Audubon Swamp Garden on Magnolia slave plantation near Charleston. : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Audubon Swamp Garden on Magnolia slave plantation near Charleston. / denisbin
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-改変禁止 2.1 |
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| 説明 | Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. This plantation is typical of the rice plantations along the Ashley and the Cooper Rivers outside of Charleston. It was established in 1676 when Thomas Drayton built a fine house on the plantation. The Drayton family still owns Magnolia Plantation! But for most of its history the Draytons lived next door in Drayton Hall. The house you see today on Magnolia Plantation was a simple hunting lodge that was rebuilt (1873) after the original house was burned down during the Civil War. This structure is the third house on this property. It is not a grand house because of its origins as a hunting lodge. The plantation was named magnolia because of fine specimens of Magnolia grandiflora, the evergreen magnolia which also grows well in Adelaide. For me the house is interesting because in the 1840s it was inherited by Reverend John Grimké whose mother was a Drayton. To inherit it he had to adopt the name of Grimké-Drayton. Reverend Grimké was a nephew of the famous Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina. They were prominent Abolitionists and champions of women’s’ rights. They were practising Quakers but their father was a pro-slavery Sth Carolinian planter. They abhorred slavery and once William Lloyd Garrison started his abolitionist newspaper the Liberator (1831) and founded the American Anti-Slavery Society the Grimké sisters joined as lecturers and advocates. Like all Abolitionists they deeply insulted and hurt the Sth Carolinian slave owners. This area of the South was part of the Bible belt. Planters were devout church goers and proud Christians. But the Abolitionists said that slavery was a sin and immoral (which it was) and the Southern planters took that as a personal insult. Quickly from the mid 1830s onwards the Abolitionists like the Grimké sister widened the split between the North and the South. It took another 20 years before their concerns became major political issues and a basic issue of a political party, the Republican Party founded in 1854 and later the party of Lincoln. It is important to remember that a wealthy plantation like Magnolia had slaves but also links to the anti-slavery movement! It is also important to remember that most anti-slavery campaigners did not necessarily believe in racial equality (Lincoln was one of those). They just wanted justice for the slaves. It was Reverend Grimké-Drayton who founded the gardens at Magnolia in the 1840s. This was the era of the concept of pleasure gardens for genteel people to wander about for amusement. Some camellias had been planted at Magnolia in the 1820s and John Grimké-Drayton expanded that collection greatly to make it one of the specialities of Magnolia. Today there are over 900 varieties of camellia grown on the plantation with many thousands of bushes. Azaleas grow almost like weeds in this climate and soon the plantation had thousands. Today there are over 30,000 azaleas bushes at Magnolia Plantation. The garden was developed in the English style, some say, to entice John Grimké’s bride from Philadelphia to Magnolia! The gardens became so well known that they were opened to the public after the Civil War in 1870. Today the garden covers many acres with ornamental ponds, lakes, and decorative bridges. Look for both the white and the red bridges. Audubon and the Swamp Garden.An early visitor to the garden was John Audubon who became the most famous American ornithologist and painter of the environment and flora. His major book entitled The Birds of America (1827–1839) is one of the finest ornithological works ever completed and amazingly valuable these days. Audubon had nothing to do with the Swamp Garden but it was named in honour of him. Along the drive are some magnificent Virginia Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana) draped in Spanish Moss (Tillandsea usneoides.) Some parts of this garden are around 350 years old! As Australians the fascinating features of the Swamp garden are the totally black swamp water and the beautiful Tupelo or Black Gums as they are called. They are related to Dogwoods and their botanical name is Nyssa biflora. The Tupelo are prized by apiarists as they produce excellent flavoured honey. The other tree that dominates the swamp lands is the Taxodium distichum. It is commonly called Bald Cypress. These trees live in swamps or water, grow to a great age, and are semi deciduous in the winter. Look for the knees or wooden nodes found in the mud away from the water. It used to be thought that the knees were breathing nodes but today the evidence suggests they are buttress nodes to help stabilise the tree in muddy wet soil. A tractor trolley (the Nature Train) will take us through the swamp gardens a natural habitat for several species of water birds and alligators. Provided the weather is warm enough you are bound to see some alligators (Alligator mississippiensis).They inhabit the former rice paddies and swamps of the plantation. Some of the original slave cabins are still standing as well. One of these cabins was inhabited until 1999. |
| 撮影日 | 2013-05-22 12:50:39 |
| 撮影者 | denisbin |
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| カメラ | DSC-HX30V , SONY |
| 露出 | 0.004 sec (1/250) |
| 開放F値 | f/3.5 |