Group seeks to preserve memories of plantation

One woman could identify the nail in a McLeod Plantation slave cabin that her mother banged into the wall with a frying pan.

Another woman was the great granddaughter of the grandson of the black man left in charge of the plantation when its white residents evacuated.

They are just a few of the people who have contributed to the Friends of McLeod's effort to preserve local residents' memories of the James Island plantation.

The group invited the public on Saturday to share their stories for its oral history project. The 5-year-old nonprofit group held a similar gathering in March that attracted about 75 community members and resulted in nine hours of video-recorded stories. The Friends of McLeod is dedicated to preserving and protecting the plantation.

"We had so much that it was like a whole new idea of what this (place) was and why it should be preserved," said Carol Jacobsen, organizer of Saturday's event and a Friends of McLeod board member.

Attendance at Saturday's meeting was sparse, and Jacobsen said the group plans to go to the homes of local residents who weren't able to come.

"If you tell it to us, it's part of history, and we'll make sure it's part of an archive," she said.

McLeod Plantation is the only remaining plantation of the 17 that used to operate on James Island. It's also the last example of a sea island plantation that harvested cotton, compared with most other local plantations that harvested rice.

Eugene Frazier, a historian and Friends of McLeod board member, came to Saturday's gathering. As a child, he helped his mother pick peanuts on McLeod Plantation land, and he can trace his ancestry to slaves on James Island. He said it's important to preserve residents' stories and memories because people need to understand their past to know where they're going, he said.

"It gives you a sense of personal connection," he said. "(This plantation) is the last refuge for the way things used to be."

The group plans to share what it's learned with its general membership at its next meeting, and they hope to offer more opportunities for residents to contribute to the project.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.