January Bird Bounty

The new year and the recent cold spell have created a busy time at my bird feeders. I had been noticing the increased activity.

Finally, on Martin Luther King Day I spent some time seeing if I could get some nice camera captures.

This photo shows several Chipping Sparrows (a "tournament" is the collective name- who knew?) and an Eastern Bluebird on my rather elaborate bird buffet.

The Cost of Slavery- the Hutchinsons of St. Bartholomew's Parish (Colleton County, S.C.)

Hercules- $750. Hector- $700. Marlborough- $350. Molly- $600. Mary- $300. Betsy- $50.

These "Negroes" were slaves belonging to planter and lawyer Leger Hutchinson, Esq. And these were the values placed on each of them. A document like this truly brings slavery to life and light.

Leger died in 1815 at the young age of 24. He was part of a line of Hutchinsons who owned large rice plantations and hundreds of slaves in South Carolina's Lowcountry. Specifically, Leger was from what was then called St. Bartholomew Parish. Today it is Colleton County.

Remote ACE Basin Cemetery Revisited

Such a remote part of the Lowcountry. But people did live and die there. This week we drove about 40 miles south of Charleston to the ACE Basin, to the Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, to the Boynton Trail within the vast nature preserve. Its address is barely on the map (or internet) too: Green Pond, S.C.

After more effort than I thought it would take, we found what we were looking to find. A very old cemetery that may have burials going back to the 1700s. There are five visible grave markers here.