Friendfield Plantation is a 3,305-acre

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

near Georgetown, South Carolina composed of parts of six former historic plantations and Friendship House, built in 1931-36. with It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1996. Contributing elements of the listing include 23 buildings, 15 other structures, and 14 sites. In the 1850s, some 230 African Americans were enslaved on Friendfield Plantation and they produced 900,000 pounds of rice annually. Among them was Jim Robinson, born into slavery in 1850; one of his descendants is former First Lady Michelle Obama (née Robinson.)

Overview

The current owner is Oscar Johnson Small II and his second wife Robbie Kephart. The founder and first owner was James Withers (1710-1756), a brick maker in Charleston, South Carolina who also became a planter. He developed a plantation along the

Sampit River The Sampit River begins in a swampy area of western Georgetown County, South Carolina, USA. It flows in an easterly direction to Winyah Bay at Georgetown. Only small crafts can navigate the upper parts of the river. The lower river merges int ...

for

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and rice from 1734 onward, based on the use of enslaved labor.Friendfield Plantation History
/ref>Frances Cheston Train
A Carolina Plantation Remembered
'' The Social Register Association'', Summer 2013 He bought slaves from

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

, where they had been transported from Africa and were sometimes seasoned for a period of time. In 1818, Francis Withers (1768-1847), a grandson of James, built a new house on the Friendfield Plantation. In the Low Country, where slaves developed a concentrated culture on large plantations, and slaves from Africa continued to be imported, African Americans developed what became known as the Gullah or GeeChee culture. It has been recognized as distinct for its creole African roots in language, cuisine and culture, and adaptations to the region. Paternal ancestors of First Lady Michelle (Robinson) Obama, including Jim Robinson, were among the Gullah enslaved laborers on the Friendfield Plantation. Francis Wither appointed his son-in-law, Dr. Alexius Mador Forster, III, MD (1815-1879), to manage the plantation, but it fell into disrepair after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. An extended agricultural depression in the country brought down commodity prices. Combined with struggling with the change to free labor, planters faced a sudden lack of economic resources. After the war, Withers had the land cultivated mostly by

sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

who paid a portion of their crop to use the land. Michelle Obama's ancestor Jim Robinson, who became free at age 15, is believed to have been among them. Friendfield Plantation passed out of the Withers family in 1897 when Elizabeth Hunt Warham Forster (1820-1906) sold it to B. Walker Cannon. (It had passed from the Withers bloodline in 1847 when Francis Withers died, as Elizabeth was his step-daughter.) The property was later purchased by Patrick C. McClary, Sr., who used it as a duck hunting club. This was a common use for plantations by wealthy owners in the early 20th century. In 1926, the Friendfield House burned down in a fire. In 1930, the plantation was purchased by Radcliffe Cheston, Jr., an investment banker from

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. In 1932, he had a new Friendfield House built, designed by noted Philadelphia architect Arthur Ingersoll Meigs (1882-1956). Up until the 1950s, African-American sharecroppers lived on the plantation and worked the fields. But during the early 20th century, thousands of African Americans left the South to go north in the Great Migration to industrial cities, seeking better opportunities and an escape from Jim Crow oppression. Michelle Obama's paternal grandfather Fraser Robinson, Jr. migrated to Chicago from the Georgetown area. He and his wife LaVaughn (née Johnson) returned to the Low Country from Chicago after retirement. In 1989, the property was partly purchased by Daniel Thorne; it was co-owned by him and Frances Cheston Train, a daughter of Radcliffe Cheston. In 2015, Oscar Johnson Small II and his second wife Robbie Kephart bought the property.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Colonial Revival architecture in South Carolina Buildings and structures completed in 1830 Houses in Georgetown County, South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Georgetown County, South Carolina 1830 establishments in South Carolina Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Plantations in South Carolina Gullah history