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garden, or rather a small grove of orange trees, palmettoes, oleanders, and roses. The first-named are laden with golden fruit, of a quality unsurpassed anywhere in the world, I am bold to say, for size and sweetness. We are hard at work now packing them up for market, and shall have over 100 barrels for sale. The interior of the mansion is in accordance with its modest exterior; a small dining-room, a small drawing-room, a very small office or study, a small hall, a pantry, and two comfortable bedrooms on the ground-floor, and two more comfortable bedrooms over the dining and drawing-rooms. At the rear of the house about twelve yards, is what is called the colony, where are situated the kitchen, servants' sitting-room and bedrooms, the laundry and dairy, and in a corner of the yard is a turkey-house, full of prime
Christmas fowl.
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it the church. ... Immediately in front of our garden is the
Altamaha river, with the landing-place for the boats, and from which all the water-supply is drawn. On the left of us is the overseer's house, a larger and more imposing edifice, although not so comfortable as ours. On the right are the barns and the threshing mill and engine, which are very nearly finished, and present a magnificent appearance from the river. The old mill, with all the valuable machinery, was burnt down a year ago. The rest of the island consists of rice-fields, of which about 1,000 acres are under cultivation or cultivable, some marsh land covered with thick bamboo and reeds, in which the wild duck do congregate, and some scrubby brushwood; also Settlements Nos. 2 and 3, an old rickety, but very large barn, a ruined mill, a ruined sugar-house.
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222:, owned the property in 1790. He ran the plantation until he died in 1822, when his unmarried daughter Frances became a trustee of the plantation, with the overseer, Roswell King, as her co-administrator. Upon the death of trustee Frances in 1836, controlling ownership shifted to Major Butler's two chosen heirs, grandsons of Butler's oldest daughter, who had made their permanent homes in Philadelphia.
263:. The auction was (until the 2022 discovery of a larger auction) considered the largest slave sale in US history. Some enslaved people were held in buildings used for the stabling of horses. After days of buyers' inspections, and two days of the agonizing auction, families were separated for the first time in their lives. This would come to be known as
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began. In 1866, Butler's daughter
Frances returned with her father to attempt to restore the plantation to its former productivity. Unlike her younger sister Sarah who was aligned with her mother, Frances had adopted her father's pro-slavery views and kept a diary like her mother. She published it in
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On
September 22, 1849, a Pennsylvania court granted Butler's petition to divorce Kemble and awarded custody of their daughters to Butler. During the years leading up to the Civil War, Butler became seriously in debt. In 1859, Butler auctioned off 436 of his enslaved men, women, children, and infants.
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Behind the colony is
Settlement No. 1, where the coloured people (I believe this is the correct term) reside. It consists of an avenue of orange trees, on each side of which are rows of wooden houses, and at the end of which, facing the avenue, is what was the old hospital, but which is now half of
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I am monarch of all I survey, which is an island of about 1,600 acres, surrounded by a muddy-looking river, called the romantic-sounding Indian name of the
Altamaha. ... Our castle is a neat but not gaudy little frame house, with a piazza in front of it, from which you descend by six steps to a
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Following the resignation of the King overseers in 1838, grandson and co-heir Pierce Mease Butler traveled to the plantation with his wife and two daughters in
December of that year. His wife,
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Due to the lack of slave labor, and the postwar depression in the
Southern United States, plantations failed, and the fifth generation of Butlers sold the remains of their lands in 1923.
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purchased the plantation in 1926. He converted it into a dairy and lettuce farm. He also built the Huston House on the property in 1927. After his death, the plantation was sold to
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Scott, John A., in the editor's introduction, p. xxiii, to
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 by Frances Anne Kemble, U. of Georgia Press 1984
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Scott, John A., in the editor's introduction, p. xiv, to
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839 by Frances Anne Kemble, U. of Georgia Press, 1984
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Today the Georgia Department of Natural Resources manages the plantation. The area is open every day to the public for recreational activities.
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In the late evening of June 26, 2024, The Huston House was destroyed in a fire. One person was arrested on suspicion of arson.
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The main structure on the property following its completion in 1927, the Huston House, was destroyed in a fire on June 26, 2024.
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Rev. James Wentworth Leigh to E——, November 1873, quoted in Frances Butler Leigh,
663:"Longstreet Highroad Guide to the Georgia Coast & Okefenokee: Altamaha River Bioreserve"
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The sale was located on what used to be the Ten Broeck Race Course, two miles outside
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575:"Unearthing the Weeping Time: Savannah's Ten Broeck Race Course and 1859 Slave Sale"
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Two historical markers, remains of plantation structures, and the Huston house
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Bailey, Anne C., The Weeping Time, Cambridge University Press, 2017, p. 46
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752:"Historic Huston House at Butler Island Plantation catches fire"
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Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839
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Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839
701:"Col. Huston traded Yankees in New York for a Georgia farm"
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Buildings and structures in McIntosh County, Georgia
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A description of the plantation from November 1873:
689:(London: R. Bentley & Son, 1883), pp. 242-244.
243:, which is thought by some to have influenced the
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687:Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation Since the War
640:Ten Years On a Georgia Plantation Since the War
229:Pierce Mease Butler and Frances Kemble Butler
796:Protected areas of McIntosh County, Georgia
573:Kwesi, DeGraft-Hanson (February 18, 2010).
402:Boiler (brick cistern with hearth beneath)
801:Plantation houses in Georgia (U.S. state)
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354:Remains of the steam-operated rice mill
201:Georgia Department of Natural Resources
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270:The plantation was abandoned when the
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216:Founding Fathers of the United States
38:Front (east side) of the Huston House
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378:Back (west side) of the Huston house
726:"Huston House at Butler Plantation"
643:. London: Richard Bentley & Son
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187:. It was originally owned by Major
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277:Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation
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193:Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston
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699:Hobbs, Larry (May 25, 2019).
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90:Show map of the United States
453:Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation
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235:Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble
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614:"Butler Island Plantation"
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517:"Butler Island Plantation"
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169:Butler Island Plantation
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129:31.354725°N 81.446491°W
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134:31.354725; -81.446491
777:at Wikimedia Commons
183:delta just South of
438:Great Slave Auction
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65:Show map of Georgia
732:. November 7, 2018
705:The Brunswick News
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322:R. J. Reynolds Jr.
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672:2017-04-19
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550:2017-04-19
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460:References
173:plantation
120:81°26′47″W
117:31°21′17″N
736:April 13,
710:April 13,
597:1551-2754
253:Civil War
195:and then
432:See also
647:June 4,
501:June 4,
245:British
220:slavery
210:History
179:on the
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341:Photos
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593:ISSN
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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