Uncovering keys to the past

Photo Gallery

Artifacts found at Dean Hall plantation

Digging for a new development yielded a variety of artifacts, some related to slaves, at Dean Hall Plantation in Berkeley County.

A little bit of water and the gentle scrub of a toothbrush is all it takes to remove the soil that entombed thousands of slave artifacts for nearly a century and a half.

With each cleaning, another clue to slave life at Dean Hall Plantation becomes clearer: A foot from a porcelain doll. A bone toothbrush with boar bristles. A lead weight used for fishing.

These are among the roughly 50,000 artifacts that were excavated from a Dean Hall Plantation slave settlement earlier this year to make way for a new DuPont Kevlar fabric plant.

As part of an agreement with the S.C. Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, the company has hired archaeologists to clean and analyze every piece of pottery and every rusty nail until they can tell the full story about slave life at the massive 19th century rice plantation.

If everything falls into place, the most significant findings could return to the plantation. Preliminary plans are to put them on display next door at Cypress Gardens, which used to be part of Dean Hall.

"We still have to figure out what the story is before we can present it to the public," said Ralph Bailey, a vice president with Brockington Cultural Resources Consulting in Mount Pleasant.

Brockington excavated the artifacts from about 2 to 4 feet of dirt on the 9-acre site in November and December. They've been washing each piece by hand in their Mount Pleasant laboratory since January but estimate they're only about 20 percent complete.

So far, the excavation has yielded several findings: an intact food container roughly the size of a football. An iron rice sickle. A brass key and a brass belt buckle.

"The site turned out to be in really excellent shape," Bailey said.

But it is the whole story that is most compelling to the archaeologists. Andrew Agha, the project manager, said this particular slave settlement probably was created in the 1840s, when the houses were moved closer to the Cooper River.

They found a silver 3-cent piece from 1852, indicating they might have been allowed to have money. They also found evidence of guns, and they know they the slaves ate oysters.

"This is a pretty good example of a 19th century plantation settlement," Agha said.

Ellis McGaughy, manager of the Cooper River Plant for DuPont, said they're working closely with OCRM and the S.C. Historic Preservation Office to ensure everything is properly handled and that historical significance is maintained.

Brockington officials said the best findings will go on display while the rest will go to the state to be held in perpetuity.

The company and county have had preliminary discussions about creating an exhibit at Cypress Gardens.

DuPont owns about 2,034 acres at the site. Approximately 1,700 acres remain as woodlands, wetlands and marshlands as part of a certified wildlife habitat.

Reach Andy Paras at 745-5891 or aparas@postandcourier.com.