Basic Information

• Location – Pee Dee River, Plantersville, Prince George Winyah Parish, Georgetown County

  Located off Plantersville Road north of Hasty Point Drive
  

• Origin of name – John Harleston Read II named the plantation after a school he attended in Vevey, Switzerland. Belle Rive means "beautiful shore" in French.
  

• Other names – Smerden

• Current status – Privately owned

Timeline

• 1732 – Earliest known date of existence

  Charles Hart transferred the plantation to William Waites. Waites combined it with Hasty Point.
  

• 1761 – John Postell purchased the property.
  

• 1793 – John Postell divided the property and sold his tract to Elias Smerden.
  

Land

• Number of acres – 500

• Primary crop – Rice

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Glanz; Gloude; Charles Hart; Jesse Metcalf; John Postell; Read; Richardson; Elias Smerden; William Waites
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 511 in 1860 (1860 Slave Census)
  

Buildings

• ?

Web Resources

• The Sixteen Largest American Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules

Print Resources

• Claude Henry Neuffer, editor, Names in South Carolina, Volume I through 30 (Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company)
   Order Names in South Carolina, Volumes I-XII, 1954-1965
   Order Names in South Carolina, Index XIII-XVIII
  

• Suzanne Cameron Linder, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the ACE River Basin - 1860 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1995)
   Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the ACE River Basin - 1860
  

• George C. Rodgers, Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina (Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company, 1990)
   Order The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina

More about Georgetown County

• Learn more about historic Georgetown County, including the lovely town of Georgetown SC. We have helpful guides to Georgetown SC history and Georgetown SC libraries and museums – plus Georgetown SC restaurants, Georgetown SC bed & breakfasts, Georgetown SC hotels, and Georgetown SC real estate.