Agriculture

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Early Farming

Spring Island's first inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, foraging seasonally between coastal and inland areas. At some stage in pre-history Native Americans began arable farming. Tribes within the Low Country practiced intercropping on fields adjacent to their villages.

In 1570 Le Jau observed a coastal chief, "labors and fares with the rest," tilling soil. One of Le Moyne's drawings confirms that local tribes maintained granaries where they held seed over for planting. Cultivated crops included pulses, maize, watermelons and musk-melons. William Hilton wrote, "The Indians plant in the worst land because they cannot cut down the timber in the best, and yet have plenty of corn."

Colonial Entrepreneurs

When the French settled Port Royal Sound, logging was highly profitable; native lumber supplied architectural and shipbuilding industries. Spring Island saw cattle farming during John Cochran's tenure. Animals roamed free, without fencing; meat was sold locally or exported to the Caribbean.

In the 18th century plantation economies proliferated. Commerce was driven by national and international demand for rice, indigo, sugar cane and cotton. Desire for profit and availability of large land parcels helped fuel settlement.

The Rise of King Cotton

In the late 18th century Low Country planters developed a unique variety of cotton from seeds of West Indian Gossypium barbadense. In 1793, with the invention of the cotton gin in Savannah, 'Sea island' or 'long staple' cotton became the region's main cash crop. Spring Island's climate and soils were uniquely suited for the cultivation of this 'market class' cotton, which was woven into textiles by industrial mills as far away as Liverpool, England and southern France.

Cotton production is labor-intensive—from soil preparation, planting, harvesting and processing, to packing and transportation. Plantation agriculture facilitated mass production; slavery was key to success. At the peak of its productivity, just before the Civil War, over 300 slaves worked on Spring Island, making its owner George Edwards one of the Low Country's wealthiest planters.

Post-Reconstruction

With the end of slavery Spring Island's plantation economy declined. In the 1880s records suggest upward of 200 tenants survived by sharecropping—cultivating cash crops and fishing commercially.

From 1902 to 1912 Spring Island was owned by the Barony Club—with members hunting, fishing and boating. New ownership in the 1920s saw land use shift to truck farming. At the height of business fifty percent of the land was given over to production of crops such as lettuce and sweet potatoes. In the 1930s cattle and hog-raising supplanted truck farming.