McLeod Plantation Historic Site
McLeod Plantation Historic Site features a plantation house and a fully intact row of extant slave dwellings. In 1860, 74 slaves lived in 26 cabins on this Sea Island cotton plantation. Five of those wood frame slave cabins remain today. During the Civil War the plantation served as unit headquarters for Confederate forces. When they evacuated Charleston in February 1865, the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiments and other Union regiments camped onsite. The McLeod Plantation House served as headquarters for the Freedmen’s Bureau for the James Island district during Reconstruction. The Sankofa Burial Site of our African Ancestors features nearly 100 graves of former inhabitants. McLeod Plantation offers guided tours about African American life from slavery to freedom.
KEYWORDS: NATIONAL REGISTER, SLAVE CABIN, HOUSE, 54TH AND 55TH MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS, RECONSTRUCTION, FREEDMEN’S BUREAU, JAMES ISLAND, GULLAH GEECHEE CULTURAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR