#102: Fair Fort Lawn, SC Negro Leagues, and a "ChefScholar" Dinner Series
For South Carolina history lovers far and wide! Enjoy weekly SC history and upcoming SC historical events
Dear reader,
Welcome to SC History Newsletter #102!
I’d like to welcome the following new subscribers to our community. Thank you for your interest in South Carolina history!
sharminhill
spardelmas
michaelsholt70
aida.s.amer
landrum.johnson
kaycleveland1980
randy.herald
Please continue to send me your SC History Questions and Topic Ideas for me to cover in the newsletter.
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And now, let’s learn some South Carolina history!
Yours truly,
Kate
(Writing from Greenville, SC)
➳ Featured SC History Events
Please enjoy our featured SC History Event below, and click here to visit my SC History Events Calendar that organizes all the upcoming SC history events I have discovered. Please let me know if you’d like to add an event to the calendar! Reply to this email, send me a note at schistorynewsletter@gmail.com, or use the button below to send me your events.
Event Recommendations of the Week:
Friday, July 19th, 6:00 - 9:00 pm | “ChefScholar Dinner Series” | The Parsonage | Charleston, SC | Event ticketing information & website here
“Charleston is known for its cuisine. This cuisine was built on the shoulders of the many enslaved and freed cooks, spanning periods from the 1700s into the 1900s. Chef Kevin Mitchell will take his Guests on an educational and culinary journey honoring the legacy of these Cooks that crafted the pathways today’s Chefs walk along. Join us as we celebrate the legacy of the Matriarchs of Black Cuisine.”
➳ SC History Book & Article Recommendations
Published June 21, 2024 by FOX Carolina: Walhalla man brings Upstate Negro Leagues history to light
Scott Busch is a devoted baseball historian from Walhalla, South Carolina. In this article we learn how he is uncovering the history of the Negro Leagues in South Carolina through his project, "Out of the Shadows." He dedicates his free time to educating people about the talented but often overlooked Negro League players from South Carolina.
Do you have a book or article on South Carolina History that has captivated you? Submit below! We would love to highlight.
➳ SC History Topic of the Week
Did you know that Fort Fair Lawn in Monck’s Corner, SC is probably the most “pristine, intact, original” American Revolutionary War fortification in South Carolina, if not the country?
Note: I am grateful to subscriber
for bringing this topic to my attention, as well as the upcoming Colonial Day 2024 at Old Santee Canal Park in Moncks Corner on September 28th. More on that event to come!Doug Bostick, Executive Director for the SC Battleground Preservation Trust, has said that “Fort Fair Lawn is probably the most pristine, intact, original American Revolutionary War fortification in South Carolina, if not the country.” Which is really exciting!
The very informative video above describes how Doug Bostick and his team are partnering with the American Battlefield Trust (a really amazing national organization, which everyone should follow - see here!) to create the Liberty Trail, a project to “interpret or preserve 80 Revolutionary War battlefield sites across the state of South Carolina.”
Fort Fair Lawn, located in Monck’s Corner, was a key element of SC’s Revolutionary War History.
In September 2016, the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust successfully secured $2 million necessary to finalize the acquisition of the historic Fort Fair Lawn site and its surrounding 80 acres.
The property is safeguarded by a conservation easement held by the SC Battleground Trust, ensuring the preservation of its “archaeological, historical, and natural integrity.”
Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust is a private nonprofit organization led by volunteer professionals who are dedicated to preserving the natural, cultural and historical resources in and around the Ashley River Headwaters, the Cooper River Basin, Four Holes Swamp and the Santee Basin. According to their website:
“The Trust works with private landowners to develop conservation strategies for their property. Typically, this results in their land being placed under a conservation easement, a legally binding agreement that permanently restricts extensive development while allowing it to remain in private ownership and used for traditional purposes like hunting, farming and timber management. A conservation easement is permanent, which ensures that the integrity of the land will be secured in perpetuity.”
Among the 30+ forts constructed in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War, only Fort Fair Lawn and the Ninety-Six National Historic Site remain substantially intact.
Due to the soil's high clay content and favorable circumstances, Fort Fair Lawn has been spared erosion, vandalism, and other disturbances that have affected many other battlegrounds across the country.
J. Raleigh West, Executive Director of the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust has said:
"As one of the few surviving British-built military sites in the United States, this project holds national, if not international, significance.”
In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, the British gained momentum with victories over American forces in Georgia and South Carolina, including the capture of Savannah.
The British strategy to lay siege to Charleston required control of the Cooper River, which was vital for the Patriot’s transportation, supply, and escape routes.
British forces established Fort Fair Lawn in Moncks Corner in April 1780, securing the last navigable point on the Cooper River at Stoney Landing.
The outpost of Fort Fair Lawn consists of the “readout earthen works fort” and a 1/2 mile away, a fortified brick mansion called Colleton Castle.
The Colleton family was the only one of all the province’s original proprietors “to cast their lot and fortune in South Carolina by establishing a family seat and actual residence within the borders of the colony.”
Colleton County is named for this family.
Several generations of the family lived and passed down the inheritances that formed the plantation and acreage known as the Fair Lawn Barony.
Sometime after 1730, a “massive brick mansion, and extensive plantation offices, outbuildings, and dependencies” were constructed about a mile west from the Cooper River.
Sir John Colleton, son of Honorable John C. Colleton, inherited the grounds at the outset of the American Revolution. Though opposed to British taxation and the use of force in the North, he was considered a Tory by local Patriots.
He died in September 1777, leaving the estate to his widow, Lady Jane Colleton.
Lady Jane Colleton occupied the mansion when the British army occupied Monck’s Corner in April 1780. The British wanted to cut off this avenue of Patriot support and ability to retreat.
The initial seizure of the grounds was overshadowed by the cruelty a few of the British Legion troopers showed to the women present on the property.
Such harm was done to these women that Major Patrick Ferguson threatened to hang the undisciplined soldiers, though it appears Lt. Col. James Webster interceded and had them disciplined in Charleston.
The little that we know of this affair comes from Lt. Anthony Allaire’s diary:
“Friday, 14th. Remained at Monk's Corner, collecting the stores, etc. About seven o'clock at night, accidentally a store house caught fire, in which were two casks of powder; was very much alarmed by the explosion, and all got under arms. This confusion was scarcely over when three ladies came to our camp in great distress: Lady Colleton, Miss Betsy Giles, and Miss Jean Russell. They had been most shockingly abused by a plundering villain. Lady Colleton badly cut in the hand by a broadsword, and bruised very much. After my friend, Dr. Johnson, dressed her hand, he, with an officer and twelve men, went to the plantation, about one mile from camp, to protect Mrs. Fayssoux, whom this infamous villain had likewise abused in the same manner. There he found a most accomplished, amiable lady in the greatest distress imaginable. After he took a little blood from her she was more composed, and next morning come to camp to testify against the cursed villain that abused them in this horrid manner. He was secured and sent to Headquarters for trial.”
Sometime after the May 12, 1780, the occupying British turned the Colleton mansion into a fortified station and supply depot, with abatis all around. (Abatis is a barrier made of felled trees or branches with sharp ends facing the enemy.)
The British also built the nearby Fort Fair Lawn, which lead down the avenue to the river’s landing on the plantation.
They also built a blockhouse on the west side of the swamp overlooking Biggin Creek. A bridge crossed over leading to Biggin Church. The creek runs adjacent to the upstream portions of Cooper River, thus making Fair Lawn an important temporary site for the British to monitor movements along the river.
This outpost lasted until it was attacked by American forces under the command of Brigadier General Francis Marion on November 17, 1781.
Sensing a vulnerability in the British installation, Marion sent forth Lt. Col. Hezekiah Maham (of South Carolina) with mixed units of about 400 militia, cavalry, and Col. Isaac Shelby (of Kentucky) with his mountaineers to attack the fortifications.
Maham passed on the brick mansion and decided to surround one of the outbuildings instead, which turned out to be a hospital.
There was no resistance, and Maham made out with 150 prisoners, precious ammunition and medical supplies.
The British 84th Regiment of Foot under the command of Captain Murdock MacLaine eventually abandoned the site.
According to Louisa Carolina Colleton Graves, the British destroyed the mansion, Colleton Castle, and surrounding buildings when they departed. She wrote:
“They burnt down the mansion…and destroyed every building including a town built on the Barony for the residence of several hundred people belonging to the estate, with the granaries, mills, etc. On this occasion, in addition to the furniture, paintings, and books, plate, etc., a large sum of money which was in my father’s strong box, and even my jewels, were lost to me, either destroyed or plundered.”
In the present day, at Fort Fair Lawn, extensive archaeological assessments have been completed, and a comprehensive master plan has been crafted for the site's future development into a public park.
In the video above, Bostick describes that through archaeological efforts, their team had located the footprint of the British Camp. At the camp, they have found many interesting artifacts, including a button from a British uniform. The button was from the British 71st Regiment of Foot, also known as “Fraser’s Highlanders,” who at one point, must have also been garrisoned at Fort Fair Lawn.
Fraser’s Highlanders were “infamous” as the “bad boys” of the British Army (!)
Fort Fair Lawn opened to the public in September 2022 as an extension of the adjacent Old Santee Canal State Park and offers educational and recreational opportunities.
J. Raleigh West has noted: "What's particularly exciting about this project is the collaboration among numerous stakeholders to preserve the intersecting natural and historical resources of the region.”
West anticipates that the Fort Fair Lawn initiative will serve as a model for a broader program aimed at protecting other significant Revolutionary War sites and ecologically valuable lands throughout the Santee and Cooper River watersheds.
Please scroll to the bottom of this email for my source for this section
Have you been to Fort Fair Lawn? Tell us about about it! Please leave a comment below!
➳ SC History Quote of the Week
“These were individuals that never got their due. They were great athletes and made such an impact. And it’s not just African American history or baseball history. It’s American history, and it’s South Carolina history, and that’s why it’s important to me.”
—Scott Busch, a devoted baseball historian from Walhalla, South Carolina from the recent article in FOX Carolina
Fort Fair Lawn article sources:
“Fort Fair Lawn — Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust.” Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, https://www.lordberkeley.org/fort-fair-lawn. Accessed 23 June 2024.
“Colleton Castle at Moncks Corner, South Carolina.” American Battlefield Trust, 9 Dec. 2020, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/colleton-castle-moncks-corner-south-carolina. Accessed 23 June 2024.
“SC Revolutionary War Fort Now Open to Public - Holy City Sinner.” Holy City Sinner, 24 Sept. 2022, https://holycitysinner.com/news/sc-revolutionary-war-fort-now-open-public/. Accessed 23 June 2024.
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