Newport Merchants, Rice, and Slavery in the South Carolina Lowcountry: 1790-1860

After the Revolution and before the Civil War, one Newport merchant after another went to the slavery-based rice plantation world of the Georgetown District, South Carolina. They made their livings serving the needs of white rice grandees. These businessmen filled the plantation owners’ tables with food and their gatherings with whiskey and cigars, while selling cloth, shoes, hoes and shovels to be used by the enslaved who created the wealth. Through seventy years, Newporters with venerable city names like Coggeshall and Hazard spent three seasons a year in the South Carolina Lowcountry. They returned to Newport for the summer, avoiding the deadly malarial climate. Some of the most influential Georgetown District planters and their families also spent their summers in Newport. Among them were ardent advocates for secession. As the Civil War drew near Newport-Georgetown families broke apart as loyalties were tested. Norman MacLeod will tell the story of these families and their place at the center of a world of slavery and secession.

Rev. Norman MacLeod, a retired Episcopal priest, researched the Newport-Georgetown connection over five years. He wrote an article on the subject, recently published in the academic journal, Newport History. One of his direct ancestors, Joseph Gardner Stevens, was among the merchants described, having done business in the world of slavery-based rice production from 1823 to 1860.