Just Another Brick in the Wall: Brick Looting in the Antebellum Lowcountry of South Carolina

Summary

From the colonial period through the twentieth century, brick looting was a common occurrence in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Most accounts are related to the Revolutionary and Civil wars when brick was stolen from ruins or abandoned structures to repair damaged buildings or construct new ones. This study focuses on the built landscape of Peachtree Plantation in St. James Santee Parish, South Carolina. This 450-acre parcel contains the remnants of the second largest plantation house in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The main house was not extensively brick looted though it burned in 1840. No intact structure, however, remains of its brick dependencies. Their presence on the modern landscape is defined by looters trenches and surface scatters of brick and mortar fragments. This study utilizes archaeology and historical research to trace the deconstruction sequence of these dependencies and place the occurrence of brick looting within a broader regional context.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Regional Retrospective Analysis of the Antebellum Atlantic Seaboard   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 636