Georgia Historical Society

New Trade Skills & Diversified Plantations: The Hermitage

When African slaves were first introduced to the colonies, they were used almost solely for agricultural purposes, and their skills were limited to such ends.  As plantations became larger and the opportunity for higher profits emerged in the early 1800s, however, plantation owners sought to control all aspects of their respective product.  Rather than purchase casks from outside sources, for example, costs could be kept down by making their own, and so the owners could lower their overhead, influence prices, and maximize profits.  This meant instructing their labor force on all aspects of plantation life in order to achieve self-sufficiency.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, plantation owners could pull some of their hands from the field.  Because of new technology in rice production, especially in tidal irrigation, rice cultivation required fewer laborers.  The slaves learned new skills that formed the basis for freed blacks’ economic survival following the Civil War, as is discussed later through the example of Sandfly, Georgia.

Souvenir of the Hermitage by Henry McAlpin, Rare Pamphlet Collection, F294.S2.M22.  This excerpt provides a description of the slaves’ quarters.

Diversification also led to capital-producing alternatives for the plantation and some slave-made products became highly sought after.  A good example in the Savannah area that continues to draw attention is Savannah Gray Brick.  The brick, once called McAlpin’s Gray Brick, originated with the gray clay on Henry McAlpin’s Hermitage plantation located on the Savannah River.  The Hermitage was a prime example of the diversified plantation.  McAlpin operated a lumber mill and a foundry in addition to his rice plantation and brick kilns.  The Hermitage brick business boomed during Savannah’s recovery after the1820 fire, and the brick can still be found forming the walls of many historic Savannah buildings. 

Savannah on the Morning of the 11th January 1820, a poem by Richard W. Habersham. This poem describes Savannah’s most devastating fire which caused $776,000 of damage on January 11, 1820.  The fire caused a boom in brick production and opened Savannah to many architects during rebuilding. Milledge Family Papers, MS560, Folder 4, Item 19. Click here for transcript.

Teaching Tips:

1. Throughout history, people have used poetry to describe daily life and important events.  Using this poem, what can students determine to be important aspects of life to Habersham in 1820?  What information about the city can be learned?  How can poems serve as primary sources for historical research?
2. Examine the language of the poem.  Using the Oxford dictionary (online at GALILEO) have students research the 19th century meanings of words they do not understand.  How might the students have written the poem today?
3. Ask students to write a poem about current events, one that reflects what they perceive to be historical currents that affect their life.  Make this a part of a larger project in conjunction with the school library.  With library staff, students could archive the poems and preserve both the handwritten and digital versions for future generations and learn not only about library science, but also museum archiving and cataloguing.

Manifest showing the transport of two female slaves, one age fifty, the other age ten, dated 1854.  Keith M. Read Papers, MS 648.  Teaching tip: Use this document when discussing the US ban of the Atlantic slave trade, 1808.  Draw students’ attention to the signed affidavit on the backside of the manifest.