Grains of Gold

A Legacy on the Black River where the Antebellum South Comes Alive

Entrance to Mansfield Plantation in Historic Georgetown

Like a sea breeze off the nearby Atlantic, Highway 17 blows through a Lowcountry

where its history comes alive.

I’m on my way to Georgetown, where rice was golden. Specifically, I am going to where the antebellum South comes alive. Turning off Hwy. 701 onto Mansfield Road I can see the Black River and the allee of oaks where Mel Gibson galloped through in The Patriot.

On the eve of the American Revolution, a close-knit group of super-wealthy planters had come of age along the southern Atlantic seaboard. Their extraordinary affluence was derived from rice estates located along the St. Johns River in East Florida to Cape Fear in North Carolina. The heart of this rice empire was South Carolina; its capital was Charleston.

Mel Gibson filmed The Patriot at Mansfield Plantation