Thomas Pinckney/St. James, Santee

Thomas Pinckney, who lived from 1750 to 1828, was a distinguished planter and diplomat who owned the nearby Fairfield and Eldorado Plantations. A national figure, he served as Governor of South Carolina, Minister to England, Envoy Extraordinary to Spain, where he negotiated the Pinckney Treaty, and a major general in the War of 1812. St. James, Santee, one of the earliest settlements in South Carolina and a refuge for French Huguenots, became a major agricultural area with a number of large-scale rice plantations. At nearby Peach Tree Plantation, Jonathan Lucas, Sr. introduced a water mill for beating rice around 1787, giving an impetus to rice culture in this area.

South Carolina · United States