The culture of a forgotten empire comes alive at this historic rice plantation along the Altamaha River. Visitors can walk beneath live oak to the antebellum home furnished with fine antiques, then gaze from the porch past magnolias and camellias to the marsh where rice once flourished. The museum features fine silver, a model of a working rice plantation, and a slide show about the life of planters and slaves.
Around 1807, William Brailsford of Charleston began carving a rice plantation from the virgin cypress swamps along the Altamaha River. His son-in-law, James M. Troup, acquired additional land along the river. By the time Troup passed away, he owned 7,300 acres of land, 357 slaves, and several homes.
Until the outbreak of the Civil War, the plantation produced rice steadily. War, hurricanes, and lack of abundant labor led to the fall of the rice empire in 1915. Brailsford's descendants converted the plantation into a dairy that distributed high-quality milk in Glynn County. Due to a combination of reasons, the dairy closed in 1942. In 1973, the plantation was willed to the state of Georgia by Ophelia Troup Dent.
