Savannah - Day Six

Our first stop on Friday was to the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, a historic rice plantation along the Altamaha River. We walked beneath live oak trees to the home furnished with fine antiques. We could gaze from the porch past magnolias and camellias to the marsh where rice once flourished.





Around 1807, William Brailsford of Charleston began carving a rice plantation from the virgin cypress swamps along the Altamaha River. His son-in-law, James M. Troup, acquired additional land along the river. By the time Troup passed away, he owned 7,300 acres of land, 357 slaves, and several homes.

Until the outbreak of the Civil War, the plantation produced rice steadily. War, hurricanes, and lack of abundant labor led to the fall of the rice empire in 1915. Brailsford's descendants converted the plantation into a dairy that distributed high-quality milk in Glynn County. Due to a combination of reasons, the dairy closed in 1942.

The house remains as Ophelia Troup Dent's granddaughter (also named Ophelia) left it when she died in 1973, willing the property to the state. Antiques collected over five generations of Brailsford's descendants remain in the house.






We then had a picnic lunch on the plantation grounds and then headed to Jekyll Island, Georgia's smallest barrier island, to swim.



The men and boys did not go to the plantation and Jekyll Island. However, they did rent bicycles back on Tybee Island. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of that as the men just didn't take pictures. Dalton did love riding on the beach!