3 - The “Golden Mines of Carolina”

Summary

Chapter 3 discusses the dramatic transformation of inland rice cultivation between 1730 and the end of the American Revolution as it coincided with the appearance of tidal irrigation. Spurred by the land boom, planters moved rice cultivation from small-stream floodplains down to broad inland basins. To build elaborate infrastructures on these low-lying wetlands, planters had to invest in additional enslaved labor. This chapter argues that the dramatic change in inland rice cultivation was modeled on planters’ development of tidal irrigation along the Lowcountry rivers throughout the mid-eighteenth century. Both the evolving inland system and emerging tidal system required more extensive labor forces than before to create precisely leveled fields, massive embankments, and extensive canals. Creating a more extensive irrigation and drainage network called for a sophisticated understanding of hydrology and soils. With the intense development of rice fields in the Lowcountry basins, inland planters also encountered new problems. Malaria, declining soil fertility, pests, freshets, and droughts all documented how the natural and the built environments could work at cross-purposes.