Preserving a plantation

Friends of McLeod distributes DVD to schools

PROVIDED

Slave tags found at McLeod help illustrate the ugliest part of the plantation's history.

PROVIDED

The plantation's gin house is a two-story masonry and wood structure that was used to process long-staple Sea Island cotton. It was maintained into the 1930s.

PROVIDED

Artwork distributed by Friends of McLeod includes an early map of the Charleston peninsula and the beginnings of McLeod Plantation on James Island, at map bottom.

Images of a plantation house, slave cabins and ancient maps drift by on the screen as a deep voice recalls the history of McLeod Plantation.

"Come walk with us along the pathways of history," the voice beckons.

The sounds and images are part of a DVD production created by Friends of McLeod Inc., a citizens group dedicated to preserving what remains of the historic, once-busy McLeod Plantation on James Island. Copies of the DVD, "A Walk With History," are being distributed to James Island schools, said Carol Jacobsen, Friends vice chairwoman for programs and special events.

The plantation got its start just eight years after Charles Town was founded in 1670. Located at the point where Wappoo Creek meets the Ashley River, the site was the gateway to the Sea Islands. The plantation house, five slave cabins, a carriage house and other aged structures survive on a 50-acre tract wedged between the Country Club of Charleston and the heavily developed intersection of Folly Road and Maybank Highway.

More than 10,000 artifacts — dating to Native American occupation of the waterfront property and including the Colonial, Revolutionary War and Civil War eras — have been found at the site. In 1996, nearly 100 graves of slaves were discovered.

"Their blood, sweat and tears remain part of the spiritual connection at McLeod," says the DVD's narrator, Friends' Vice President Thomas Johnson, who is retired from the Navy.

The DVD's creation and distribution was made possible by a $250 grant from the town of James Island. "We cannot allow this final example of Sea Island culture and history to fade into the fall of memory," Johnson says as the screen fades. "Save McLeod Plantation."

Jacobsen said the DVD reflects concerns of more than 500 members of Friends who fear for the plantation's future. "There were 17 plantations here (on James Island), and this is the last one," she said.

Robert Bohnstengel, principal of James Island Charter High School, said he watched the DVD and was amazed at the information packed into the 15-minute production.

"What a great piece of work," said Bohnstengel, who has taught history and social studies. "It will be a great addition to the curriculum. This is something I am certain that the U.S. history classes will use."

The Historic Charleston Foundation owns the plantation. Several years ago, the foundation sold it to the American College of the Building Arts, but the foundation bought it back when the college encountered financial and other difficulties. The foundation and the college soon expect to reach an agreement under which the college will lease the property, with expectations of eventually buying it back from the foundation.

Kitty Robinson, foundation executive director, said McLeod, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be protected by restrictive easements. The college will repair and preserve structures on the site and won't build new ones, she said.

Robinson said she was not aware of the DVD created by Friends of McLeod and had not seen it. The Friends have no official ties to the plantation, she noted.

"It's so odd that the Friends are going to distribute this to schools when the property does not belong to them," Robinson said.

Jacobsen, who wrote the script for the DVD that her husband, Kenneth, produced at home on his Macintosh computer, said the Friends group was born almost immediately after the college purchased the plantation. Friends of McLeod is qualified as a nonprofit, and its members think the sale was not in the best interests of the plantation.

"The plantation is no place for a college campus. We never thought that would happen," Jacobsen said.

She said she'd love to see it restored and open to the public, perhaps with fields of crops to help illustrate life on a plantation.

American College of the Building Arts President Colby M. Broadwater said the college is dedicated to preserving and protecting the plantation. He believes parts of the plantation should be readily accessible to the public.

The college's short- and "midterm" plans include putting the administrative offices at the plantation, and long-term plans include classrooms and workshops at the site. Students could help restore historic structures while they are studying how they were created, he said.

For more information, see www.mcleodplantation.org and www.historiccharleston.org.

Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 745-5560.