BARONY
Plantation Heritage HOBCAW
THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION
Lesson Description
Students will use primary sources to learn about the cultures of slaves and free blacks who lived at
Hobcaw. Very few plantations possess an intact village where students can go inside the cabins to
experience what it was like to live in a slave or a post-slavery community. Friendfield Village is a “living
laboratory” for social studies. Students will be thrust into the lives of the people who lived at Hobcaw –
native Americans, slaves and descendants of slaves – to see how they used available resources as well as
the cultural contributions of slaves and their descendants. During this field study, a deeper
understanding of the life of African Americans in the antebellum, post-war period and the first half of
the 20th century will be presented.
SC State Standards covered
Social Studies Standards
Standard 3-1: The student will demonstrate an understanding of places and regions in South Carolina and
the role of human systems in the state.
Standard 3-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the exploration and settlement of South
Carolina.
Standard 3-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of life in the antebellum period, the causes
and effects of the Civil War, and the impact of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
Indicators
3-1.2 Describe the location and characteristics of significant features of South Carolina, including
landforms; river systems such as the Pee Dee River Basin, the Santee River Basin, the Edisto River Basin,
and the Savannah River Basin; major cities; and climate regions.
3-1.3 Explain interactions between the people and the physical landscape of South Carolina over time,
including the effects on population distribution, patterns of migration, access to natural resources, and
economic development.
3-2.3 Describe the initial contact, cooperation, and conflict between the Native Americans and European
settlers in South Carolina.
3-2.5 Explain the role of Africans in developing the culture and economy of South Carolina, including the
growth of the slave trade; slave contributions to the plantation economy; the daily lives of the enslaved
people; the development of the Gullah culture; and their resistance to slavery.
BARONY
Plantation Heritage HOBCAW
THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION
3-4.1 Compare the economic conditions for various classes of people in South Carolina, including the elite,
the middle class, the lower class, the independent farmers, and the enslaved and free African Americans.
3-4.2 Summarize the development of slavery in antebellum South Carolina, including the invention of the
cotton gin and the subsequent expansion of and economic dependence on slavery.
3-4.5 Explain how the destruction caused by the Civil War affected the economy and daily lives of South
Carolinians, including the scarcity of food, clothing, and living essentials and the continuing racial tensions.
3-4.6 Summarize the positive and negative effects of Reconstruction in South Carolina, including the
development of public education; the establishment of sharecropping; racial advancements and tensions; and
the attempts to rebuild towns, factories, and farms.
English/Language Arts Standards
Standard 3-4: The student will create written work that has a clear focus, sufficient detail,
coherent organization, effective use of voice, and correct use of the conventions of written
Standard American English.
Standard 3-5: The student will write for a variety of purposes and audiences.
Standard 3-6: The student will access and use information from a variety of sources.
Indicators
3-4.1 Generate and organize ideas for writing using prewriting techniques (for example, creating lists,
having discussions, and examining literary models).
3-4.2 Use complete sentences (including compound sentences) in writing.
3-4.3 Create paragraphs that include a topic sentence with supporting details and logical transitions.
3-4.4 Use grammatical conventions of written Standard American English, including
• comparative and superlative adjectives,
• prepositions and prepositional phrases,
• conjunctions (because, since, yet, until), and
• nominative and objective case pronouns.
3-5.1 Create written communications (for example, friendly letters that include a greeting, body, closing,
and signature and invitations that include the time, date, and place of the event).
3-6.2 Use print sources (for example, books, magazines, charts, graphs, diagrams, dictionaries,
encyclopedias, atlases, and thesauri) and nonprint sources (for example, pictures, photographs, video, and
television) to access information.
Visual Arts Standards
Standard IIIA: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION. Understanding dance as a way to create and
communicate meaning.
Indicators
A. Demonstrate the difference between pantomiming and abstracting a gesture.
*This field study also incorporates the social studies literacy skills for the 21st century and
the guiding principles for ELA curricula.
BARONY
Plantation Heritage HOBCAW
THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION
Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The students will use primary sources to learn about the cultures of slaves and free blacks who lived at
Hobcaw. Very few plantations possess an intact village where students can go inside the cabins to
experience what it was like to live in a slave or a post-slavery community. Friendfield Village is a "living
laboratory" for social studies.
The students will demonstrate an understanding of how the people who lived at Hobcaw—native Americans,
slaves, and descendants of slaves—used the resources found here.
The students will demonstrate a knowledge of the cultural contributions of slaves and their descendants.
Students will understand the roles of those people in the settlement and development of the local region.
The students will demonstrate an understanding of the life of African Americans in the antebellum, postwar period and the first half of the 20th century.
Students will examine the living conditions of African-Americans after emancipation and discuss why many
of these people chose to stay on the plantation.
After the program the students may produce illustrations and journal entries or letters demonstrating the
standards for written communications.
Teachers need to provide:
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
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Pencils (one per student)
Map worksheet instructions (attached)
o One copy per student OR
o One copy per group
o Look for the
Map Worksheet (attached)
o One copy per student
o Look for the
Instructor will provide:




Laminated Question cards for exhibits
(2 sets)
Laminated photographs & corresponding
information cards (For group leaders)
Cloth or plastic sheet
Bag of mostly paper trash
BARONY
Plantation Heritage HOBCAW
THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION
Lesson Plan
Part One: Classroom Introduction
Students will be able to explore the classroom and touch tank while staff guide them and answer
questions followed by a discussion on Hobcaw Barony’s definition and geography. Staff will also discuss
the resources Native Americans, slaves and descendants of slaves found at Hobcaw, and how the
development of rice culture in this area depended on the knowledge, expertise and labor of slaves. The
students will also see pictures of the Hobcaw House in comparison to Friendfield Village slave cabins.
Part Two: Discovery Center Scavenger Hunt
Students will be given question cards they will answer by studying the Discovery Center exhibits. If
time permits, students will gather to listen to a recording of former resident’s descriptions of plantation
life at Hobcaw.
Part Three: Friendfield Village
Heading out for field work, a staff member will ride along with the students to discuss wildlife and
landscape seen along the way as well as reinforce directions and maps previously discussed. Upon arrival
at Friendfield Village, students will be separated into 2 groups and receive photographs to determine if
descendants of slaves attended church, determine where photographs were taken, and what changes
have been made since. Groups will rotate so everyone has seen all the pictures before gathering in the
church.
For 2nd Grade: The staff member will talk about how the church was used in the village, about the songs
and storytelling as an important part of different cultures, and will re-tell “trickster stories” of Brer
Rabbit, brought to America by African slaves.
For 3rd/4th Grade: The staff member will sing “Amazing Grace”, tell how “Amazing Grace” was written by
a former slave ship captain, John Newton, and discuss singing as an important part of a culture. They will
describe what it was like to be chained together and put on shelves in a ship from Africa as well as
explain why some freed slaves stayed at Hobcaw after emancipation.
Part Four: Trash Can Archeology (Optional Activity)
A staff member will discuss archeologists and artifacts so the students have a firm grasp of the
concepts before they play archeologists looking for artifacts in one family’s trash can. Leaders will
dump the trash onto a white sheet and encourage the students to study each piece of trash prompting
with questions such as “Do children live in the house?”, “Does this family recycle?”, and so on. The
students will contemplate what their own trash cans at home or in the classroom would tell an
archeologist about them as they analyze what the artifacts they found at Friendfield Village tells them
about the former residents.
BARONY
Plantation Heritage HOBCAW
THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION
Post-Site Activities
Teachers may choose to do one or more of these activities when they return to school.
Activity One: Tic-tac-toe (Great if you only have a few minutes)
Materials
White board, Tic-tac-toe questions
Procedure
Teacher will divide class into 2 teams and draw a tic-tac-toe grid on white board. Teacher will
ask a question and select a student in one group to answer. If answer is correct, teacher lets a student
put an “X” on the board. If answer is incorrect, the other team has an opportunity to answer and put an
“O” on the board. Play continues until one team wins. The game can be repeated as many times as
desired.
Activity Two: Maps
Materials
Map worksheets (see attachments at the end)
Procedure
Students will follow directions on the map worksheets.
Activity Three: Friendly letter or journal entry with illustration
Materials
Notebook paper or unlined paper; pencils, crayons or markers
Procedure
Students will draw a picture of their favorite part of the field trip and write a journal entry or
friendly letter telling about what they learned or about their favorite parts of the field trip.
BARONY
Plantation Heritage HOBCAW
THE BELLE W. BARUCH FOUNDATION
Teacher Preparation & Background:
History of Hobcaw Barony
A 17, 500 acre research reserve, Hobcaw Barony is one of the few undeveloped tracts
on the Waccamaw Neck. The Native Americans called it "hobcaw," meaning between the
waters. In 1718, the land became a colonial land grant, a barony. Sold and subdivided
into plantations extending from the river to the sea, Hobcaw Barony was part of the
great rice empire until the turn of the 20th century.
Bernard M. Baruch, Wall Street financier and advisor to presidents, purchased the
property comprised of 11 former plantations in 1905 for use as winter hunting retreat.
He invited presidents, prime ministers and politicians to hunt duck, turkey, deer, quail,
foxes and hogs in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
After 50 years, he sold all the land to his daughter and the time of her death, she created a foundation to manage
the land as an outdoor laboratory for the colleges and universities in South Carolina.
Swamps, abandoned rice fields, pine and hardwood forests, salt marsh and barrier
island environments provide habitat for many native animals of the coastal plain.
Historic sites include Hobcaw House, rebuilt in 1930 on a bluff overlooking Winyah
Bay; Bellefield House and stables, built in 1936 for Belle W. Baruch; and
Friendfield, a 19th century slave village used until 1952.
Although privately owned, Hobcaw Barony is now used as a research reserve by the
colleges and universities of South Carolina. Restricted access is allowed through
tours and programs offered by the foundation and universities.
Rice Plantation History
Hobcaw Barony is the southern tip of the Waccamaw Neck, that extends from
the Horry County line to the southern end of the Barony. Hobcaw was once made
up of fourteen rice plantations. About 3,000 acres of tidal swamp land was
converted into rice fields to cultivate the crop known as Carolina Gold. Growing
rice took the blood, sweat and tears of up to 100 slaves per plantation.
Slaves cleared swamps to build rice fields, which could take up to fifteen years
to complete. In February, fields were prepared and the growing season started
in May. After three different flooding phases the rice would be ready for
harvest around the first of September. The 1850's were the most profitable
years for Georgetown rice planters. Hobcaw Barony produced just under six
million pounds of rice in one year alone. After the Civil War, rice cultivation was
in decline. The labor intensive work was expensive, competition from western
rice farmers and a series of weather events halted the growth of rice and ended
an era of the Carolina rice plantations.
*Excerpted from www.hobcawbarony.org