Description

McLeod Plantation to Begin Cultivation of the Once Extinct Sea Island Cotton

The historic McLeod Plantation has started a cultivation project with Sea Island Cotton (Gossypium barbadense), a species of cotton that played a major role in the advancement and enrichment of Charleston’s early economy and history. Although thought to be extinct in South Carolina in regard to modern day agriculture, Sea Island Cotton has a long history of growing on the plantation until it was destroyed in the 1920s by the Boll Weevil, a beetle that fed on the plant and drove it to extinction.
 
On May 22, 2017, the newly acquired Sea Island Cotton seed was planted on a quarter of an acre in the plantation’s former cotton fields. “Sea Island cotton, along with rice, had a very important influence on the development of the Lowcountry and Charleston,” said Bill McLean, a local attorney and James Island resident . “Locally produced Sea Island cotton was the finest and most valuable cotton fiber ever produced anywhere and provided the desired genetic traits of the finest cottons grown in the world today. It has taken on legendary status.” This agricultural addition to the McLeod Plantation will contribute to its great historic importance. 
 
The reintroduction of the Sea Island Cotton is an exciting initiative however, it is important to recognize that it’s early cultivation was done though generations of slave labor and oppression. Shawn Halifax, the McLeod site historian and cultural history interpretation coordinator for the Charleston County Parks and Recreation Commission comments that “… this calls for solemn remembrance, too”. The Sea Island Cotton planting project hopes to add historic significance to the James Island plantation and offer visitors a glimpse of Charleston’s intricate history.