Hampton Plantation

Hampton Plantation or Butler's Point was on the north end of the island. General Oglethorpe had located nineteen soldiers and their families on this bluff in 1738 in keeping with his practice of settling soldiers and some citizens on the various bluffs of the rivers to prevent the Spanish from making a surprise landing on the island. Here on the north end of the island he had started a settlement which he called Newhampton, which soon became just Hampton. After the Battle of Bloody Marsh on July 7, 1742, and the peace treaty of 1748 ending the war of Jenkins' Ear, the regiment disbanded, and soon St. Simons Island was practically deserted.

Later in the century, the land became the property of Major Pierce Butler, who came to Georgia from South Carolina; he built it into one of the great plantations. Major Butler was born in Ireland in 1744. As a major in the British army he came to America in 1766 with the 29th British Regiment. He was first stationed in Boston, but soon moved to Charleston, S.C. Here in 1771 he met and married Polly Middleton, a South Carolina heiress. Resigning his army position, he cast his lot with the colonists and became prominent in the affairs of that state. He was a delegate from South Carolina to the Congress of 1787, served as a member of the Convention that framed the Federal Constitution, and was a United States Senator.

After his wife died in 1790 he began to acquire large land holdings in Georgia, including Hampton Point. He brought most of his slaves to Georgia and built this land into a great cotton plantation. He also owned Butler Island in the Altamaha river, which lowland he surrounded by a dike planted on top with orange trees. Here on this easily flooded land, rice was cultivated. The third plantation he owned was Woodville, a short distance away.

Major Butler was said to be stiff and ceremonious in his manner. As a military man, he was a stern disciplinarian, governing the slaves on his plantation with military strictness. They were not allowed to visit the slaves on the adjoining plantations, not even those in close proximity. He seemed to feel that he could not control his slaves unless he kept them away from outside influences. Hampton was the only plantation in this section where such conditions existed. The Butler plantations were models of efficiency. Everything needed was manufactured on the plantation from shoes and clothes, to boats, furniture, and tools.

The hospitality of Hampton was dispensed with great formality. The casual visitor arriving by boat had to state his name and business to a warden at the dock before he was escorted to the Butler mansion. Since Major Butler was a prominent figure in the public life of the nation, he entertained many distinguished people on his island estate. His hospitality of Hampton was even extended to business, social, and political friends during the months he was not in residence. Major Butler never considered this as his home. His residence was in Charleston, and later in Philadelphia.

Coming here only in the winter months or when his direct supervision was needed, the plantation was put under the management of Roswell King, and later his son, Roswell King, Jr. Together these men ruled the plantation for 36 years for their usually absentee owner.

In 1804 the plantation provided sanctuary for Vice President Aaron Burr, fugitive from public indignation over the duel in which Alexander Hamilton was killed. Feeling very keenly the criticism, he sought refuge in the South, where dueling was not frowned upon. His old friend, Major Butler, with whom he had served in the Senate of the United States, invited him to visit Butler's Point. Aaron Burr spent several weeks here, and in the absence of Senator Butler, was entertained by residents of St. Simons and of towns on the mainland. He even made a trip down the Inland Waterway to St. Marys to visit an old friend from law school, Major Archibald Clark.

Hampton remained one of the finest and most luxurious places on the island as long as Major Butler used it for a part time home, but after he settled in Philadelphia and left the estate in charge of overseers, there was no longer any reason to operate the plantation on such a lavish scale. It continued to be a very profitable enterprise, but as the years passed the non-essentials were neglected. Maintenance was postponed to allow the showing of large profits, the big house was unoccupied and badly run down, and gardens were overgrown and neglected.

So this plantation, in contrast with those occupied by the owners, developed many of the problems and conditions of absentee ownership and the authority given to hired managers and slave drivers. Major Butler died in 1822.

Next Section: Early Cannon's Point