Woodlawn Plantation – North Augusta – Aiken County

Basic Information

• Location – Formerly the Edgefield District, between Clearwater and North Augusta, Aiken County
  

  1001 Old Aiken Road
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – ?

• Current status – Plantation house is vacant (2)
  

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• 1850s – House built

  Thomas Gresham Lamar II constructed the house using handmade nails and timber from the property (1, p. 2).
  

• ? – John Cary Lamar became owner of Woodlawn (1, p. 2).
  

• 1911 – A.C. and Laura Haskell purchased the plantation from John Cary Lamar and started Haskell's Dairies on the property the following year (1, p. 2).
  

• 1942 – A.C. and Laura's son Guion and his wife moved to Woodlawn to raise their family (1, p. 2).
  

• 2012 – The house was for sale (3).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – Cotton (2)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

• Gary Dexter shares the following, "On the riverbanks of this plantation was also where the steamship 'Augusta' landed with the last slaves to enter the USA. These West-African slaves were smuggled in by Charles Augustus Lamar, the brother of Woodlawn Plantation's owner. C.A. Lamar owned a plantation on the adjacent, Georgia side, of the Savannah River.
  

  "Laws banning the importation of slaves were passed by Congress in 1831. These 300-plus slaves became celebrities of sorts and were known collectively as the Wanderer Slaves. The 'Wanderer' was a pleasure yacht secretly converted into a slaver by C.A. Lamar to transport the slaves from the Congo in West Africa to Jekyll Island, GA. Many of the Wanderer Slaves were whisked away to other area plantations before the government could stop their sale.
  

  "C.A. Lamar was tried for slaving as the Civil War broke out. He was tried in Charleston and was given house arrest in Savannah for his crime. He even managed to buy back his yacht! Many of the Wanderer Slaves were put to work in the area's Antebellum stoneware pottery factories (often called Edgefield Pottery)."
  

Buildings

• There was a slave village on Woodlawn Plantation. As of 2014, a 2-room slave cabin still remained on the property (2).
  

References & Resources

1. Historic Beech Island Tour - PDF - see #5 on second page
   

2. Information contributed by Gary Dexter
   

3. Pictures - scroll down