Ark Agriculture

Ark Agriculture. . , Beginning in 1740, experiments by Miss Eliza Lucas (who later married Charles Pinckney) and a few others who were also experimenting with indigo, helped lead to the successful cultivation of indigo in South Carolina. The indigo plant was the source of a rich blue dye so prized by the English for their textile industry that they offered bounties to those who successfully grew a crop. , Historic documents identify the Ark to have been "a large Indigo plantation" in the 1700's. The plantation came into the possession of Elisha Tillman in the late 1700's and after his death, in 1825, it was inherited by his eldest son, John M. Tillman. , According to Sabe Rutledge, whose parents had been slaves at the Ark - "Indigo. Old man Lashie Tillman nuster (used to) plant indigo. Seed lak a flax (like flax). Put myrtle seed in with indigo to boil. Gather and boil for the traffic All the big folkses plant that fore (before) rice. Rice come in circulation, do way with indigo. Nuster (used to) farm indigo just like we work our corn. Didn't have nothing but ox." , "Old man John Tilghman (Tillman) at the Ark Plantation have no overseer--have driver. Most folks on Waccamaw have overseer and driver. My pa been the Ark driver. " ,

A valuable plantation, confifting of 600 acres of Rice, Indigo, and Timber Land, on Long Bay. Conditions of Sale caſh.

, The above image is part of a newspaper advertisement that appeared in the Charleston Evening Gazette on Sept. 28, 1785. It might have been referring to the Ark plantation, as it was around that time when Elisha Tillman acquired it. , The above engraving, which is from the 1785 "Henry Mouzon Map" cartouche, shows all the main steps in the production of indigo. The plants were harvested in bundles before the stems became woody, then immediately soaked in vats of water, where they quickly Fermented in the summer heat. The foul-smelling fermented liquid was then drained off into a second set of vats, where it was beaten with paddles to stir air into the mixture and speed up the oxidation process. When small particles of a blue precipitate formed, the eating stopped, the dye master let the particles settle to the bottom of the vat, and the liquid was drained off the top into another at. The blue mud-like sludge at the bottom of the second vat was then shoveled into sacks to squeeze out liquid, was dried, and cut into small cubes and packed in barrels for shipment to England. Production of indigo created enormous wealth for many South Carolinians in the last half of the 18th century, particularly in the Winyah Bay area of Georgetown District. The American revolution made indigo less profitable, because it ended both the English bounty system and access to the English market to sell it. , Courtesy of the Charleston Museum, Charleston, South Carolina. , Statistics of the estate of John M. Tillman , All Saints Parish, Horry District: , The Ark Plantation: 1860 Agriculture Survey: . Acres of Improved Land 250 , Acres of Unimproved Land 3,000 , Cash Value of Farm $5,000 , Cash Value of Farm Implements and Machinery $500 , Livestock Survey Horses 7 , Asses and Mules 5 , Milch Cows 35 , Working Oxen 6 , Cattle 110 , Sheep 50 , Swine 250 , Cash Value of Livestock $3,225 , Agricultural Survey Bushels of Rye produced 100 , Bushels of Indian Corn produced 2,000 , Bushels of Rice produced 400 , Pounds of Wool produced 300 , Bushels of Peas and Beans 200 , Bushels of Sweet Potatoes 200 , Gallons of Molasses produced 75 , Non-Agricultural Income Value of Livestock Slaughtered $100 , In addition to the farm products listed above, the Ark probably was involved in the Naval Stores Industry. Naval Stores are materials extracted from southern pine forests and then used in the construction and repair of sailing vessels. Other typical naval stores products include lumber, rosin and turpentine. , Indigo was dried and then chopped into "cakes" similar to the one seen on the left. The "cakes" were then exported to England to be used in the dyeing of cloth. , Sabe Rutledge describes how Salt was made at the Ark:. "Boil salt? Pump! Pump! Pump it. Had a tank. Run from hill to sea. Had a platform similar to warf. And pump on plat- form. Fetch good high. Go out there on platform. Force pump. My grandmother boil salt way after freedom. We tote water. Tote in pidgin and keeler- make out of cedar and cypress. No 'ting to crove 'em (groove them) compass. Dog-wood and oak rim. Give it a lap (this is Sabe's way of describing, with pantomime, the way pidgin and keelers were made by plantation carpenters)." "My grandmother had two pots going. Boil all day and all night. Biling (boiling). Boil till he ticken (thicken). Cedar paddle stir with." , During times of war, salt was a very profitable business. People were encouraged to set up "Salt Works" along the coast and extract salt from the ocean water. During both the American Revolultionary War and the War Betweem the States, local salt works were attacked and destroyed by the invaders. , Workers in the fields harvest the indigo plant during the summer months. Engraving from a French book, around 1760. Indigo was a good complement to rice as a crop. Indigo grew well in the high ground in between the low lying marshy areas where rice fields were located. Both were labor intensive crops. The manufacture of the indigo dye took place when the rice fields had been flooded and no longer needed intensive cultivation, but before the rice harvest. , Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.