Cosmopolitanism In South Carolina: Examining John Drayton’s Country Estate

Summary

New research at Drayton Hall is shifting decades-old interpretation of how the house and land were used by John Drayton in the mid- to late- 18th century. The previous narrative was of an agricultural lifestyle on a southern plantation, but the material culture and historical evidence indicates that Drayton Hall was built and used as an English country estate to display wealth and position to those visiting the property. This paper analyzes the artifacts recovered from the South Flanker well to exhibit the cosmopolitan nature of John Drayton’s life on the Ashley River outside of Charleston, South Carolina from c.1750 to 1779 and which continued with his son Charles’ ownership of the property from 1784 to 1820. The diversity and richness of the material culture demonstrates the intention to link Drayton Hall to a larger global and urban space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond and Between the Plantation; The Archaeology of "Everything But" in the American Southeast   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 384