Written by Deirdre Hickey

3 South Carolina Relics Packed With History

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A relic of the Revolutionary War and antebellum period of the South Carolina Inner Coastal Plain, Historic Brattonsville immortalizes more than 225 years of human experience. The 800-acre property is home to more than 30 structures, six miles of hiking trails, and a litany of historical reenactments throughout the calendar year.

Most notably, Historic Brattonsville is where the Battle of Huck’s Defeat occurred on July 12, 1780. During The Southern Campaign of loyalist troops, Captain Christian Huck seized the Brattonsville plantation after hearing word that Colonel William Bratton, patriot militia leader, was headed to the plantation to oversee the forthcoming harvest. William’s wife, Martha, heard word of Huck’s plan and sent an enslaved man known as Watt to deliver a note to Bratton. The following morning, Bratton rallied his troops and surrounded the loyalist encampment on all sides, ultimately leading to the death of Captain Huck. Visitors can see the enslaved Ancestral Burial Ground on the property where Watt and his wife, Polly, as well as 481 other individuals are laid to rest.

Today, the site serves York County as a living history museum with battle reenactments, interactive environments, and nature preserves. Additionally, the museum works closely with the descendants of enslaved individuals of Brattonsville to preserve the history and fortitude of the individuals who built and sustained the property.

Guillebeau Home

McCormick

Andre Guillebeau left France in 1763 with a group of French Huguenots to escape persecution and conversion orchestrated by the French Catholic crown. The Huguenots escaped to England, then sailed to South Carolina, eventually settling in modern-day McCormick County and establishing their settlement of New Bordeaux.

The British advertised South Carolina to French refugees, describing its rich soil, bountiful rivers, religious freedom, and ample agricultural conditions for producing wine, oil, and silk. Though these industries proved to be less profitable than other preestablished industries across South Carolina, and the settlement of New Bordeaux is virtually nonexistent today, this settlement has a lasting impact on the state. Thousands of South Carolinians can trace their ancestry back to New Bordeaux.

Today, Andre Guillebeau’s hand-hewn log cabin is the only remaining structure of the New Bordeaux settlement and can be rented for vacation stays within Hickory Knob State Park. The cabin allows up to four people to sleep within the same walls that housed Guillebeau, with access to modern amenities.

Treaty of Dewitts Corner

Abbeville

Modern-day Abbeville County is the ancestral home of the Cherokee Nation and served as critical hunting land for the Cherokee people, long before European colonization and settlement in South Carolina. In the mid-18th century, European colonists began settling in the area, infringing on the Cherokees’ ability to hunt and thrive. In response, many of the Cherokee joined the British in organizing attacks against European settlements.

Patriot militias and continental armies retaliated against the Cherokee, ambushing their communities and decimating their resources, such as food, weaponry, and shelter. Cherokee leaders had no choice but to come to a peace agreement, ultimately leading to the Treaty of DeWitt’s Corner, memorialized by a historical marker along Due West Road. The treaty forced the Cherokee people to surrender massive amounts of their ancestral homeland to colonial settlers and cease attacks on European settlements.

Apart from a few Cherokee-led militias, the two populations coexisted for 60 years before the Cherokee people were forcibly removed by the 1830 Indian Removal Act and subsequent Trail of Tears led by Andrew Jackson, resulting in the devastation of thousands of Indigenous people.