Hampton Plantation-later days
When Major Pierce Butler died in Philadelphia in 1822, he willed Hampton Point and his other Georgia plantations (Butler Island and Woodville) to his two grandsons -John and Pierce. They were children of his daughter Sarah who had married a Philadelphia doctor, Dr. John Mease. The will, however, stipulated that in order to inherit the land the grandsons would have to assume the family name of Butler. Thus, they changed their names from Mease to Butler in order to qualify for the inheritance. Income was provided for his unmarried daughter, Frances, who also with Roswell King (the manager of Hampton) were to be co-administrators of the estate. Frances died in 1836.
Great notoriety came to this plantation because of the visit here in 1839 of Fanny Kemble Butler and the diary which she kept. "Fanny" (Frances Anne Kemble) was an English actress of remarkable talents. Besides being an actress and dramatic reader, she was a writer of prose and poetry. She came from a family of fine actors. Her debut on the stage was made in London in 1829 as Juliet. Her success was immediate. In 1832 she toured the principal cities of America where she met equal success. Society welcomed her with open arms and she met most of the important men and women of America.
A handsome, wealthy, young socialite pursued her from city to city admiring her beauty and talent. In 1834 this Pierce Butler, the grandson of Major Pierce Butler of St. Simons Island persuaded her to marry him. The Butler mansion in Philadelphia was an elegant establishment, perhaps the finest in the city, a setting for their amiable social life.
Apparently, as a young girl in her early twenties, it had not occurred to Fanny to wonder about the source of her husband's wealth and income. It wasn't until after her marriage did it dawn on her that all of this wealth and splendor they had to enjoy was the result of the labor of slaves on plantations in far away Georgia. She was horrified everytime she thought of this splendid life of hers coming from over 700 slaves which they owned! She had grown up in England where the abolitionist movement had been in existence for fifty years and was about to reach its climax. The young girl Fanny had no particular relationship to this abolitionist movement, but by association it had ingrained in her some strong feelings against slavery.
Wanting to see the plantations and its slaves for herself, and perhaps thinking she could persuade her husband to free his slaves, she asked to make a trip to Georgia. Her husband and his co-owner brother were not much in favor of this trip, but she persisted. So in December of 1838, Pierce Butler and his wife and two children, Sally age three and Fanny age seven months, made the trip. (The account of this trip from Philadelphia to Darien, Georgia is very interesting, and is found in the opening chapters of her "Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation", although this part was not printed in the original editions.)
She lived for a few months on Butler Island rice plantation; then moved to Hampton Point for another few weeks stay. Each day she kept a Journal of her activities and impressions. Daily she enjoyed the natural beauty of the area; interviewed various slaves who often came to her for some need; observed how life and work proceeded on the plantations. Generally she was horrified at what she saw and found, and was very critical of many of the people she met.
The Butlers returned to Philadelphia after a few months, and because of her attitude the family refused to allow her to come again when she wanted to make a later trip.
Her marriage, apparently an unhappy one for many other reasons besides slavery, did not last. Bitterness developed between them, and in 1846 she moved from the home. Divorce followed two years later. She lived in Lenox, Massachusetts until 1856 when she returned to England.
All of this time her Journal from Georgia lay unread, except by some close friends. However, during the War between the North and the South, she was disturbed by the amount of friendly sentiment in England toward the South. Many newspapers played down the evils of slavery. There was real sentiment to break the blockade of southern ports, which might mean war with the United States. There was much favor in granting a loan to the Confederate States to help them finance the war.
To forestall these things, Fanny Kemble decided to publish her "Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation, 1838-39". This publication in 1863 was almost a quarter century after it was written. By this time, not only had her marriage been long broken, but the plantations written about were no longer in existence! The panic of 1857 had caused Pierce Butler to sell out. His slaves had been auctioned in Savannah where the 429 men, women, and children brought $303,850.00, or an average of more than $708 a head. The slaves were sold off in family groups of two to seven persons each.
The publication of her Journal caused a sensation. Perhaps it was the thing that turned the tide of public opinion against the South. The loan was not made, a fact which helped materially in deciding the fate of the Confederacy.
As was true with most plantations, the war brought the demise of Hampton Plantation. Some effort was made to revive it on a share-crop basis, but without success. The old mansion burned in 1871; the owners had completely given up the planting of cotton.
So the land lay unoccupied, and the property gradually returned to the wilderness from which it came. Since then, time has completed its cycle. During World War II there was a lookout on the lonely northwest tip of St. Simons where Oglethorpe had stationed his Newhampton outpost two centuries before. Even now, the land is being platted into building lots to again serve as homes for those from the north, beckoned to the island by its beauty, history, and gentle weather.
Next Section: Cannon's Point - Later Days
