Taming the Wilderness
1715 - 1750In 1715, Alexander Parris aquired what would come to be known as Parris Island. By 1722, Parris gave almost half the island to his daughter Jane and her husband John Delabare. Both families established plantations here, but it is uncertain if either planter lived on the island. Many planters maintained their primary residence in Beaufort.
The work of the early settlers, done mostly by their slaves, included clearing forests, cultivating crops, and tending cattle. Cattle ranching was an important industry in South Carolina throughout much of the 1700's.
Seeking Fortunes
1750 - 1790Rice cultivation flourished in South Carolina, but not around Port Royal. This area lacked suitable freshwater fields, and so had no profitable crop. Most of Parris Island remained forested until a cash crop was found.
In the late 1740's indigo production proved to be such a crop. Used for blue dye, it grew well in the Lowcountry and became a prime export for South Carolina, and Parris Island, until the Revolution.
Once the indigo boom began, the landscape changed rapidly as fields were cleared. As the need for labor grew, so too did the slave population. Slaves were the primary inhabitants of Parris Island.
King Cotton
1790 - 1861 In the 1790's Sea Island cotton replaced indigo as the most profitable crop grown here. By then, Parris Island had been divided into five plantations, and into seven before 1825. Most arable land was devoted to cotton fields and few trees remained.
Cotton produced also brought with it renewed increases in the labor force. By 1850 nearly 500 slaves lived on Parris Island. The resident non-slave population, in contrast, was very sparse. In 1859 only two planters lived here. Daily supervision was primarily left to overseers.
A New Era
1861 - 1938On November 7, 1861, Union forces captured Port Royal Sound and occupied the region for the remainder of the war. Their arrival signaled the end of the plantation way of life.
During and after the war, Parris Island's old plantations were divided into small tracts and given to newly freed slaves to farm. These family farms remained in operation until the last civilian residents left in 1938 to make room for the expanding Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
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