor Lord Ashley. The initial street grid for the new town at Oyster Point was laid out by Barbadian John Culpeper, the colony’s surveyor-general.
A plaque on the statue depicts a Kiawah Indian greeting an English ship arriving at South Carolina located at Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site. The Cassique is seen holding a deerskin as a sign of welcome to the English settlers and to symbolize the trade that will occur between the English and the Kiawah.
The “original” draft of Culpeper’s scaled plan does not exist, and it was probably destroyed in the late seventeenth century as later surveyor generals revised and amended the initial design. The South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAH) in Columbia holds four copies of the Grand Model, including two parchment copies in poor condition that might date from the turn of the eighteenth century, and two paper copies created more than a century after Culpeper’s original plan. The South Carolina Historical Society holds a fifth copy, a parchment thought to date from 1725, a reproduction of which the Society published in 1908.
Watercolor painting view of Charleston, SC (1735-139, Bishop Roberts). Colonial Williamsburg A Rich and Varied Culture Exhibition.
During the early years of colonization, Barbados remained the primary portal for trade between the Carolina colony and the rest of the world. During the colony’s first three decades enslaved workers had more freedom than they would have later on. But in 1696, as the rice plantation system was beginning to take root, the colonists adopted the Barbados slave code that defined slaves as property and allowed a slaveholder to administer unbridled discipline. The Carolina slave codes were the harshest in the American colonies – murder, rape, assault and arson and stealing anything of value were punishable by death. Much of Carolina’s early economic, social, political and cultural customs were heavily influenced by the island colony, marking it with a distinct character unlike any other English settlements in North America.
Right: Trade routes and products shipped. Below: In addition to being a labor force, enslaved Africans became a commodity traded on auction blocks. It is estimated that as many as 40% of all enslaved peoples brought to North America passed through the port of Charleston.
This image from a French source portrays the wrenching experience for Africans of capture, sale, and separation from their land and kinsmen. Designed to promote anti-slavery sentiment, it highlights the inhumanity of slavery and the slave trade. montecello.org
STEDE BONNET
Gentleman Pirate
An engraving from c. 1724 of Stede Bonnet, the notorious Barbadian pirate (d. 1718). This version of the Jolly Roger flag was not actually flown by Bonnet but by the British pirate Richard Worley (d. 1718).
(From an edition of 'A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates' by D. Defoe/Charles Johnson).
Pirates were welcomed in Charles Town’s harbor during the colony’s early years. For the colonists, pirates provided protection and profit. As long as they raided Spanish ships, it reduced the chances that Spain would attack the colony. When these sea-going thieves came ashore they paid for their supplies with Spanish gold and silver and sold their booty below its value.
It was a wonderful arrangement for the profit-seeking colonists, but this relationship did not last long. Eventually, the Proprietors and the Crown began to frown on this illegal business when it threatened English interests. A law was passed to authorize trials for pirates in the colonies or at sea instead of bringing them to London.
Uneducated and unemployed seamen often found their way to a pirate ship’s crew. But one Barbadian named Stede Bonnet was an unlikely candidate for the profession.
Born in 1688, Bonnet’s family owned a plantation three miles east of Bridgetown, Barbados. Shortly after his birth, Bonnet and his two sisters were orphaned when their father and mother died. Bonnet inherited the plantation. Guardians saw to it that he was educated and raised to be a gentleman.
The Jolly Roger flag of the Barbadian pirate Captain Stede Bonnet (d. 1718).
At the age of 21, Bonnet married Mary Allamby in 1709, who was also the daughter of a planter. The newlyweds lived in Bridgetown where their family grew to three sons and a daughter. Bonnet’s status also grew. As a landowner he became a major in the island’s militia. After establishing himself as an upright member of society, he was made a Justice of the Peace in January 1716. A year later, Major Bonnet informed his friends and family that he was leaving Barbados. On March 25, 1718, he prepared the legal papers that allowed his wife and two friends to conduct his affairs while he was away. Bonnet had a secret plan.
Without the knowledge of family and friends, he bought a sloop, named her the Revenge, armed it with ten guns and hired a 70-man crew. He was giving up a gentleman's life to become a pirate.
Bonnet had no experience as captain of a pirate ship. Because he was not a seaman he had to trust the experiences of his crew. Nevertheless, on its maiden voyage to plunder, the Revenge proved worthy. Off the Virginia and Charles Town coasts Bonnet captured several vessels. At least two of them came from Barbados. He burned them to prevent word of his involvement from reaching home.
Bonnet later assumed the name Captain Edwards. While in the Caribbean, his course crossed path with Queen Anne’s Revenge, captained by Edward Teach, the notorious and ruthless Blackbeard. They formed an alliance and hijacked ships in the West Indies. It did not take Teach long to realize that Bonnet was greener than a rookie seaman. He cleverly lured him into giving up command of the Revenge in exchange for quarters on the Queen Anne’s Revenge where he would not be bothered with the demands of commanding a ship and crew. Teach in turn placed one of his trusted men in charge of Bonnet’s ship.
They set sail for the Bay of Honduras and later the Grand Cayman Island. During the voyage Teach was able to expand the fleet to five ships that were used in a May 1718 blockage of Charles Town. For a week Teach seized ships as they entered and left the
harbor. One of the captured ships carried a VIP passenger, Samuel Wragg, a member of the Provincial Grand Council, who was bound for London. After threatening to kill Wragg and the hostages, Teach was able to convince Governor Robert Johnson to exchange them for medical supplies.
Blackbeard’s plans were contrary to the adage that there is honor among thieves. He was laying a plot to cheat Bonnet by running with the valuables the pirate fleet had stolen and sharing it with only a few close comrades. While off the coast of North Carolina, Blackbeard returned Bonnet to the command of the Revenge and falsely announced he planned to seek a Royal Amnesty that was offered to pirates. Bonnet decided to do the same and he did so. But Blackbeard did not. After receiving amnesty, Bonnet returned to the inlet where the Avenger was anchored, but Blackbeard was gone with the loot. Bonnet and his crew searched for him but failed to find Blackbeard. Although he had just received a Royal pardon, Bonnet soon returned to his old pirate ways off the coast of Virginia. To conceal his identity he assumed the name Captain Thomas and changed the name of his vessel to the Royal James
On July 2, 1718, Bonnet and his crew captured the merchant sloop Fortune off the coast of Delaware Bay. Two days later they seized the sloop Frances. They took both sloops to the Cape Fear River where they repaired the Royal James.
As word reached Charles Town that pirates had gathered at Cape Fear, another pirate threat appeared off the coast of Charles Town. Pirate Charles Vane threatened the colony with hopes of having the same success as Blackbeard. But Governor Johnson dispatched two armed ships, the Henry and the Sea Nymph, under the command of Colonel William Rhett to capture Vane. But Vane may have been warned of the attempt to capture him and he escaped. Rhett then decided to investigate the report of pirates at Cape Fear.
Blackbeard the Pirate, from the book General History of the Pirates. 1725. B. Cole. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
Early 18th century engraving of Charles Vane from the book The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pyrates (London, 1725)
On September 26, 1718, Rhett arrived at the Cape Fear but both of his ships ran aground briefly and later dropped anchor for the night. Bonnet, aka Captain Thomas, sent a small boat down river to investigate. When the scouting party returned with word that armed vessels were at the river Bonnet prepared the Royal James for a fight.
During the battle on the following day Rhett’s two vessels and Bonnet’s ship sailed into shallow water and were grounded. During the gun battle, Rhett’s men got the upper hand and Bonnet surrendered. Rhett was pleasantly surprised to learn that the pirate leader Captain Thomas was “the” Stede Bonnet. He and 33 of his men who survived the gun battle were taken to Charles Town where the crew was placed in the Watch-house. Bonnet, however, was considered a gentleman. He was held in the house of the provost marshal. On October 24, 1718, Bonnet escaped and the provost marshal was dismissed under suspicion that he being a Barbadian had aided Bonnet’s escape.
Four days later while Bonnet was still at large, Bonnet’s men were arraigned and all but four were convicted of piracy and sentenced to death. They were hanged November 8 at the tip of the Charles Town peninsula. Two days before his men were hanged on November 8, Bonnet was recaptured and placed under heavy guard. Two days after the executions, Bonnet was put on trial and, like the majority of his crew, he was convicted and sentenced to hang by his neck until dead.
The execution was set for December 10, 1718. Before he was carried out, Bonnet pleaded for mercy and his supporters also asked Governor Johnson to commute his sentence. But the governor was not moved. A frightened and semi-conscious Bonnet went to the gallows with his manacled hands clutching a faded bouquet of flowers. His body hanged in the chilly December wind for several days before it was cut down and buried beyond the low-water mark.
Unlike Bonnet, Blackbeard was not captured and brought to trial. He was killed off the coast of North Carolina on November 22, 1718, in a fight with two Royal Navy vessels dispatched from Virginia. Blackbeard’s head was severed and taken back to port. His body was dumped into the sea.
A plaque that stands under the broad branches of the oak trees in White Point Garden at the Charleston Battery marks the day that Bonnet died. Its inscription reads: “Near this point in the autumn of 1718, Stede Bonnet, notorious “gentleman pirate,” and twenty-nine of his men, captured by Colonel William Rhett, met their just deserts. After a trial and charge, famous in American history, by Chief Justice Nicholas Trott. All were buried off White Point Gardens, in the marshes beyond low water mark.”
Bonnet’s friends could only speculate as to why he gave up his life of luxury in Barbados for a harrowing life of piracy. Some blamed a mental disorder that followed an unhappy marriage, while others said he was simply searching for adventure.
Title page of The tryals of Major Stede Bonnet and Other Pirates 1719. London. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.law/llscd.201000158861859
Wally Gobetz, flickr
Courtesy of Thomas Kelly Pauley
THE GOOSE CREEK MEN
The first four decades of Carolina have been called the age of the Goose Creek Men, an influential political faction of Barbados planters who settled in Goose Creek, a community just north of Charleston.
A decade before Carolina was founded, white servants who had satisfied the condition of their indenture, small planters, craftsmen and the sons of large planters left Barbados. Some of them returned to England. Others ventured to other Caribbean islands and North American colonies.
At Carolina, some of them first settled in 1665 at the Cape Fear River, then by 1670 at Goose Creek. These veteran farmers and explorers brought with them slaves, the parish system, and the Anglican Church. As the colony was being established these independent and confident settlers were the kind of people the Proprietors had encouraged to join the colony to increase its chances of its success, but these settlers soon formed the core of political dissent.
From 1670 to 1712, the Goose Creek men saw the Proprietors and their allies in the colony as a threat to the way they wanted to do business. After all, they came to Carolina for one purpose only – to make money –and they did not want anyone, not even the government, to interfere with their ability to profit from the illegal Indian slave trade or do business with pirates, including the gentleman pirate, Stede Bonnet.
Women in the Goose Creek community were also active politically. One observer at the time said, “The women of the town (Goose Creek) are tuned politicians also and have a club where they meet weekly.” It was highly unusual and progressive at that time for women to be so politically engaged.
As tensions mounted, the Proprietors initiated efforts to entice new settlers into the colony for the dual purpose of making a profit and lessening the political influence of the unruly Barbadians.
The drive to diversify the colony brought in Quakers, Huguenots, English Baptist, and Scottish Presbyterians. Many came as indentured servants, pushing the colony’s population to about 2,500 by 1685. As members of the Church of England, the Goose Creek men resented these outsiders and did not support the idea of religious freedom that attracted the newcomers to Carolina.
The proprietors also removed Goose Creek Men from appointed government positions. But the politically cunning Goose Creek Men were able to gain de facto control of the colony in the 1690s through the Common House of Assembly, in which they held a majority. By 1719, colonists mounted a “bloodless coup” against the Proprietors that placed Carolina on the path of becoming a colony controlled by the British government by 1721.
The change from proprietary rule to a royal government did not solve all of the Goose Creek Men’s problems. Issues of currency, political representation and taxation continued to trouble the people from Goose Creek. Their dissent became part of an even wider call for independence. A half century after the Goose Creek Men defeated the Proprietors, their sons and daughters raised their voices in the 1776 revolution.
The Charter granted by King Charles II to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina in 1663. Image from the collections of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History.
The official seal of the Carolina Colony from a map published in 1711 by Edward Crisp, held at the Library of Congress.
Sir John Yeamans was the third leader to govern Charles Town from April 19, 1672 to August of 1674 when he died. The Goose Creek Men were led by Sir John Yeamans, Maurice Mathews, Robert Daniell, James Moore, Jr. and Arthur Middleton. Ultimately they staged a coup and overthrew the Proprietary regime.
Above: An illustration from the December 1875 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine shows the interior of St. James Church in Goose Creek, South Carolina. St. James Goose Creek Parish Church, circa 1719, Goose Creek
ASHLEY RIVER PLANTATIONS
Three plantations – Middleton Place, Magnolia and Drayton Hall – are along the Ashley River’s west bank upstream from the site of the original colony. The story of these three estates and the families that lived there mirrors the history of South Carolina – from its colonial beginnings, through the American Revolution and Civil wars. Today, they are nationally-recognized heritage sites that draw visitors from around the world who come to admire their formal gardens and historic houses.
MIDDLETON PLACE
In 1678, Edward Middleton emigrated from Barbados to the Carolina colony, where he was appointed as a proprietary deputy and an associate justice. Having been a widower for an extended period, Middleton married Sarah Fowell in 1680. The following year, Sarah gave birth to their only child, Arthur, who served as governor of South Carolina from 1725 – 1730.
Arthur Middleton’s son, Henry, was born in the colony at The Oaks, the family’s plantation in St. James Goose Creek Parish. When Arthur Middleton died in 1737, Henry inherited land in England, Barbados and South Carolina. In 1741, Henry married Mary Williams, whose dowry included the plantation property that would become Middleton Place.
During the years prior to the American Revolution, Henry Middleton expanded his land holdings, and eventually became one of South Carolina’s wealthiest planters. He also served as a president of the Continental Congress but resigned before the Declaration of Independence was signed. His son, Arthur Middleton (born June 1742), signed the document.
This is a colorized version of a sketch made in 1842 showing the original main house, as well as the north and south flankers. This is the land side of the home.
During the siege of Charleston, British troops ransacked Middleton Place and captured and imprisoned Arthur Middleton. Arthur was released in 1781, and two years later the surrender terms removing British troops from the Southern colonies was signed at Middleton.
The plantation suffered more destruction during the American Civil War, as Union troops burned the main house, north flanker and part of the south flanker. The soldiers also killed and ate five water buffalo that had been imported to the plantation from Constantinople for use in the rice fields. The remaining six water buffalo were stolen, only to turn up later in Central Park Zoo.
The Middleton family made a modest recovery following the war, allowing them to make minor repairs to the plantation; however, the walls of the main house and north flanker were toppled by an earthquake in 1886. The house and gardens lay in disrepair until the early 1900s, when The house and gardens lay in disrepair until the early 1900s, when John Julius Pringle Smith (great- great- great- grandson of Henry Middleton) began replanting and reworking the gardens, eventually earning recognition as a historic landmark and boasting “the most interesting and important garden in the United States.”
MAGNOLIA PLANTATION
and GARDENS
About 60 Draytons lived in Barbados, mostly in St. Michael and Christ Church parishes. But in a 1996 interview, the late Barbados historian Peter Campbell says he doubts that Thomas Drayton Jr. – founder of the Magnolia plantation – was among them.
Campbell, who has done exhaustive research on the Drayton family history, talks about those 17th century settlers as if he knew them personally. Thomas Drayton Jr., he says, came to the Carolina colony around the end of April 1679 and developed a large plantation. Thomas Drayton Jr. did not live in Barbados, Campbell argues.
A Thomas Drayton lived in Barbados in the 1600s, but Campbell speculates that Thomas Drayton Jr., whom he calls Thomas of Carolina, sailed from England to Barbados and purchased a ticket in Barbados for the Carolina colony. Ships sailing from England to the colony stopped at Barbados before proceeding to Carolina.
The other Thomas Drayton, whom Campbell calls Thomas of Barbados, was a shingler and perhaps a distant cousin of Thomas Drayton Jr. Thomas of Carolina sailed to the Carolina on the Mary, captained by Nicholas Lockwood. The ship's manifest listed Thomas Drayton Jr. and 12 other people.
As the story goes, in the mid-1600s, Thomas Drayton and his son Thomas Drayton Jr. left England for Barbados. But soon after they arrived, the soaring population and scarcity of land convinced the younger Drayton to seek his fortune elsewhere. He chose Carolina over the other established English colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean. Following his marriage to Ann Fox, they established the Magnolia plantation on some property Ann’s father – fellow Barbadian Stephen Fox – had acquired to miles upriver from the Charles Towne settlement.
During the mid-1800s, John Grimke Drayton began creating a series of romantic gardens on the property – in part because he believed the outdoor work would help him recover from tuberculosis, and also in order to make his wife, Julia Ewing, feel more at home after her move from Philadelphia. John introduced the first azaleas to America, and was also among the first to cultivate the Camellia Japonica outdoors. John not only eventually recovered from tuberculosis, but also planted some of the first seeds that gained the Magnolia plantation’s horticultural fame.
To pay homage to Barbados, Magnolia created The Barbados Tropical Garden, which features plants native to the island – as a tribute to Thomas and Ann Fox Drayton.
DRAYTON HALL
John Drayton, (1715-1779), the greatgrandson of Thomas Drayton Jr., Magnolia’s founder, established Drayton Hall in 1738 at the age of 23. He was born at the neighboring Magnolia Plantation, but after he failed to inherit his birthplace, Drayton purchased acreage near Magnolia and built Drayton Hall. When his nephew William Drayton, the owner of Magnolia, moved to Florida, John Drayton was able to acquire Magnolia. He owned and maintained both properties until his death in 1779 while fleeing British occupation.
During the American Revolution, Drayton Hall served as a British army headquarters for Sir Henry Clinton and, later, General Charles Cornwallis. As the tide began to turn during the war, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne used Drayton Hall as his headquarters until the British evacuated Charleston.
Following the American Revolution, Charles Drayton purchased the property from his stepmother, Rebecca Perry Drayton – John’s fourth wife. Despite the decline of the plantation economy, rice cultivation remained the primary source of income for the Drayton family until the American Civil War.
Drayton Hall’s main house is the only remaining colonial structure on the Ashley River to have survived the Civil War. There are varying accounts regarding why Drayton Hall was spared from destruction by the Union Army; however, the most substantiated – and perhaps most interesting – story relates that Dr. John Drayton posted yellow flags at the property’s entrance, indicating that it was being used as a hospital for cholera treatment.
When photographed by George LaGrange Cook in about 1890, Drayton Hall's two flanker buildings were still extant Both flanker buildings were removed due to the damage sustained during the 1886 earthquake and the Great 1893 Hurricane.
the BOWENS FAMILY
Richmond Bowens is buried near the entrance to Drayton Hall Plantation. It is a fitting resting place for Bowens, Drayton Hall’s gatekeeper who spent nearly two decades telling stories of his family’s connection to the plantation. Bowens said his family came to the Carolina Colony from Barbados as slaves with the Drayton family.
Born Sept. 2, 1908, a son of Richmond and Anna Bowens, Bowens grew up at Drayton Hall and didn't leave until just before World War II. He moved to Chicago where he worked mostly as a chauffeur. He returned to Charleston in the mid-70s and became a gatekeeper and oral historian at Drayton Hall.
Richmond Bowens, born at Drayton Hall in 1908, sat in his rocking chair on the Museum Shop's porch during the 1990s where he would recall his 23 years of life growing up on the property between 1908 and 1931 when Drayton Hall was still privately owned. The rocking chair is part of Drayton Hall's collection.
In November 1996, a year before he died, Bowens traveled to Barbados and received a celebrity's welcome. He met the prime minister, the U.S. ambassador and two brothers who live near the Bowens ancestral home in Barbados and whose last name is Bowen, spelled without the “s”. Because the younger men resembled him, Richmond Bowens believed they are related and that he was reunited with his family.
Bowens' cousin, Valerie Bowens-Gadsden of Charleston, who went to Barbados with him, said, “Traveling to Barbados was like a pilgrimage for him. I was happy he had the opportunity to fulfill a life-long dream. He was a family icon who brought a rich sense of history to everyone who met him," she said.
When David Bowen of Barbados met Bowens they saw a family resemblance. It was the face, the shape of the head and nose that gave them a feeling that after 300 years their family - separated by slavery – was reunited. Richmond Bowens said, “Well, you know the Bowens, they all resemble one another. All of them have a certain kind of look." They met at the St. Lucy Parish Church, an Anglican sanctuary near Hope Plantation that is believed to be Richmond Bowens' ancestral home.
During an interview in the fall of 1997, Bowens sat on the porch of a little woodframe house at Drayton Hall where he customarily sat to tell his stories. When Bowens was 14 it was his home. Bowens didn’t notice that clouds had turn darker, and the breeze rustled the leaves above the house. He just kept talking and with each story, he punctuated it with: “I am telling you what I know."
When he was a boy at Drayton Hall, families grew corn and fed it to horses and cows. They tended vegetable and flower gardens. People lived close to the earth. Children got close attention, too. Everyone took responsibility for the children, he said from his rocking chair.
People had respect. Men went into the woods to gamble, away from the disapproving glare of church people. What a person did, Bowens said, determined how one lived. Off in the misty distance, Bowens recalls a hovering light. No matter how fast he'd run toward it, he could not reach it. It was the will-o'-the-wisp, he said.
Richmond Hershel Bowens (1880-1920), resided at Drayton Hall and worked for the phosphate mining company in the late 1800s. He married Anna Bryan (1893-1937) and they lived in a house along the entry road. Their son, Richmond Bowens, Jr. (1908-1998), grows up at Drayton Hall.
Center: young Richmond Bowens (1908-1998), the seventhgeneration descendant of enslaved people who lived and worked at Drayton Hall. He would grow up to become the greatest resource on the site's African American history. Shown with (L-R) his mother, Anna Bryan Bowens, and his aunt, Harriet May.
Before his death, Richmond Bowens traveled the old trading route back to Barbados to reestablish the family links severed by slavery. Mr. Bowens [center] is shown here flanked by his cousins, Julian [left] and David [right] Bowen-spelled without an 's' in Barbados-at St. Lucy Parish Church near Hope Plantation in Barbados.
“Will-O'-The-Wisp, Mr. Bowens' Days Along the Ashley," is a collection of his stories about Drayton Hall. Written by Charleston author Thelma Hughes Gillam, the book was published in 1995. Bowens reached for a copy. He read from a chapter titled “Charleston in the 1920s.”
“If my mother was going to Charleston to shop, we would take a buggy into town. Mr. Sigwall had a yard on Cannon Street right next to that fire station before you get to King Street. He had a stable there and all the people who come in wagons and buggies they would park their wagons and buggies in that yard. He had stalls to put the horses in. And if the people want the horses shoed and needed any kind of blacksmith work done while they go shopping, he'd do that. The buggy and the wagon was charged the same price. It wasn't much, but everybody paid. A two-seated buggy was called a hack,” he said.
A buggy wasn't the only way to get to Charleston, he said. The train picked up passengers not far from Drayton Hall. They'd get off in the city at the east end of Columbus Street. The ride costs 15 cents. To tell his stories, Bowens used more than memory. Behind his green rocking chair, a bundle of long stalks of brown sage grass leaned against the little red house. “We swept the yard with that," he said. From a desk drawer, he pulled a dried stalk of rice, protected in a plastic bag. The owners of Drayton Hall grew rice and other crops.
He removed a big black binder from the drawer. It held a family tree that includes his grandfather, Caesar Bowens, his brother, John, and their sister, Catherine. When did they come to Drayton Hall from Barbados? “I don't know," Bowens answered in a soft voice, seeming to regret that detail is as unreachable as the will-o'-the-wisp.
Slavery at Drayton Hall, he said, "wasn't rosy because people were powerless." But when Bowens was a boy at Drayton Hall, it was a better time. “It was a wonderful beautiful place. You didn't have nobody telling you [that] you can't step here or step there. I am telling you what I know.”
Artifacts of Richmond Bowens on display at the preserved Caretaker's House on the grounds of Drayton Hall.
Descendants of the Drayton and Bowens families. L-R: Charles H. "Charlie" Drayton III (1918-2019) and Richmond Bowens, Jr. (1908-1988)
The Caretaker's House c. 1860. The exhibition uses the architectural fabric of the house to translate the stories of the people who lived there; while historic photographs, collections objects, and architectural features further illuminate a complex period of history seldom interpreted at plantation sites.
The Bowens family was the only one to remain at Drayton Hall after emancipation, he said. Other black families moved there and worked in the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Bowens died in June 1998 at age 89. Charles Drayton, a seventh-generation descendant of John Drayton, recalled Bowens as “a good, old wonderful friend. We grew up together.”
George McDaniel, director of Drayton Hall, said, “It is hard to say what Richmond Bowens was in one sentence. He was a gentleman, a family man, a Christian, an educator, a historian, a storyteller and a man with a wonderful heart.
“People were attracted to him all through his years of work at Drayton Hall, and he tried to honor their interest in history by telling them, as honestly and as accurately as he could, the story of his life and his community and the values in which he was raised.”
Bowens was laid to rest in a cemetery where his relatives are buried. McDaniel said, “It is believed that Caesar is buried there, too."
The memorial arch guides visitors through the entrance to the 18th-century African American Cemetery, the oldest documents African American cemetery in the nation still in use.
the SINGLE HOUSE
The Single House is one of the most visible reminders in downtown Charleston of the Barbados-Carolina connection.
Unique to Charleston, the traditional Single House is a long narrow rectangle, one room wide with a single gabled roof. The short side of the roof faces the street. A street entrance on the short side leads to a porch (piazza in the Charleston vernacular) on the long side of the house. The main entrance to the house opens in the center of the long side and leads to a central stair hall, which separates the interior into two rooms on each floor. There could be multiple floors with piazzas on each level. The other long side of the house from the piazza is on the lot line with few windows to provide privacy.
In Charleston, the Single House was adapted to the local climate. The piazza typically faces south or west to intercept a cool summer breeze. The long, narrow design of the free-standing dwelling allowed for wind to flow through the house.
Historians point to language, architecture and an early drawing of Bridgetown as evidence that Barbados likely influenced the Charleston Single House. Architectural historian Robert Stockton of Charleston said a type of house in London called the “unit-house” influenced the way craftsmen built the homes of Barbados and the Carolina Colony.
While much of the architectural inventory of Barbados was destroyed by a series of fires, a 1695 engraving of Bridgetown shows tall, narrow, gabled houses that resemble rows of single houses. The word “single house” is found in a book published in London that describes the houses in Bridgetown, not Charleston. In Richard Ligon’s 1657 book, “A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados,” he refers to the “single house.” Ligon touted the advantages of the single house and not the “double house” with two parallel gables. The single house, Ligon said, was cooler. He described how to position it for minimum exposure to the tropical sun.
Ligon’s account of a tropical house design led historians Warren Alleyne and Charles Fraser, authors of “The Barbados-Carolina Connection,” to conclude that it set the “pattern for seventeenth century building in Barbados and influenced the design of houses in early Charleston.”
Luckily, fire did not destroy the country’s entire architectural inventory. At least three Barbados single houses that remain show characteristics of the Charleston Single House.
In Speightstown, north of Bridgetown, the Arlington house stands as the most striking example of the connection. The three-story Arlington has a narrow vertical form topped with a pitched gabled roof. It is long and narrow. In 1950, piazzas or galleries were removed when the house was used as the country’s first public health clinic. Two other buildings that resemble the Charleston Single House are the Industry Cot on Bay Street in Bridgetown and the historic Seaview Hotel at Hastings, near the Garrison. Scattered around the old sections of Bridgetown in the Bay Street and Roebuck and Baxter’s roads areas are other houses of “single house” design but the majority have been altered.
Built in the mid 1700's as the canteen for the British soldiers garrisoned there, from the early 1800's it became known as Sheriff's House and in 1887 it was opened as the Seaview Hotel. Today, it is managed by the Sun Group and has been renamed The Savannah Beach Hotel.
If you’ve ever been to Charleston, South Carolina the architecture of Arlington House will strike you as familiar, as the Charlestonian “single house” structures were most likely inspired by those in Barbados. Today Arlington House is a three-story interactive museum where visitors of all ages will enjoy engaging in Barbados history.
Stockton may be the first historian to link Charleston’s Single House through Barbados back to England. In London, the English lived in unit-houses. (Unit means typical.) A unit-house was an urban dwelling one room wide, rectangular, multi-storied with a gabled roof, Stockton said. “That was the kind of house that was being built in the 17th century when Barbados and Charleston was being settled,” he said. The unit-house would have been the cultural memory of the carpenters and bricklayers who brought that house type from Barbados.
“The single house in Barbados and the single house in Charleston evolved in different directions,” he maintained. “The concept of the unit-house was transported to Barbados and Charleston and it became the single house in both places.”
In part, it is Charleston’s historic houses that have attracted tourists to the city by the sea where visitors get a daily dose of a bit of “tour-guide lore,” said Stockton, who has edited the manual that tour guides study to be licensed by the city.
It’s often said that the narrow side of the Charleston Single House is turned toward the street to reduce property taxes as homeowners were taxed on the street frontage. That’s a good story, Stockton said, but it is not correct.
Almost interchangeable, these images, one of Charleston and one of Bridgetown, show the similarities of African-influenced architecture.
CHARLES TOWNE LANDING
Over 300 years ago, a small band of Barbados planters, their servants and slaves sailed northwest to the New World and founded what would become the birthplace of the Carolina Colony and the plantation system of the American South. That, of course, would be Charleston, and the historic town’s birthplace. The settlers – looking for a place to grow sugar cane as they did in Barbados – settled on a spit of marshy land they named Albemarle Point on what is now the Ashley River. That was in 1670. Ten years later, the settlement was moved across the river to what is now downtown Charleston. The original site of Charleston is now preserved, interpreted and presented in colorful, living history fashion at Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site.
One of only a handful of original settlement sites that still exist in the United States
12-room exhibit hall with interactive exhibits
Adventure - a replica 17th-century trading vessel visitors can board and explore beneath the deck
Animal Forest - the only zoo in the Charleston area
Majestic alley of oaks that will take your breath away
Reproduction cannons that are fired on special event days throughout the year
6 miles of trails for walking, biking, and exploring
80 acres of park gardens
664 acres of beautiful lowcountry scenery
ST. NICHOLAS ABBEY
Though the name suggests so, St. Nicholas Abbey has never been religiously affiliated and has always been a sugarcane plantation house. The story here begins in the 1600s and is full of intrigue and scandal, during which the original owner, Benjamin Berringer, was allegedly killed by his neighbor Sir John Yeamans, who went on to marry Berringer’s wife. Yeamans moved with his bride to the colonies where he was appointed Governor of the English Province of Carolina at Charles Town in 1672. He is thought to have brought some of the first slaves to the colony. Yeamans eventually returned to Barbados where he lived at the plantation until his death. Today visitors can take an hourly tour of the great house, syrup factor, and bottling plant. There is also a café, formal gardens, a museum, and rum tastings.
CHERRY TREE HILL ST. PETER, BARBADOS stnicholasabbey.com
FEATURES
One of just three Jacobean style mansions remaining in the Western Hemisphere
Over 400 acres of undulating sugar cane fields, lush tropical gullies, mahogany forests, and formal gardens
One of just four distilleries in Barbados, St. Nicholas Abbey has shunned mass production and complex mechanical systems in favor of the traditional distillation process that made Barbadian rum famous over 350 years ago.
Authentic Victorian steam railway attraction
Terrace Café features lunch and light refreshments
Gift shop offering locally made crafts and products, including brown sugar, molasses, rum cake, chutneys, jellies and jam
BARBADOS MUSEUM and HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The connection between Barbados and South Carolina will be apparent by exploring the huge variety of galleries at the local museum in Barbados, including the Jubilee Gallery, where you can walk through more than 4,000 years on the island from the earliest inhabitants to European settlement, and the transition to a plantation society.
ST. ANN'S GARRISON ST. MICHAEL, BARBADOS barbmuse.org.bb
FEATURES
Located in Barbados' UNESCO World Heritage Property of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison
Galleries are housed in 19th-century military prison buildings
More than 500,000 artifacts that depict the island's rich history and natural history
Museum Shop has 100% Bajan-made items local books, jewelry, prints, and trinkets
The Jairus Brewster Children's Gallery is an interactive gallery which is geared towards science, technology and other STEM disciplines
Offers comprehensive genealogy services to those wishing to research their ancestry
The Shilstone Memorial Library has a curated collection of over 7,000 monographs, journals and pamphlets dedicated to Barbadian and Caribbean history and heritage
ARLINGTON HOUSE MUSEUM
If you’ve ever been to Charleston, South Carolina the architecture of Arlington House will strike you as familiar, as the Charlestonian “single house” structures were most likely inspired by those in Barbados.
Today Arlington House is a three-story interactive museum where visitors of all ages will enjoy engaging in Barbados history.
SPEIGHTSTOWN ST. PETER, BARBADOS barbadosnationaltrust.com
FEATURES
The Arlington House is a restored 18th century ship chandlers house and one of the oldest surviving properties in Speightstown Barbados.
Interactive three-story museum that is both educational and engaging.
The three story house is built of coral, limestone and rubble masonry, all being cemented together with a mortar made from egg whites and molasses creating walls that are over two feet thick.
Using unique displays with sound effects, video and electronics, the museum lays out the history of Barbados from three points of view.
A talking pirate recalling the importance of Speightstown as a leading port and trade hub is a visitor favorite.
GEORGE WASHINGTON HOUSE
One of the most notable historical sites in Barbados is the George Washington House, located in the capital city of Bridgetown, St. Michael. This site holds significance as it was once visited by George Washington, the first President of the United States, in 1751. Today, the George Washington House stands as a testament to Barbados’ colonial past and its ties to American history.
Visitors to the George Washington House can explore the beautifully preserved residence, gardens, and the nearby Garrison Tunnels. These tunnels, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, offer a glimpse into the island’s military history and provide an immersive experience for visitors. Tours are available in 6 languages, making them accessible to a diverse range of travelers.
THE GARRISON ST. MICHAEL, BARBADOS georgewashingtonbarbados.com
FEATURES
Over 200 artifacts, books, paintings, and furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Gift Shop with historical publications including George's Diary (the journal he kept of his visit to Barbados in 1751).
Audio Guides are available and provide the tour in 6 languages.
Learn about and experience the mysterious Garrison Tunnels, built around 1820 partly to provide covert communications and escape for 3,000 soldiers who lived in Barbados’ Garrison.
Enjoy Dinner with George - a unique and prestigious Dinner Theater Production
George Washington House BARBADOS 1751
WHEN TEACHING HISTORY Makes History
Words by Michelle McCollum
How do I introduce someone who has championed an international movement? Who has successfully brought people from different countries, different backgrounds and different generations together? Who has literally changed how we perceive our history and heritage? I’ll start by introducing her simply as Mrs. Rhoda Green; my friend, my mentor, and now my partner in a collective project.
The congressional mandate of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor is to preserve, protect and promote the history, culture, and natural resources of our state. I know, big mission. So, when I accepted the position of President of the organization, I set out on my own personal mission to learn. You must know what you don’t know, right? And, as a student of British history, I knew to be effective I had brush up on my South Carolina history. For anyone seeking to do the same, might I suggest Walter Edgar’s book, “South Carolina: a history.” Might I also suggest talking to Rhoda.
After just one meeting Rhoda convinced me that in order to truly understand the history of our state, the journey begins in Barbados. Barbados is a tiny island, smaller than our state’s smallest county. But, Barbadian planters and enslaved people from the island settled in the late 1600’s in what is now Charleston and set the course for our state’s political and social structure. The more she educated me, the more I wanted to know.
And the big question to me was why this was never mentioned in my history classes growing up in the South Carolina school system. I pulled out my children’s history books and did find a small mention. Progress!
But for Rhoda, a mere mention was not enough. Her quest was just beginning. The advancement of the story from the two paragraphs in my child’s 8th grade history book to what is now transpiring is nothing less than spectacular; it has been the history that time has forgotten – until now. And no one is more responsible for this change than Rhoda. Her husband, Robert, agrees.
"She is one of the most selfless people I know - thinking of everyone else first. She has a fantastic perspective where she can see the big picture and has an amazing way to bringing her vision to life. She has dogged determination and doesn't take no for an answer. - Robert Green
Award-winning author and Charleston native Matt Lee of The Lee Bros., Rhoda and Robert Green
Rhoda immigrated to Brooklyn, New York in 1962. Robert joined her in Brooklyn a little while later and they moved to Charleston with their four young children in 1978. She felt at home in Charleston and began to see many similarities between Charleston and Barbados. In 1986, she made a trip back to Barbados for a family funeral and picked up a copy of the first edition of “The Barbados-Carolina Connection” written by two Barbadian history professors. Reading this book ignited a passion that has sparked a movement.
When I met Rhoda in 2005, she had already laid a solid foundation for the movement and built a strong network of people and organizations that shared her passion for telling the Barbados -Carolina story. She created the Barbados Carolina Legacy Foundation on June 18th, 2012 to facilitate business, education, historical, and cultural collaboration between Barbados and the Carolinas. Through the foundation, she works tirelessly to ensure constant communication among the partners, in both South Carolina and Barbados. The most recent project is a partnership between the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor, the Barbados Carolina Legacy Foundation and the South Carolina ETV to create a documentary on the shared history and curriculum standards for South Carolina schools.
Since our time together, political figures have come and gone, heads of tourism agencies have dabbled in telling the story, and marketers have sought ways to make money from the story. The constant has always been Mrs. Rhoda Green, the foundation of this effort. While teaching history, she is also making it.
Click the image above to view the Beyond Barbados: The Carolina Connection documentary.
Many efforts over the past decade have gone into preserving and protecting this important cultural “connection”. To-date the partnership between the SC National Heritage Corridor (SCNHC) and the Barbados Carolina Legacy Foundation has included the following:
2007: "THE CONNECTION" ART EXHIBIT
Over 70 artists, with over 100 pieces, from Barbados and South Carolina participated in a traveling juried art show. The exhibit traveled through SC and on to Barbados. Each exhibit opening included cultural performances for the community as well as performances at local schools.
2008: CULTURAL CONNECTION SYMPOSIUM
Over 80 delegates from SC traveled to Barbados to participate in a cultural symposium which included sessions on genealogy, art, agriculture, tourism and trade. Over 200 Barbadians participated in the event.
2010: INTERNATIONAL HERITAGE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
In partnership with the Alliance of National Heritage Areas, the SCNHC held a conference with “The Connection” as the over-arching cultural theme and a Diversity Forum was the central kick-off event. Over 2,500 participants attended.
2011: BARBADOS COMES BACK TO CHARLESTON
“Barbados Comes Back to Charleston” was a five-day celebration highlighting the shared history and heritage of Barbados and Charleston. A lecture, open air market, live entertainment and a gala are a few events on the schedule for this Barbadian extravaganza.
2015: GROWING THE CONNECTION
This three-day event included a lecture series on "The Connection" at the College of Charleston, a community reception highlighting food and music and a Connection Roundtable including delegates from Barbados and SC.
2018: COLLABORATIVE WEBSITE LAUNCH
A new collaborative website was created for the Legacy Foundation that includes a blog series and information on the on-going Barbados-Carolina Connection project. barbadoscarolinas.org
2019: BEYOND BARBADOS DOCUMENTARY
A historical documentary of the Barbados Carolina Connection project launched in 2019 around the state and nation. Teacher workshops are being held to introduce educators on the newly developed history curriculum standards.
2022: GROWING THE CONNECTION
A delegation of community leaders and elected officials from South Carolina traveled to Barbados for a series of meetings on growing business and trade opportunities between the state and Barbados.
2023: ANNUAL CURATED TRIPS
With 2023 being the inaugural trip, the SC National Heritage Corridor is now conducting an annual curated trip from Charleston to Barbados. This trip includes tours of sites important to the historic and cultural connection, with additional elements of health and wellness (forest therapy, spa treatments, sunrise hikes, etc.).
McCormick, South Carolina artist Jeffrey Callaham captured the beautiful island of Barbados, it's people and it's story through his original painting created for The Connection.
