June 21, 2016 -Retired botanist, professor, and author Dr. Richard Porcher spoke to our Club about the history of the low country rice cultivation and innovations African-American slaves brought to our country. He stated there was a trilogy of African workers, white plantation owners, and the English market that redefined the landscape of South Carolina. During the time of slavery and rice plantations over 150,000 acres of swamp were transformed into rice fields. Charleston would not be what it is today without rice.
In 1670 planters in Barbados had no more land to give to their sons, so they came to Charles Towne to build plantations to support their crops. The slave traders brought the men and women that work toil on the land and the Lord’s Proprietors sent the rice for them to develop a rice kingdom that stretched from Cape Fear to upper Florida.
To grow rice it is essential to have control over water. The ebb and flow of the freshwater marshes in Charleston was a perfect setting for rice cultivation, but it required a system to control the water. The flooding of the rice fields was a way to control weeds. The slaves brought the knowledge required to build trunk systems which allowed control over flooding of the fields.
Slaves also brought their knowledge of harvesting the rice. There are three steps in rice cultivation: harvesting, threshing, and milling. Brown rice has a bran layer that when removed leaves “white rice”. Bran contains the fat that needed to be removed so the rice wouldn’t rot during shipment to Europe. Threshing separated the bran from the white rice and was originally done by hand using a mortar and pestle. Eventually animal driven mortar and pestles were used which then led to steam powered machines. The slaves learned how to work as artisans keeping the boilers and machinery working.
Several factors led to the demise of the rice cultivation in the south. The Civil War enabled slaves to flee the South and resulted in the destruction of critical infrastructure. In the 1880s rice was being grown in Arkansas with more inexpensive methods. Finally hurricanes in 1910 and 1911 killed the remaining rice crops.
Rice resulted in many innovations bring brought to the South and allowed cities like Charleston to evolve into important commerce areas, but the history of rice and its importance to Charleston is being lost. The remaining evidence of the rice plantations is disappearing, but Dr. Porcher is studying the old rice fields and has found remnants of storm towers, shelters the workers would retreat to during storms, in the Santee delta. He hopes to establish a special designation for the region to protect these types of shelters.
— Steve Coe, Keyway Committee