The Enslaved Community of Snee Farm

Map detailing the location of the main house and slave quarters in 1844. NPS photo.

King Charles II granted a proprietorship to a group of Englishmen to settle land along the southern Coastal Plain in 1663. These men established Charles Towne on the west bank of the Ashley River in 1670. Ten years later, the English settlers moved Charles Towne downriver to the more defensible Oyster Point, its present location. Although the crown designated South Carolina a royal colony in 1719, the city’s population grew slowly until emerging as a trade center in the 1730s.

Now called Charleston, the city’s success as a leading port for the colony came from the naval stores industry, the lucrative trade with Native Americans in deerskins and fur, and the development of plantation-based agriculture. This production system relied on the labor of enslaved people to raise livestock and grow tobacco, a major boost to South Carolina’s thriving economy.

By the early eighteenth century, rice became the dominant crop in the “Lowcountry.” Many enslaved people grew rice in Africa, and planters depended on their knowledge and skill to be profitable. Charleston’s position as a financial and mercantile hub was a result of these enslaved men, women, and children – white planters and merchants merely reaped the rewards of their labor.

Archeologists excavated the Pinckney era well in 1995. It fell into disuse and became filled with debris in 1828, preserving many artifacts. NPS Photo.

One of the first English landowners in Charleston was Thomas Pinckney, who emigrated to South Carolina in 1692 after a few years as a successful merchant in Jamaica. His grandson, Colonel Pinckney, a renowned lawyer and militiaman, followed the practice of the wealthy planters of the day by maintaining a large home in the city and secondary domiciles on large, rural plantations.

Colonel Pinckney purchased Snee Farm, his first plantation, in 1754. Pinckney constructed a new residence on the property shortly after. “Snee” is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning bountiful or plenteous. It was an apt name. South Carolina’s wealth and political power was concentrated in a few of the state’s leading families, the Pinckneys being one of them.

At 21 years old, Colonel Pinckney’s son, Charles, became a state representative in 1778. Colonel Pinckney passed away in 1778, leaving both Snee Farm and the family home in Charleston to Charles.

Archeology shows the elegance of the main house at even the smallest of Pinckney's plantations, seen in these decorative delftware tiles. NPS Photo.

In 1788, Charles married Eleanor Laurens, the daughter of Henry Laurens, a prominent Charleston slave trader, landowner, and U.S. Representative. Charles was elected governor that same year, going on to serve three more terms in that office. Governor Pinckney inherited much of his wealth, but his own efforts as a lawyer and planter substantially increased his fortune. He purchased several other plantations.

The 1790 census lists him owning 111 enslaved people, around 40 of which lived at Snee Farm. By 1810, Gov. Pinckney enslaved 58 people at Snee Farm alone.

What the Artifacts Reveal

Excavations of the well uncovered pieces of this delftware bowl. Enslaved servants prepared meals for the Pinckneys using these dishes. NPS Photo.

Archeological excavations yielded many ceramic wares, everything from porcelains, to delftware, creamware, pearlware, combed slipware, white salt glazed stoneware and black basalt stoneware. The values of these tablewares speak to the Pinckney family’s high status in South Carolina society, as they were members of an elite class that dined on valuable plates and bowls. Whether for display or dining, the Pinckneys demonstrated their status for all who visited the farm.

In the East Yard of Snee Farm, archeologists discovered an abundance of colonoware, a type of unrefined, handmade earthenware ceramic. Colonoware was the most widely utilized class of historic ceramic ware for enslaved people due to its ease of manufacture and inexpensive cost. For plantations like Snee Farm with large, enslaved populations, colonoware is frequently the greatest quantity of ceramics recovered archeologically.

This colonoware loop handle from the enslaved village of Snee Farm was likely attached to a bowl or a cup. NPS photo.

In the East Yard of Snee Farm, archeologists discovered an abundance of colonoware, a type of handmade earthenware ceramic. Colonoware was the most widely utilized class of historic ceramic ware for enslaved people due to its ease of manufacture and inexpensive cost. For plantations like Snee Farm with large, enslaved populations, colonoware is frequently the greatest quantity of ceramics recovered archeologically.

Enslaved families once lived in Structures 13 and 16. The enslaved built these homes before Pinckney ownership in the eighteenth century, and later generations occupied both structures well into the nineteenth century, long after the Pinckney family sold the property. Archeologists found whiteware artifacts near these sites, including a significant amount of porcelain, wine bottle fragments, and elaborate tablewares.

Closer to the Pinckney’s main house, Structure 16 is a smaller residence compared to Structure 13. Excavations yielded machine-cut nails dating to the late eighteenth century. Archeologists recovered several eighteenth-century beads and a ‘tombac’, or brass alloy, button that was likely manufactured in the eighteenth century.

A button, buckle, and brass finger ring with a heart-shaped motif found at the village site. NPS Photos.

Structures 13 and 16 revealed very little food remains, suggesting the butchering and immediate preparing of food was done elsewhere. However, another residential dwelling, Structure 11, was designated for food consumption of some form, as evident in the residues of both wild and domesticated animals identified in soil samples. Archeologists believe Structure 11 was an overseer’s house at one point, although the significant presence of colonoware indicates that the enslaved spent a lot of time here, probably using the cellar as a storage or food preparation area. Perhaps, the overseer was also enslaved.

Perhaps an enslaved seamstress used this brass thimble to sew clothing for her family, the Pinckneys, or both. NPS photo.

Within Structure 11, enslaved residents of Snee Farm ate locally available foods such as crab, deer, and oyster, as well as domesticated cows from the plantation. They ate smaller amounts of catfish, chicken, and pig.

The residence also yielded a large variety of personal recreational items such as tobacco pipe fragments, marbles, brass thimbles, a fishing weight, a pencil, a fragment of a porcelain toy doll, and a piece of writing chalk.

Uncovering the Village

Archeologists conclude that the enslaved occupied the residences of Snee Farm for more than seventy years. The archeological evidence indicates that the structures were not arranged in formally planned rows, but rather grouped together in a cluster of loosely spaced units. Field workers lived in a village composed of single or duplex structures characterized by a variety of housing types, ranging from post-in-ground, wattle and daub structures reminiscent of African styles of construction, to log cabins, framed lumber cabins, and brick or tabby structures.

A toy cannon and a marble, evidence of enslaved children's play only known through archeology. NPS photos

Maps of Snee Farm dating to this period portray the slave quarters in a neat, linear fashion, demonstrating the enslaver’s authority over this construction and layout. But the archeology of this settlement pattern reveals the opposite, showing the enslaved did not follow a predetermined order and instead resisted the customary fashion of their enslavers. Perhaps the clusters of houses represented family units, a community composed of close-knit relationships that added a layer of resistance to the enslavers that sought to dissolve their power.

Although little is known about the enslaved population, probate inventories tell us there were skilled laborers such as coopers, drivers, seamstresses, and cooks. These abilities allowed the enslaved some freedom to work off the plantation, providing opportunities for personal prosperity and financial independence. Yet, the average enslaved person worked nine-, ten-, or even eleven-hour days. The idea of “free time” might have merely been a carrot dangling on a stick in front of the enslaved person, a way for the enslavers to encourage faster work.

NPS archeologists have conducted extensive investigations at the park over the years. NPS Photo.

Today, we can picture the Pinckneys visiting their “country seat” on a restful weekend or holiday, away from the city and the pressures of urban life. The expensive ceramics that adorned their table, the personalized wine bottles, the paint that embellished the walls, and the colorful Delft tiles around the fireplaces have all been discovered archeologically. So, too, have the daily customs and practices of the enslaved inhabitants of this rural Lowcountry plantation.

Source

Keel, Bennie C., and Amy C. Koval
2014 The Archeology of Charles Pinckney’s Snee Farm: A Summary of Fieldwork 1987-1999. Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service. Tallahassee, Florida.