Henry Laurens Plantation,
New Hope and Broughton Island Plantations
Henry Laurens (1724-1792) was born and died in Charleston, South Carolina and served as a patriot from South Carolina, becoming president of the Second Continental Congress. He was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London, but exchanged for General Charles Cornwallis. He was one of the first South Carolinians to cultivate a rice plantation on the Georgia Altamaha delta. His friends considered his plantations "cracker plantations", however, they soon became quite profitable, as rice plantations boomed with prosperty along the Georgia coast. In 1760 the Broughton Island Plantation was advertised as having 1,000 acres of desirable swamp land which was cultivated as a vast tidal rice plantation. In 1766, he transported more than 50 slaves to work the land. The plantation was just south of Butler's plantation in Darien, Georgia.
