Cane Brake

In 1843, while applying his scientific training to assist his father-in-law, U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun in a mining venture, as well as in agricultural production at Fort Hill, Clemson bought his own plantation, Cane Brake, in Edgefield, South Carolina.

[1][2] Clemson staffed Cane Brake with slaves he acquired from his wife's cousin, Sen. John Ewing Colhoun Jr., who was deep in debt.

“My experience tells me that the Institution of slavery is at all times good for the Negro (no laborers in the world are so well off.)

He soon moved abroad, accepting an appointment from President John Tyler as chargé d'affaires and highest-ranking American ambassador to Belgium.

[3][4] In 1853, after Clemson came home to the United States, he sold Cane Brake to Alfred Dearing, who died in 1856.