When slaves on Edisto were not working for the plantation families, they were working for themselves.

Most slaves were given a small plot of land they could cultivate and a cabin. Each week they were given a ration of food that consisted mostly of potatoes, corn, rice, salt-pork, molasses, smoking tobacco, and collard greens.

Vegetable soup was also purported to be one of the things field workers were given daily by the planter, which could not have been pleasant – imagine eating hot vegetable soup in the middle of July while working in a cotton field.

In addition to food, slaves on the wealthiest of plantations were given chickens and a pig to raise on their land to feed their families. They could also sell the eggs in town and make some money for themselves.

To balance out their diet (although that was not the intention of plantation owners) slaves were able to have unfettered access to the edible creatures in the creeks and nuts and berries on the property.

As for housing, some slaves had nothing more than ramshackle structures with dirt floors to two-bedroom wooden cabins with plank floors, fireplaces, sleeping lofts, and windows.

It is said that throughout the south, slaves on Edisto while by no means had a desirable life, they lived in better conditions than other slaves because the plantation owners on Edisto were so incredibly wealthy they were able to give their slaves more. But when it gets down to it, these people were denied their basic rights as humans, so while they may have had better living conditions than their counterparts on other plantations throughout the south, they were still enslaved. This fact is why no matter what the conditions were, many times slaves tried to escape.

Some went about this peacefully and would save up the meager earnings they received from selling eggs or doing odd jobs and they would buy their freedom.

In other instances, some slaves were granted freedom once they had become so old that they were no longer seen as valuable to the plantation.

In one case, an old woman was granted her freedom because she had never complained during her time working for the plantation and was highly-skilled. But she denied the freedom that was offered to her and instead asked if her son could be set free instead. Her desire was fulfilled and her son went on to start his own business in Charleston and became wealthy in his own right.

Then there were the slaves who didn’t wait to be granted freedom or buy it for themselves, they just up and ran off. This was massively difficult because of Edisto’s geographical position. By the time slaves got far enough away from the plantation they had the difficult task of crossing the creeks and oyster beds and many times were caught just as they reached the water. These people then had to suffer through the consequences of trying to get away.

There are also reports that at one point more than 70 slaves ran off from Cassina Point plantation and managed to avoid being caught.

Then there are the sad stories about the slaves who refused to be enslaved and were killed for their defiance.

But slavery eventually ended after the nation battled itself during the Civil War. The blacks still worked for white families in many instances, but they were no longer an enslaved people. They were able to educate their children, work for themselves, and live their own lives.

Though it would be a long, long time before these same people were able to experience the true freedom that comes with rights and equality.

Evidence of the slaves that lived on Edisto all those years ago can found at the Edisto museum where there are artifacts and two slave cabins on display. Visit the museum to take a look at scenes from Edisto’s past.

Like the rest of the southern United States, Edisto Island was at one point in time the home to slaves brought to the country from Africa.

This was back in the late 1600s. At that time, Charleston was a thriving town full of white European settlers, but Edisto Island was just entering the game of colonization because, like it is now, it was so far off the beaten path that most people had yet to realize it was a goldmine of cotton, indigo, farmland, and access to the waterways which were filled with marine life.

But it was only a matter of time before all that changed.

The first white settler on Edisto Island was Paul Grimball who built Point of Pines plantation in 1683. Grimball had 600 acres of land that bordered the North Edisto River. His plantation was actually built by mostly white servants of Grimball, but once it was completed he needed someone to work all his acres, so he decided to get involved in the new business of slave ownership and it was Grimball who brought the first slaves to Edisto.

At that time, it is said that plantation owners on Edisto did not have dozens and dozens of slaves as it is sometimes depicted in Hollywood films featuring the Old South. Instead, plantation owners had only roughly six or seven slaves. However, all that changed with time and more and more enslaved people were brought into the country.

This was because white settlers quickly realized that these slaves brought with them unique skills that could make them even richer. For instance, the slaves knew how to cultivate rice because they had done that in their native land, so it was in the best interest of the white settlers to have more slaves who could work the rice fields and in turn make them wealthier by the day.

People began to take notice of what was going on on the island and more European settlers started setting up their own plantations on Edisto and bringing more and more slaves to the island.

Remember that during this time, whites thought of slavery as normal and acceptable. The Civil War wasn’t even a thought at that time and there weren’t many rich plantation owners who were willing to discuss over cocktails with other rich plantation owners that the whole slave labor thing might be considered barbaric. Instead, the act of slavery continued so that over time there were generations of slaves that were born into slavery and never knew what it was to be free.

There were four types of slaves during the time of the Atlantic Slave Trade: field hands, house servants, drivers and craftsmen. Within these types there were certain hierarchies amongst the slaves.

For instance, drivers were expected to take the plantation owners and their families all throughout town and it was expected that the drivers would know all of the important people in the community. The drivers were also required to deliver the weekly food rations to other slaves and judged the level of work done by the field workers, which gave them a certain degree of power. Drivers were allowed to use force on other slaves and acted as the voice of the plantation owners because they were responsible for seeing to it that the orders laid down by the owners were carried out.

Craftsmen were the next on the hierarchical scale. These people were talented in that they knew how to create and use tools, construct buildings or make repairs, and they were generally the go-to people on a plantation when any special skill was needed. For instance, if a wagon was broken, a craftsman was usually brought in to see what could be done even if the wagon was owned by a different plantation family.

Because craftsmen were seen as valuable, they could also earn a little money for themselves when other plantations requested their help, so that bolstered their status in the plantation system.

House and yard servants worked closely with the plantation families, but they were seen as just one step up from the lowest of the low. While some people may think of Mammie from “Gone with the Wind” as the prototype for house slave, it is important to remember that while some people did love their slaves, especially little children, these people were still enslaved human beings who were forced to be away from their real families to cater to the needs of white families, so there was not usually a strong familial bond between them.

Field workers who did the most work and made the most money for the plantation families were seen as the lowest of the low even among other slaves. These people were treated like cattle at best and were valued based on their strength. A strong man who could put in a full day’s work was the most valuable, whereas a child or older adult would be seen as very invaluable.

Black history month is well underway so it is definitely the time to pay some respect to one of Edisto’s own who helped pave the way to a better future for thousands of Edisto’s youngest residents.

This of course was Jane Edwards.

Jane Edwards devoted 66 years of her life to teaching the black children of Edisto Island. This was during a time long before equality for all and desegregation occurred and the poor black children living on the island had just one woman to turn to for their educational needs.

These children knew what it was like to be thought of at best as second-rate citizens or at worse, not thought of at all, so having someone like Edwards come through and tell them that they deserved a chance just like everyone else impacted them like no other.

All of the children got together in what was then called the Borough School, which was a building that had been discarded by the whites after a larger school had been built for their children. However, knowing that education was of the utmost importance in the lives of the black children on Edisto, Edwards gladly accepted the old building and began teaching anyone who wanted to learn.

For years, she taught the basics to the children of all ages on the island, so that after time, generations of black families on Edisto had all been taught by Jane Edwards.

But it wasn’t until the 1960s when Edwards was already 94 years old that she got to experience a true honor: a school was named for her and it was open to anyone of any color.

This was the Jane Edwards School which still stands today and is the place where thousands of students have been educated ever since it was built.

Today, the Jane Edwards School is a place where all children on Edisto Island are welcome, no matter what their background is.

If you want to help out the Edisto community, consider contacting the Jane Edwards School and see what needs they have currently for the student body. Often times, the students are in need of basic school supplies and uniforms that their parents cannot provide, and so they count on the kindness of strangers to help meet their needs.

The school office can be reached at 843-559-4171.

It’s interesting to think about what people did on Edisto centuries ago. Did they get together for cookouts? Walk on the beach? Go swimming? The answer is yes and no.

The first people to live on Edisto, the Native American’s known as the Edisto, lived in the area in between Oyster Factory Road and Edingsville Beach Road back in the early 1500s. This area is to this day heavily wooded and edged with salt marshes, but many people love it because it offers the seclusion of the woods and peacefulness of the nearby water. This is just one of many similarities we have with Edisto’s earliest people.

The Edisto Indians were a peaceful group. There were only a few hundred within the tribe and they sustained their lifestyle through trading with natives in the surrounding area. Some of the items traded included pearls from the abundant oysters in the area and shells found in the marsh and on the shore. It’s funny that today these things are collected as souvenirs, but not seen as valuable (aside from pearls, of course).

Who hasn’t come to Edisto and feasted upon oysters, crabs, shrimp, and fish? The Edisto Indians did the same thing. But they also enjoyed hunting the large game on the island like deer and the occasional wild boar. They also planted vegetables and collected nuts and berries, which grew in the area.

As far as housing goes, what the Indians had was much simpler than what we have today.

They used things found easily in the area like large branches and palm fronds. They built a small village with one large circular house or hut and it was surrounded by smaller huts. This was the community area that they built for themselves, but they considered the entire island to be their home. That said, the Indians used their village as the center for their activities and get-togethers.

The Edisto Indians lived peacefully in the area for years. But then in 1570 the Spanish missionaries came to the area.

The missionaries wanted to convert the Indians to Christianity and have them come to their churches and schools. The Edisto Indians were receptive in the beginning to the missionaries (and the missionaries were respectful of the Indians because they decided that they were not savages, as they had thought, but Christian-like in their behavior because they had strong family units and were peaceful with their neighbors).

However, when winter came on Edisto, the Indians retreated to their farms and then refused to become a part of the new Christian movement on the island. Instead, they moved on from the area, and did not come back again for another 100 years.

Stay tuned for more blogs about Edisto’s earliest visitors…