North Charleston Living - Plantations

Plantations of North Charleston: 

From the 17th century until the Civil War, plantations cultivated commodity crops, such as rice and indigo. Some of the plantations located in what is now North Charleston were:

French Botanical Garden historical marker, located off Aviation Avenue

• Archdale Hall Plantation – dating from 1680, Archdale Hall was located on the Ashley River. By 1783, it had grown to almost 3,000 acres (12 km²). Its primary crops were indigo and rice. The plantation was the longest family-owned plantation in South Carolina. It has since been redeveloped into the Archdale subdivision. (Archdale subdivision is not in corporate city limits of, but is surrounded by North Charleston)
  
• Camp Plantation – dating from 1705, Camp Plantation covered around 1,000 acres (4.0 km²).
• Elms Plantation – dating from 1682, Elms Plantation was founded by Ralph Izard. Its principal crop was rice. It covered nearly 4,350 acres (17.6 km²), stretching across parts of what are now the cities of Goose Creek and North Charleston. Charleston Southern University is located on part of the original plantation lands.
• French Botanical Garden – established between 1786 and 1796, this small plantation/garden area of 111 acres (0.45 km²) was owned and maintained by the French botanist André Michaux. It was closed by Michaux's son in 1803. The garden was located near what is today the Charleston International Airport, and the parkway connecting Dorchester Road with International Boulevard is named in his honor.
•                  Marshlands, Mons Repos and Retreat plantations – the Retreat Plantation dates from 1672 and the Marshlands Plantation dates from 1682. Mons Repos was developed around 1798. The land from all three plantations was acquired by the federal government for development of the Charleston Naval Base and Charleston Naval Shipyard. TheMarshlands Plantation's main house has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, To preserve the house, it was moved to Fort Sumter Drive on James Island.
• Oak Grove Plantation – dating from 1680, Oak Grove originally covered 960 acres (3.9 km²) along the Cooper River. By 1750, its owners had expanded the plantation to about 1,127 acres (4.56 km²).
• Tranquil Hill Plantation – started in 1683, Tranquil Hill was originally known as White Hall Plantation, a name it would keep until 1773. Its principal crop was rice. It encompassed about 526 acres (2.13 km²). Since the late 20th century, it was redeveloped as the Whitehall residential subdivision.[10] 
  
• Windsor Hill Plantation – established in 1701, Windsor Hill was an inland rice plantation that covered nearly 1,348 acres (5.46 km²); parts of the cities of Goose Creek and North Charleston now occupy some of this area.^[11] General William Moultrie, victor at the Battle of Sullivan's Island in 1776 and governor from 1785–87 and 1792–94, was originally buried here. His remains were exhumed and reburied at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island in 1977.^[12] The Windsor Hill Plantation subdivision was developed on a portion of the eponymous plantation's property.

The large plantations were subdivided into smaller farms in the late 19th century as the urban population began moving northward. Due to the large labor forces of enslaved African Americans who worked these properties, the population of Charleston County in 1870 was 73 percent black; they were mostly freedmen. After the Civil War, phosphatefertilizer plants were developed, with extensive strip mining occurring between the Ashley River and Broad Path (Meeting Street Road). The main route for transportation of these phosphates eventually became known as Ashley Phosphate Road.