When discussing whether it would benefit my readers and be respectful to include a plantation in my travel guides, Robin and I agreed that ignoring plantations and slavery wouldn’t change the fact that both majorly shaped history, culture, etc., and the area in and around Charleston. Learning about even the worst things to have happened in history, including what was done to enslaved people from West Africa and Barbados at Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, can help prevent things like this from ever happening again. Here’s how the owners of Magnolia Plantation & Gardens can continue transforming this plantation into a place of education and respect.
*Please note that there are no ads or affiliate links within this post, as I do not believe it is ever okay to profit from slavery or the stories surrounding it. This post is different from my usual Gardens posts, as I’ll begin by discussing what’s offered at the plantation and end by sharing ways this plantation could be used to support racial justice causes and help end modern-day slavery.
Magnolia Plantation & Gardens
Location: Charleston, South Carolina
Address: 3550 Ashley River Road
Type: Indoor & Outdoor Gardens
Size: 390 Acres
What is Magnolia Plantation & Gardens
390-acre Magnolia Plantation & Gardens was where several hundred enslaved people and their descendants were abused and forced to work the lands, primarily growing Charleston rice imported from Western Africa. Slavery existed on this plantation for around 200 years. Today, volunteers and staff, some of whom are descendants of these enslaved people, still tend to the gardens and preserve this historic site as paid gardeners.
Tours of the gardens began in 1870, making them the oldest public gardens in the nation. It is also the most visited plantation in Charleston. It was voted “America’s Most Beautiful Garden” by Travel & Leisure Magazine, it’s the oldest tourist attraction in the Lowcountry, and it’s also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s truly breathtaking!
When to Visit
I would recommend visiting Magnolia Plantation & Gardens on a day when it isn’t raining very hard, as most of the gardens are outdoors, and most of the paths are dirt, which means they could be muddy during or just after hard rains. The day we visited was truly perfect weather and made our visit even nicer.
We visited in late April, early in the morning, when the azaleas, jasmine, and irises were in bloom, the skies were clear and beautiful, and everything was green and robust around the gardens. I can’t speak about visiting during other months, but late April was the perfect time to admire the beauty of the gardens on a warm, clear morning.
What to Do at the Gardens
The gardens offer several tours of the grounds. The most popular by far is the Slavery to Freedom Tour which takes participants through various time periods of slavery that Black people and Africans/African Americans experienced at the plantation, beginning with slavery and ending in the 1900s. Housed inside five preserved buildings, four cabins, and one smokehouse, the tour acknowledges that none of Magnolia Plantation would have been possible without the forced labor of enslaved people.
More guests who visit the plantation take this tour to learn about the lives and history of the enslaved people who lived on the plantation rather than visiting the property’s main house where the slave-owning family resided. I think that’s encouraging as it speaks to people’s desire to understand African American & Black history better, as well as the desire to learn the stories of those who made Magnolia Plantation & Gardens possible instead of focusing on the slave owners who exploited enslaved people. The property owners could leverage this massive interest in learning about and beginning to correct historical inaccuracies that are often glossed over to do much more good in the world, which I’ll discuss a bit later.
The conservatory garden was lovely and housed a large variety of orchids, palms, and air plants, all of which were thriving in the garden. There wasn’t much information about where they came from, which I would have loved to have learned about. Were they just there to be decorative? Did they hold any special significance? I couldn’t find this information anywhere, so I had to assume they were simply there for ornamental purposes. I’d love to see more information about the flora and fauna around the property.
Aside from the variety of tours available on-site, visitors who purchase an additional ticket can also take a 45-minute walk through the Audubon Swamp Garden at the plantation entrance on their way out. This swamp garden offers a rare glimpse at otherwise inaccessible swamp ecosystems, which is a fantastic opportunity for anyone passionate about nature and environmental conservation.
The white bridges around the gardens are some of the most popular photo spots on site. The gardens all interconnect, making it convenient to walk through the property seamlessly to take in the well-preserved natural beauty of these gardens. The property is also home to massive Live Oak trees, nearly all draped in gorgeous Spanish moss.
During our visit to the plantation, we saw peacocks wandering around freely, herons flying overhead, alligators lounging at the edge of the water, along with a dozen turtles sunning themselves near the water’s edge or on logs.
Bird-watching walking tours are also sometimes available on Sundays, where participants can learn about the incredible plethora of birds that call this area home. This walking tour requires an additional ticket.
Thoughts on Magnolia Plantation & Gardens
Slavery was and still is absolutely abhorrent. Tragically, racism still exists today, demonstrating the long-lasting, brutal damage slavery did to our nation and the rest of the world. It’s difficult to fathom such incredible gardens, blooming under the breathtaking Lowcountry sun, coexisting with such a monstrous practice as stripping people of their freedom, abusing them, and forcing them to work in rice paddies and gardens during the plantation’s 200+ years of slavery. We visited the plantation in the hopes of becoming better educated on slavery and the lives of the enslaved people, and I feel like Magnolia Plantation & Gardens did a somewhat decent job of this. Still, there is a lot of potential for positive change.
What Magnolia Plantation & Gardens Could Do Better
Magnolia Plantation & Gardens is in an excellent position to not only clearly acknowledge the pain caused by racism & slavery in the United States through signage and verbal acknowledgments during tours and on their digital presences but also to raise awareness of and support efforts to end modern-day slavery & sex-trafficking around the world. I hope that they take it upon themselves to do so. Obviously, their visitors have an interest in learning about the enslaved people who lived and were forced to work at the plantation for two centuries, as demonstrated by the popularity of their award-winning From Slavery to Freedom tour. They can and should build upon that momentum and do so in such a way that doesn’t take away from the stories of the slaves at this plantation but in a way that honors their struggles and helps others from suffering the same fate in modern times.
I didn’t see any clear condemnation of the practice of slavery itself around the plantation, outright stating that what happened there was wrong or any condemnation of the slave owners themselves, stating explicitly that what they did was abhorrent. From what I can find, the slave owner’s descendants still own this land, according to this article in the New York Times from 2009 (if anyone knows of any updates on who owns this property, please let me know). An outright condemnation of slavery and racism would make it crystal clear to visitors, employees, and volunteers to show that they disagree with what their ancestors did to innocent men, women, and children.
Magnolia Plantation & Gardens has a non-profit side, which benefits food banks, dog adoption drives, environmental protection, and youth programs, among other causes. While these are all excellent causes to be sure, they could also support the descendants of those who were enslaved on their lands through scholarships, grants, or whatever specific assistance and reparations these individuals say they need, as well as seeing the plantation support charities that prevent and fight against modern-day slavery and sex-trafficking in the United States and around the world. Supporting anti-slavery initiatives as a place that formerly used slave labor seems like a no-brainer, but it wasn’t something I saw listed in the charities they support.
I also learned after visiting the plantation that apparently, some couples get married at plantations, like celebrities Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, who married at Boone Plantation in South Carolina and later deeply regretted it. Why would anyone want to celebrate what should be the most romantic and happy day of their lives in a place where so much cruelty and abuse happened, and why would anyone be okay profiting from these weddings? There are so many more respectful places people could marry or host events in Charleston and worldwide that this is entirely unnecessary. Pinterest, The Knot, and other wedding planning services no longer promote plantation weddings for this reason, and you can join their efforts, initiated by Color of Change, by discontinuing the option to marry there and discontinuing for-profit events on the property, like yoga classes.
Condemning violence against minorities and people of color, including condemning police brutality and the school-to-prison pipeline, to such a captive audience as those visiting the plantation would go a very long way and would clear up any uncertainty about where the owners of this property’s beliefs lie. Making it clear that the descendants of those slave owners do not agree with or support the actions of their ancestors would show that they’ve learned from their mistakes and that they are committed to helping right these societal wrongs.
If they already do any of these things, it has not been made clear enough to be found by someone who was seeking out this information, and I would really like to learn more about their efforts if they exist. Continue offering educational tours of these lovely grounds, continue protecting threatened wetland areas, and support environmental conservation, all while simultaneously acknowledging that this property would not exist as it does today without the slaves who did all of the work to build and maintain them. Transform these gardens into a memorial where enslaved people can be honored, have their stories told, their names spoken, and their efforts honored, and emphasize that this place is part of their legacy, not the legacy of slave owners. The descendants of slave owners who are alive today are not responsible for the atrocities committed by their ancestors, but they do have the ability and the responsibility to help work toward a more well-informed, equitable, and respectful future.
If you are interested in finding local volunteer groups or causes to donate to in order to fight modern-day slavery, please check out EndSlaveryNow.org for a directory of causes that directly support ending slavery around the world.
Anonymous says
Thank you for calling this place out. Too many bloggers just do what they’re told by the owners, or what others are doing. It’s refreshing to see you stand up for what’s right, that’s why I follow you. Plantation weddings are disgusting.
Annie Fairfax says
Thank you for reading. I will never publish pre-written content, or write about things in a way that is disingenuous.
Only by acknowledging the horrors of the past can we learn from them. I’m certainly not an expert on this subject, and I’m always looking to learn more. I was very disappointed that as someone who was looking to learn more about slavery and hoping to see it condemned, there was little mention of either topic around the gardens, even after lots of digging.
Anonymous says
I HATE the idea of white people getting married at plantations. It’s a slap in the face to people of color who have suffered for generations because of slavery. They need to do better.
Annie Fairfax says
Thank you for reading, and for leaving a comment. You raise a great point. From the few people I know who have gotten married at plantations, I’ve heard that once they learned how hurtful it was to others, they immediately regretted it. Our education system is lacking when it comes to emphasizing how recently this happened, and how deeply the pain of slavery is still felt by our loved ones.
I think we can all do better, and I am hopeful that this plantation will continue to turn its efforts towards educating people and giving back to the communities. They have lots of opportunities to do this, and while change can be slow, it really seems like their visitors are hungry to learn more about the truth and to help begin to turn things around.
keepyourpower says
The past is gone! You should be talking about the PRESENT sex slavery of young girls, and boys, especially the babies, that are illegally being brought over our Southern border, by cartels!
Stop this slavery NOW!
Annie Fairfax says
Hi and thank you for reading,
I do mention modern-day slavery, and the ways this plantation can help educate around the issues of both, in several places on this post. I encourage you to read through it carefully and you will see that the two are inextricably linked. Indigenous women and girls are abused all over our nation, as well as other people around the world, and it’s sickening. They all stem from the same issues of racism, extreme poverty, and a lack of human compassion and education. Thank you so much for being passionate about these human rights issues, because as you mentioned, they are still very much issues in this day and age.
Margit Steimle says
I initially had planned to visit the plantation this week but I always wondered how whitewashed the history would be told and how the descendants of the white plantation owners pay reparation and truly acknowledge the wrongdoing of their ancestors. Your article answered my question and I cannot support listening to half truths . I cannot pay money to see this place and the money is not used to tell the full truth. The fact that you choose which tour to go to even bothers me. So white people can visit and selectively only look at one site : the gardens , the house etc.
Therefore I cannot visit the place in spite of its beauty. I was born and raised in Germany and understand the struggle to deal with our political past. We did pay reparation to holocaust survivors and this dark part of our history is addressed from every angle in the school system. We just recently paid reparations to the African country of Namibia which used to be German colonial property until 1918 when we lost it in the treaty of Versailles. Germany committed genocide to certain tribes.
America has still ways to go in dealing with its past . Thank you for helping me decide .
Annie Fairfax says
Margit,
I apologize for not seeing and replying to your comment sooner. Thank you for your comment. I hope one day that the United States will put much more effort into righting its historical wrongs. Those alive today are of course not responsible for for what those in the past did, however we are responsible for fighting for the rights and dignity of those alive today, and preventing such atrocities from ever happening again. The first step in preventing anything like this from ever happening again is by acknowledging what happened and teaching the truth, not a whitewashed version of the truth.
Someone below just commented about how they went on the house tour, and the tour guide was making jokes about the servants and emphasizing the wealth of the slave owners, without condemning the practice of slavery or doing anything to acknowledge that what happened in and around the house was abhorrent. That is such a disrespectful and shameful thing to do, especially when it appears that the owners of the plantation and gardens are still profiting from these tours, without donating any proceeds to anti-slavery organizations.
I hope that you found other interesting and enjoyable things to do in the Charleston area. It’s a beautiful place, and there are lots of other excellent places to go where the truth is acknowledged and respected.
Ndgo says
I have just returned from a visit to Magnolia Plantation. I went explicitly for the Slavery to Freedom Tour. Sad to say, the tour guide stated this is recently the least taken tour on their list, and most come to see the house or gardens. I wanted to make that clear as this post says the opposite. Although it is an award-wining tour.
JB says
Thank you thank you thank you for writing this. DO NOT take the house tour if you want to learn about slavery. It is only about marveling at the family’s wealth, including cheeky jokes about how post-slavery servants were kept in the basement so that the homeowners could kick a button for food brought up by a dumbwaiter instead of interacting with them (“must have been a nice setup, ha ha”). The overall narrative is about the trials and tribulations of the slave owners including momentarily losing their money after the civil war (because “they invested in confederate bonds”—no mention of the slave labor they lost in the rice fields). I left this place feeling like I needed to personally pay reparations and disgusted that the family still owns and profits from all of this land.
Annie Fairfax says
Thank you for sharing your experience with this tour, and for providing such valuable insight. That is a very disrespectful perspective for a tour like that to provide.
They could take the tours as an opportunity to further condemn slavery, discuss the history of the architecture of the building, provide other relevant historical information, and emphasize the contributions of the people who were enslaved there instead of making light of such horrible practices.
It’s very disappointing to see that the owners of this place have wasted an opportunity to help begin correcting historical wrongs and further educating visitors on not only the history of slavery in South Carolina, but the issues of modern-day slavery too.
The only explanation for running tours like this, failing to condemn slavery both past and present, and neglecting to support anti-slavery charities is that they must not care to do so.
Chelsea Zwick says
We visited the gardens yesterday, and you’ve captured my thoughts exactly. My family is from Mississippi, with my immediate family mostly residing in Kentucky now, and I have been a St. Louis resident for 12 years – all places with prominent racism. With all of the time I’ve spent in the southern states, I had never been to a plantation until yesterday (that I can remember, at least), but have always had this nagging feeling that it doesn’t feel right to tour them. We went to Magnolia yesterday because we had several hours to fill before our flight out of town, and we were drawn to the gardens and marsh attractions. Until last night, I hadn’t done any kind of research on the topic of plantations profiting from tours and events, how the descendants of the enslaved might be involved and receive reparations, etc. As I feared, there is minimal acknowledgement of what happened on these properties – nothing past muttering the words slavery/slaves/enslaved. We took a “train” tour through the gardens (we had small children with us), and passed the slaves’ cabins. The guide mentioned that the slaves built the “homes” themselves, but nothing else.
Sure, we can marvel at the absolutely beautiful plantation homes (my husband and I are both architects, it’s hard not to), the gardens, etc. but the emphasis of these properties MUST be the slaves themselves – what THEY were forced to sacrifice, the lives lost and other cruelties that occurred here. The wealth and success of these plantations and their white owners was only possible because of slavery, yet this country still highlights the opulence rather than the atrocities our own white ancestors committed. These are America’s own concentration camps – and to exploit them for profit because of their beauty without educating visitors on their horrific history is not acceptable.
I think signage throughout the property – a plaque for every known slave, memorials where lynchings were known to have occurred, statues of the slaves rather than plantation owners, detailed information on display to illustrate the abuse, etc. should be mandatory. It’s the LEAST they could do. Rename the plantations for the slaves, rather than the owners. There is so much more we can do as a society.
Annie Fairfax says
First of all, thank you so much for sharing your insight on this. I think you’re completely right, the focus should be primarily on the people who were enslaved. Their stories should be the ones that are told, their (forced) work should be what’s emphasized. Their lives and names should be honored there, not the people who enslaved them. Much of the USA and that plantation specifically wouldn’t be what it is today without the contributions of black, Caribbean and African people who were forced to work to create such things. That they are hardly mentioned like you said and as I noticed when actively searching for mentions of them is shameful.
It was evil to enslave anyone in the first place but to practically erase their suffering in modern times when we all know and agree it was wrong is shameful.
I encourage you to write to the plantation itself, just as I did, sharing your feedback and pushing for change. If we use our platform and our voices to push for what’s right, hopefully we can see real change. I encourage anyone else you traveled with as well to do the same. Utilizing social media can be a powerful tool too. If we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it, and we can’t allow that to happen.
Thank you for reading and for caring about this issue. The people who were abused there deserve to be remembered. Their lives mattered.