Page 15 - Richmond Hill Driving Trail

STOP Rice Cultivation
30 on the Ogeechee Marker

520 Cedar Street

In the 1860s, this area became a pivotal hub for
rice cultivation, using the innovative “tide flow
method” learned from West African enslaved
individuals. This technique, employing intricate
irrigation systems managed by large forces of
enslaved workers, propelled the region to global
prominence as the “Rice Kingdom” of the South
Carolina and Georgia Colonies. The grueling
labor endured by enslaved workers—managing
Walking Trail at J. F. Gregory Park these intricate irrigation systems amid sweltering
rice field marker is at the start of the heat, disease risks like malaria, and the constant
walking trail to the right of the demands of tending to the fields—underscored
Richmond Hill City Center. the harsh realities of plantation life.

Post-Civil War, many factors, including labor
shortages and hurricanes in the 1880s and 1890s,
hastened the decline of rice cultivation by 1900.
Interestingly, Henry Ford purchased acres of
these former rice fields for experimental rubber
plantations, though the venture did not succeed
as planned. Nonetheless, Ford’s initiatives
The canals you see are provided employment and economic activity,
examples of hand-dug contributing to the agricultural diversification
channels used to irrigate of the region.
once-massive rice fields.

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