Contextualizing Drayton Hall in the British Atlantic World: an Examination of the Elite Status of an 18th Century Lowcountry Home Seat

Author(s): Carter Hudgins

Year: 2014

Summary

Recent research has exposed how Drayton Hall (c.1738-1750) was conceived by wealthy planter John Drayton to operate as a gentleman’’s estate at the center of his vast network of commercial plantations that stretched across South Carolina and Georgia. Drawing from extant architecture, excavated material culture and surviving documentary records, this study will further our knowledge of one of South Carolina’s greatest plantations by examining the social, economic and intellectual influences behind its creation 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.

Cite this Record

Contextualizing Drayton Hall in the British Atlantic World: an Examination of the Elite Status of an 18th Century Lowcountry Home Seat. Carter Hudgins. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. 2014 ( tDAR id: 437181)

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-63,06