According to the internet this was indeed true in 2016. We do see why, with the rich culture, cuisine and historical architecture. We arrived yesterday and immediately went to McLeod Plantation yesterday. Our tour guide was a young student who had a masters in archeology, so her delivery of content was from the aspect of how the landscape and architecture could teach us about the people who once lived on this land. The generations of slaves who lived on this sea island cotton plantation where the Gullah Geechee people.
After the slaves were freed, they were each given 40 acres of land (some of which they had slaved on), and then later forced to return this land to the original plantation and slave owners. This had us moving out of the oppression of physical and emotional abuse to economic oppression of these now freed slaves.
One of the other stories we heard was of the slave children who had to make bricks for building. When these bricks were made, they needed to dry before they could be used. It was the turning of these bricks (which were 3x the weight of a regular brick because they were wet) that were the job of the children. All throughout the south and the U.S you can see finger impressions in the bricks of these slave children. It was quite depressing really, and a story we had never heard before.
On a high note, the trees on the property were just amazing. These pictures do not do them justice. They were HUGE
Next we decided to go for a late lunch/early dinner. One of the locals recommended Gillie’s Seafood.
Gillie’s story: Chef Sean Mendes wanted his guests to feel like they were dining at Grandma’s house…a place full of love, warmth, wisdom and a good meal for your soul! Their food is all made from scratch. We had Soul Rolls to start. These were deep fried egg rolls filled with collard greens, pulled pork, red rice and pimento cheese. Served with a side of Nunya sauce. We then followed with Catfish Charleston which was blackened catfish fillet topped with a shrimp and crawfish cream sauce and served over dirty rice. As well as the Seafood Puloo which was seasoned rice, shrimp, crawfish, oysters, okra, onions and smoked sausage. It was all good ! Here are the pictures:
The restaurant itself was no nonsense and had a whole wall dedicated to Chef’s grandma.
We then went back to the campground, which is fabulous, and did the Christmas light tour around the park. This is an annual event and they have over 700 light displays and over 2 million lights. I will post a few to give you an idea of what this looks like. It was fantastic.
Tomorrow we are off on a Gullah Geechee tour and lunch in Charleston. Stay tuned