The Center for a Better South
The rusty roof of an empty, old farmhouse overlooks fields that are still planted each year, photographer and retired editor Linda Brown writes from Kingstree, S.C.
The house is on Thurgood Marshall Highway, a few miles outside of Kingstree in Williamsburg County.
Copyrighted photo taken June 29, 2014, by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Lawnmowers, rusting equipment and an old boat have a final resting place on Simms Reach Road in Williamsburg County, S.C., photographer and retired editor Linda W. Brown writes. It’s not hard to find locations like this anywhere in the Southern Crescent, which stretches from Tidewater Virginia, across the eastern Carolinas through Georgia to the Mississippi Delta.
Copyrighted photo taken June 29, 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Dry weather has had an effect on this field of corn in rural Williamsburg County. Farmers are all too often at the mercy of the weather when it comes to the success or failure of their crops, observes retired editor and photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstreet, S.C.
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown was taken June 29, 2014. All rights reserved.
A vine-covered tobacco barn in the middle of a cotton field signals changing times in agriculture in the South and in the Cedar Swamp community of Williamsburg County, S.C., where this barn is located.
Photo taken June 29, 2014, by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
This old house is across the street from the site of the Battle of Eutaw Springs in rural Orangeburg County, S.C.
The battle site is just outside of Eutawville, a town of about 350 in the eastern part of Orangeburg County near Lake Marion.
Orangeburg County is home to more than 91,000 people, two thirds of whom are black. The county has a poverty rate of 24.5 percent.
Copyrighted photo was taken July 9, 2014 by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
The Battle of Eutaw Springs (1781) was the last major battle of the Revolutionary War between colonists and the British. The South is filled with historic markers that outline history of the area. In many places, they’re being packaged by state tourism bureaus as history trips.
Today at the site of the battle, just east of the town of Eutawville in Orangeburg County, is a memorial park with information placards that explain what happened. In the background under shade trees, you can see some memorials that honor the combatants.
The descriptive sign in this picture reads:
Victory in Defeat
On the morning of September 8, 1781, General Nathanael Greene’s American army attacked Colonel Alexander Stewart’s British force camped at a plantation near Eutaw Springs. Here two almost evenly matched armies slugged it out in the last major Revolutionary War battle in South Carolina.
In over three hours of brutal combat, American and British forces traded musket volleys and bayonet charges. Greene’s troops drove the British back into their camp, but the British regrouped and forced Greene from the battlefield.
The Americans suffered more than 500 casualties, but the British lost nearly 700. Crippled by the loss of almost one third of his command, Stewart retreated toward Charleston the following day, leaving most of the South Carolina countryside in American control.
Photo by Andy Brack, July 9, 2014. Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
We’re not exactly sure what this old place is, but figure it probably most recently was a rural joint, preceded by being a country store of some sort. Likely as not, there have been some very good times had here. The run-down building, located along S.C. Highway 261 between Manning and Kingstree, S.C., is in agricultural Clarendon County.
Clarendon County has 34,357 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 population estimate. About half of the county’s residence are white; the other half are black. Some other statistics:
Photo taken July 9, 2014, by Andy Brack. Copyrighted; all rights reserved.
Santee Outlets used to be a thriving outlet village in the small town of Santee, S.C., along Interstate 95 in the middle of a real dull drive between Savannah, Ga., and Florence, S.C. Now, however, the facility — once home to about four dozen stores — houses an antiques store and a sheriff’s department substation. A parking lot that could fit hundreds of cars is empty with weeds and broken glass as its only occupants.
While small shops and fast-food restaurants thrive at the Santee exit, small businesses like those in the outlet took a big hit in the Great Recession. Santee, home to about 750 people, is in the eastern part of Orangeburg County near Lake Marion. Orangeburg County is home to more than 91,000 people, two thirds of whom are black. The county has a poverty rate of 24.5 percent.
Copyrighted photo was taken July 9, 2014 by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
Patti Connor takes a phone call at the St. Julien Plantation roadside produce stand just outside Eutawville, S.C. At this time of the year, you can find these stands across the rural South offering fresh fruits and vegetables such as peaches, corn, peas, melons, okra and more.
Eutawville, population about 350, is the site of the important Battle of Eutaw Springs, the last major battle of the Revolutionary War in South Carolina. (More on this in the days ahead.) The small town is in the eastern part of Orangeburg County near Lake Marion.
Orangeburg County is home to more than 91,000 people, two thirds of whom are black. The county has a poverty rate of 24.5 percent.
Copyrighted photo was taken July 9, 2014 by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
An old barn and a country lane beckon the passerby to see what’s around the bend just off Cedar Swamp Road in rural Williamsburg County, South Carolina.