Encampment Plantation – Parkers Ferry – Charleston County

Basic Information

• Location – Parkers Ferry, St. Paul's Parish, Charleston County

  Off Parkers Ferry Road near Jacksonboro, 25 miles south of Charleston

• Origin of name – Was once a military encampment

• Other names – Sheppard Tract

• Current status – A large portion of the land is owned by Charleston County. They are trying to develop a landfill on the property.
  

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• ? – The property was owned by Robert Young Hayne, senator and governor of South Carolina.
  

• ? – House built

• ? – The property may have been the location where troops were stationed during the Revolutionary War to guard South Carolina's state government which met across the Edisto River during the British occupation of Charleston.
  

  Robert Y. Hayne was a relative of Colonel Isaac Hayne, a Revolutionary War martyr. Colonel Hayne owned Hayne Hall, Pear Hill, and Sycamore plantations in Colleton County.
  

• 1920 – A house was constructed on the property. It was still standing as of 2016 (7).
  

• 1991 – Charleston County purchased a large portion of the plantation from a person named Sheppard. Since then the property has been reffered to the Sheppard Tract.
  

  Charleston County purchased the property with the intent of developing a landfill for ash monofill/solid waste. The surrounding community has spoken out against this project and continue to fight for the protection of their community.
  

Land

• Number of acres – 754 in 1991

• Primary crop – Rice

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

References & Resources

1. John Vernelson, Razing the Dead at Encampment Plantation.
   

2. Political history of Robert Y. Hayne.
   

3. George McDuffie, A Eulogy Upon the Life and Character of the Late Hon. Robert Y. Hayne - online version of the euology published in 1840.
   

4. Lucius G. Fishburne, Plantation notes, St Bartholomew's Parish, (1960). Located at the South Carolina Historical Society in File 34/0646.
   

5. Michael Trinkley, An Archaeological and Historical Reconnaissance of Encampment Plantation, Charleston County, South Carolina (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, Inc., 1995).
   

6. Herman Belz, The Webster-Hayne Debate on the Nature of the Union (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund Inc., 2010)
   
   
   

7. Information contributed by Mike Murray.