From Slavery to Freedom
We had a chance to visit the Magnolia Plantation while in Charleston. One of the tours we took was called From Slavery to Freedom, the tour was hosted by a young woman who did an amazing job (as she said) ‘covering 750 years of slavery.’
The tour started with a quick tram ride to the slave cabins, the ride was just over a minute long. There are five cabins left on the property. Four of them are open to view, with admission payment (of course). I went through tree of them, and the fifth was not open for tours. Most of the cabins were built in the 1850s by the slaves that lived on the plantation.
During the 15 minute lecture that was given I had an allergy attack and coughed through all of it. Great time right? So, I missed a majority of what was said. I do hope to get back and do the tour again. The one thing I can tell you is this, the young woman who gave the lecture did an amazing job. Besides being informative, she was sensitive to the subject and truly respectful to the people who lived in the cabins and their descendants who (some) still work on the property today.
The only thing that I can say about the many different tours we took this day is that the information is not the same on every tour. On the first tour we heard that the largest number of slaves working on the property was 148. Later on the same day we heard up to 300 slaves. So, unless we do the research ourselves there is no way to tell. The following record shows 51 slaves in 1850.
Since I cannot add more to what the Magnolia Plantation has already written, I leave you with a video montage of the photos I took while visiting.
