Field trip to the Backcountry

As part of our New Year's Resolution to "be more fabulous," we decided that we needed to be better about getting out and seeing stuff. There's a lot more history here than where I grew up (don't get me wrong, Mission San Jose is cool, but that's about the extent of pre-WWII history in the area), and I love it. Well, the idea of it, at least--I'm embarrassed to admit we haven't ventured out much. Inspired by my friend Alisa, we were talking about doing something fun this morning and Dave came across a website for "Historic Brattonsville." Since it's only about 45 minutes away, we packed a lunch and left around 11:30. Brattonsville is an American Revolution living history site in South Carolina. This area of Carolina Backcountry was settled by the Scotch-Irish Brattons in the 1760s. When they first settled, they would have built something like this "Backwoods Cabin":

Mabes was intrigued to see a real log cabin, just like she builds with her logs, and she liked that it was just her size. I don't think she'd want to spend the night, though.
McConnell House (above) is a historic house that was moved to Brattonsville to give a good idea of what Bratton House would have looked like when it was initially built. It was a common style of home built during the late 18th century, and would have cost about $100. There is a single room downstairs and one upstairs. Here a woman demonstrates how they might have cooked:

Mabes was excited to see a spinning wheel, but had to be convinced that this wasn't Maleficent's. Behind me is the bed, so the entire downstairs is the kitchen, spinning wheel, and bed. Most families had between 5 and 7 children.

Though Bratton House originally looked like McConnell house, William Bratton added on to make a tavern after the Revolutionary War, and his son added a room to make a school for girls (he had 7 daughters, and apparently there was already a school for his 7 sons).

The Homestead (above) was built between 1823 and 1826, and reflected the family's wealth and status. They had a large plantation with 139 slaves, and the home has a separate "Assembly," or dining hall:
The kitchen was a small brick building that was separate from the main house and the dining hall. In talking to these women, though, we learned that you would never actually see a white woman working in this kitchen. The kitchen was staffed by slaves who spent the entire day cooking. The head chef was one of the highest ranking slaves, and was very skilled at cooking and coordinating food for large groups of people. She had to make sure that meals were served warm--even though it had to be carried 100 feet to another building.

Mabes and I pose in the kitchen

According to one of the docents, 25% of The Patriot was filmed in Brattonsville, and the Homestead was used in several scenes. Here, Dave and Mabes try to recreate the famous Heath Ledger/Mel Gibson "I'm not a child!"/"You're MY child!" scene. Looks just like the movie, huh?

This field was the site of the Battle of Huck's Defeat, a significant battle during the Revolutionary War. Note the fine monuments:


We took tons of pictures and Dave and I learned a lot. Mabes was content to chase chickens and "baa" at sheep:






We're planning to go back in the summer--when everything is green--and catch a Revolutionary War re-enactment. Mabes was delighted that we finished off our Southern history day with a trip to the Q Shack for barbeque and hush puppies; it was a great day.