From Rose Hill to Brantonsville - pt1

Posted 4/3/19

Faulkner was right. The past is not past. Travel some backroads, and if you know where to look, you can find it. I did one cool Saturday in February. I traveled to Rose Hill Plantation State Historic …

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From Rose Hill to Brantonsville - pt1

Posted

Faulkner was right. The past is not past. Travel some backroads, and if you know where to look, you can find it. I did one cool Saturday in February. I traveled to Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site and Historic Brattonsville, places that draw back the curtains on the past.
Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site
 When you turn off Sardis Road into Rose Hill Plantation, look uphill through old magnolias and you’ll see a plantation home. Closer in, you’ll walk past a 160-year-old rose bush, a garland of pink roses amid jungle-like greenery. Rose Hill, indeed. You’ll see a log cabin, freestanding kitchen, and tenant home too. 
Park Manager Nathan “Nate” Johnson, in his forest green, gleaming brass South Carolina State Park Service uniform delivers a synopsis. “By 1860, Rose Hill was a 2,000-acre cotton plantation. Today, the South Carolina State Park Service protects a 44-acre site at the center of the former plantation. The U.S. Forest Service administers the remaining acreage as part of Sumter National Forest.”
A history of cotton, slavery, and the plantation’s grandeur resurrect the antebellum era but Johnson knows there’s more to Rose Hill than that.
The site contains significant resources besides the main house. Many of the site’s significant stories happened after the Civil War. Reconstruction is a richly documented period in Rose Hill’s history that sheds light on the hopes, dreams, needs, and expectations of freed people. Labor contracts, censuses, voter registrations, court testimonies, school and church records, and militia enrollments are some of the documents we rely on to tell the story of Reconstruction at Rose Hill.
Some know Rose Hill as the home of “Secession Governor,” William Henry Gist, the 68th Governor of South Carolina from 1858 to 1860. Johnson’s mission is to tell lesser-known Rose Hill stories.
“Oral histories from former sharecroppers and tenant families who once lived on the plantation have helped us gain insight into the history of Rose Hill during the early 1900s, he said. “We share their memories with visitors so they feel connected to the site’s history and understand its significance.”
The new vision is to become “A plantation that uses its difficult past to help shape a better future.”
Thus, the Rose Hill team has been researching Reconstruction and late 19th-early 20th century history at the site to incorporate it into their interpretation.
“Part of this research has included conducting oral history interviews with former sharecroppers and community members connected to the history of Rose Hill,” said Johnson. 
Visit Rose Hill Plantation. Nate Johnson, park manager, will give you a memorable tour and interpretation.
“We’re in the process of reinterpreting the site to include all its complex layers of history and memory,” he said. “Community outreach, collaborating with partners, and raising the park’s profile are at the core of my job. We want to get more people involved with Rose Hill and increase awareness of our site’s relevance for everybody. I have always had a strong belief that we can and should learn from our past,” said Johnson.
He’s right. 
In Part II, Preservation/Restoration Specialist Sara Johnson takes us to Historic Brattonsville. 
Journey through time and space at Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site, https://southcarolinaparks.com/rose-hill, (864) 427-5966.
2677 Sardis Road, Union, SC 29379

down south, Rose Hill, Brantsonville, tom poland

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