Preliminary investigations into the source of brick clay, Brookgreen Plantation, Georgetown County, South Carolina

Abstract

Brookgreen Gardens, Georgetown County, South Carolina, includes the remains of Brookgreen Plantation and other historic rice plantations. The property contains archeological resources associated with enslaved African, African-American, and Native American people. Visitors are told that the piers and chimneys of the homes of the enslaved were made of local brick, from clay dug, processed, and fired on-site. The clay mining allegedly formed the ponds and water features still visible today. To test that assertion, the authors conducted experiments, including collecting and geochemically analyzing local clays from these water features, to better understand the brick-making practices of Brookgreen's enslaved workers. Using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, we determined that these ponds were not the source of clay used for bricks. Instead, a deposit of clay located closer to the historic rice fields, where much of the work on the plantation occurred, was geochemically consistent with the archeological bricks.