23 Beaufort, South Carolina

Through Georgia, and now South Carolina, the ICW wanders through salt marshes behind the ‘Sea Islands’. These islands have tall forests and we look for one to snug up to when we anchor at night for shelter from the wind. The islands seem wild and uncultivated. Once they were cotton plantations.


From about 1790 to 1860, if you had enough slaves, you could get very rich growing ‘Sea Island Cotton’. The wealthy planters built themselves summer homes on the slight rise that received cool breezes at the place known as Beaufort (‘Bew-fort’).


The houses are similar. The design is both graceful and practical. The main floor is elevated on arches and reached by a grand staircase that spills down into the garden widening as it descends. Both the main and upper floors have wide verandahs. The whole family could sit in armchairs in a refreshing breeze (or even in pouring rain).

White plantation homes in movies of the Deep South stand alone out in the open (ready for that crane shot of a carriage coming up the long driveway). That is how I always imagined them to be. In Beaufort they are hidden deep in cool shade practically embraced by those long limbed oaks; oaks that have seen Indians, Spaniards and planters come and go.