Discover American Life & Labor at Chicora Wood: A Lightning Lesson from Teaching with Historic Places

Cover image graphic for the Chicora Wood Plantation lesson plan
Cover of Chicora Wood lightning lesson plan (click to access PDF)

Full Lesson (PDF)

Contents

| Introduction
| Where it Fits Into the Curriculum (Objectives and Standards)
| Materials in the Lesson (Readings, Maps, Visual Evidence)
| Post-Lesson Activities
| More Resources
| About

Whose labor built America? What historic place might you study to answer this question?

Spanning 250 years, from the English settlement of the Virginia Colony until the American Civil War, the ruling classes of North America’s eastern territories used different forms of legal slavery to produce cash crops on large pieces of land. In the 17th century, enslaved Africans and European indentured servants worked side-by-side. In the 18th century, American slavery evolved into racialized caste system. Enslaved Africans and their descendants were legally a class of enslaved labor by the Revolution. This system supported plantations that produced valuable cotton, rice, indigo, and sugar. These goods traveled the globe, making a portion of the world’s population very wealthy at the expense of human suffering and exploitation.

In Georgetown County, South Carolina, plantation owners used fertile land and labor to produce rice. The rice plantation owners bought Africans who were skilled in rice production. Through the Africans’ agricultural knowledge and their exploitation, South Carolina became the nation's leading rice producer between the 1750s and the late 1860s. This economic success was largely earned through the work of the large enslaved population.

Chicora Wood was a rice plantation where hundreds of enslaved people lived and worked, from the 1730s until the Civil War. Enslaved Africans and their descendants cleared woods, cultivated and harvested rice, and constructed homes for their enslavers, the Allston family. By the mid-1800s, their labor made Chicora Wood one of the most profitable businesses in South Carolina and made the Allstons very wealthy.

Where it Fits into the Curriculum

This lesson could be used in units on labor history and enslavement, as well in units on the antebellum South..

Time Period: 1750s - 1860s

Objectives

1. To explain the connection between forced labor of African Americans and prosperity for European Americans;
2. To list the ways the Allston family made rice production at Chicora Wood Plantation exceptionally profitable;
3. To identify exploitative systems of labor in present day nations and present research on one or more of those systems.


National Standards for History, Social Studies, and Common Core

This lesson relates to the UCLA National Center for History in the Schools National History Standards:

US History Era 2
Standard 2C: The student understands social and cultural change in British America.
Standard 3A: The student understands colonial economic life and labor systems in theAmericas.
Standard 3B: The student understands economic life and the development of laborsystems in the English colonies.
Standard 3C: The student understands African life under slavery

This lesson relates to Thematic Strands from the National Council for the Social Studies' National Standards:

Theme I: Culture
Theme II: Time, Continuity, and Change
Theme III: People, Places, and Environments
Theme VII: Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Theme VIII: Science, Technology, and Society

This lesson relates to the Common Core Standards in History/Social Studies (6-8, 9-10, 10-11):
Key Ideas and Details
CCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.1
CCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.2
CCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.3
Craft and Structure
CCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.5
CCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.6
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.7
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
CCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-12.10

See the Full Lesson (PDF) for details about how the these Standards and Themes relate to the lesson. Search our Lesson Plans by National History Standards or Lesson Plans by Social Studies Standards to identify lessons that correspond with the eras and themes you want to teach.

Materials Found in the Full Lesson

Accompanying Question Sets are paired with all materials in the Full Lesson (PDF) .

• Map: Orients the students and encourages them to think about how place affects culture and society
Map 1: Georgetown County, South Carolina.
• Text: Primary and secondary source readings provide content and spark critical analysis.
Reading 1: Labor and Production on Chicora Wood Plantation
Reading 2: Letters to the Allstons about the work of an enslaved youth, James.

• Visual Evidence: Students critique and analyze visual evidence to tackle questions and support their own theories about the subject.
Map 1: Georgetown County, South Carolina. Photo 1: The kitchen at Chicora Wood.
(JPG)
(Source: National Park Service)
(JPG)
(Source: C.N. Bayless)
Photo 2: The mill at Chicora Wood
(JPG)
(Source: C.N. Bayless)

"Putting it all Together" Activities

Download the Full Lesson (PDF) to access these post-lesson activities. These are intended to deepen your students' engagement with the topics and themes introduced in the lesson, and to help them develop essential skills.
  • Activity 1: Reclaiming History at Sites of Enslavement
  • Activity 2: Industry and Labor in Your Community
  • Activity 3: Mapping Global Labor Practices
More Resources Online
Narratives of Enslavement
The Library of Congress: Voices from the Days of Slavery
The American Folklife Center houses almost seven hours of recorded interviews of formerly enslaved individuals taken between 1932 and 1975. See the faces of seven individuals as they describe being a slave and becoming free.

National Endowment for the Humanities: EDSITEment!
The NEH offers an education guide containing vetted resources for teaching African American history, including life under slavery, free black people, and resistance to slavery.

Sites of Slavery
The Whitney Plantation
The Whitney Plantation interprets their site solely through the lens of slavery and enslavement. Their site contains videos, lesson plans, primary sources, and photos about the transatlantic slave trade, plantation landscapes and daily life, artwork, and first-person slave narratives.

James Madison’s Montpelier: “The Mere Distinction of Colour”
Over 300 enslaved individuals lived at Montpelier. The Montpelier website shares oral histories from the active descendent community, archaeological discoveries, and an award-winning exhibit titled “The Mere Distinction of Colour” to tell the complex story of freedom and enslavement while working for the framer of the Constitution.

Modern Day Slavery
Students Opposing Slavery – President Lincoln’s Cottage

The National Trust for Historic Preservation site, President Lincoln’s Cottage, supports Students Opposing Slavery. SOS is an educational program aimed to raise awareness of human trafficking and empower young leaders to end modern day slavery.

Current & Historic Tribal Communities
As of 2018 there are eight state-recognized tribes in South Carolina: Catawba Indian Nation, Beaver Creek Indians, Edisto Natchez Kusso Tribe, Pee Dee Indian Nation, the Piedmont American Indian Association, Santee Indians, Sumter Tribe, and the Waccamaw. Many live in or near Georgetown County. Other native communities, such as Chicora, exist separate to this designation.

Pee Dee Indian Tribe
The Pee Dee Indian Tribe focuses on advocating, educating, and empowering the next generation of Pee Dee and other American Indian groups. One website contains information about the Pee Dee tribal government as well as their Tribal history.

Waccamaw Indian People
The Waccamaw website contains current events, an essay collection about the Waccamaw Indians, and interviews with Chief Hatcher.

Catawba Tribe
The Catawba Cultural Preservation website provides information about Tribal history, events and programs, and information about the cultural center.

About this lesson

This lesson is based on the National Register of Historic Places registration files "Georgetown County Rice Culture, c. 1750-c. 1910" and "Chicora Wood Plantation" as well as other source materials on the rice culture of Georgetown County. It was written by Lauren Rever, a public historian and history interpreter. It was edited by Teaching with Historic Places staff. This lesson is one in a series that brings the important stories of historic places into classrooms across the country.

Last updated: October 16, 2018

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