For two hundred years, rice rather than cotton dominated the economy of low country Georgia and South Carolina, creating a coastal aristocracy and a unique African-American Gullah-Geechee culture. Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation was owned by five successive generations of the same family from 1806 to 1973. At the height of the plantation era, it measured more than 7,000 acres and was worked by 357 slaves. In 1860, the plantation produced 1.5 million pounds of rice, and the finest grade of rice on the Charleston market was known as Broadfield after this plantation. The Civil War, emancipation of the slaves, hurricanes in the late 19th century, marauding birds, and competition from rice producers in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas put east coast rice plantations out of business by 1915. To save the land, Hofwyl-Broadfield's owners started a dairy that operated until 1942. The last owner, Ophelia Dent, died without heirs in 1973 and left the property to the State of Georgia as a memorial to her ancestors and the African-Americans who worked there.