Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation

Around 1806 William Brailsford purchased land on the Altamaha River.  That land became his rice plantation.  Rice was grown from the Carolinas to Florida.  It was a very important crop because it didn’t spoil and could feed lots of people.  We learned a lot about how rice was grown.  It was a very labor intensive process to first clear the land and plan the rice plantings, and then to build the floodgates or trunks to control the incoming water from the tides. Planting and growing the rice was also a very exacting, labor intensive process.

At Brailford’s death the land was passed to his son-in-law, Dr. James Troup.  It remained in the Troup-Dent family until 1973 when the last sister died.  The plantation was left to the state of Georgia.  The house was built in the 1850’s and includes all the furnishings owned by the five generations who had lived there. 

Yesterday was a presentation about women and the Victorian age.  We did learn a little about the life of women in that time.  They were to get married, have children (in that order the speaker stressed- and said she’ll stress it with her elementary presentation next week), feed, clothe and care for her family and the slaves and their families. 

After the presentation we walked to the house and grounds.  The furnishings are left as they were at the time of Ophelia’s death.  There are many pictures throughout the house. One of the rangers explained that most women in the past were much shorter (they told us that at Jekyll also when demonstrating the counter heights) and so the chairs were also shorter.  The chairs with low backs were for women with hoop skirts, as was the chaise with the cut away back- so a drink could be placed on a sofa table behind the furniture (hoops did not allow coffee tables). 

Outside one ranger pointed out the Live Oak that they think is at least 500 years old.  She also took us to both camellia gardens. And we saw where the rice fields were.

It was an interesting day.