Mosquitoes, Landscapes, Ruins, and Artifacts: The Evolution of the Peachtree Plantation Rice Culture Landscape

Situated on 481 ac. on the South Santee River near McClellanville, South Carolina, an abandoned rice culture landscape lay almost forgotten, waiting patiently for its stories to be told. Preservation students began systematic documentation of the plantation main house ruin and its owners a decade ago; since then, that research has been expanded by applying a multiscalar approach and utilizing archaeological, remote-sensing, and archival data to facilitate a fine-grained analysis of the Peachtree landscape in an attempt to balance its history and shed light on the many enslaved people whose labor and knowledge contributed to the Atlantic World economy. This article will show how Peachtree contributes to the Santee River Delta plantation landscape and the evolution of rice culture from the settlement period through the late 19th century in the South Carolina Lowcountry region.