Drayton Hall Reimagined: New Perspectives on the Commercial, Ornamental and Intellectual Landscapes of John Drayton (c.1715-1779)

Summary

Recent research has exposed how Drayton Hall (c.1738) was conceived by wealthy planter John Drayton to operate as a gentleman’s suburban estate at the center of his vast network of commercial plantations that stretched across South Carolina and Georgia.  Drawing from extant architecture, archaeological evidence, landscape features and surviving documentary records, this study will further our knowledge of one of South Carolina’s greatest plantation networks by examining the social, economic and intellectual influences behind its creation and operation with a focus on the colonial identity established by its builder.  Beginning with an assessment of John Drayton as a planter, a merchant and an intellectual, this work will progress to examine the material conditions of Drayton in the context of the expanding British Empire in order to obtain an expanded look at an elite colonial plantation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• "The task of making improvements on the earth:" Perspectives on plantation landscape archaeology.

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 483