In 1780 in the American War of Independence, British General Sir Henry Clinton used the original house as his headquarters while planning the siege of Charleston.

[2] The plantation was occupied by Confederate forces during most of the Civil War, and the Big House served as a hospital.

After the evacuation of Charleston in early 1865, the site was occupied by the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiments, African American soldiers of the US Colored Troops.

[6] The site is designated as part of the federally recognized Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor in South Carolina.

Enslaved people who survived the Middle Passage, were imported here mostly from west and central Africa.