Belle Isle Plantation – Cat Island – Georgetown County

Basic Information

• Location – Cat Island, Georgetown County

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Black Out (1, p. 3)
  

• Current status – Was a hunting club and wildlife preserve in the late 1980s (1, p. 3)
  

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• ? – House built

• ? – John Ball Sr acquired the plantation.
  

• 1817 – John Ball Sr died and a slave inventory of his Belle Isle Plantation was made. Ball's will declared all his land holdings and most of the slaves were to be sold (3 and 4).
  

• Circa 1819 – John Ball Jr. purchased the plantation for $20,000 (2, p. 260).
  

• 1843 – John Ball Jr. passed away (4).
  

• ? – Richard Henry Lowndes acquired the plantation (1, p. 3).
  

• 1905 – Richard Henry Lowndes died and left Belle Isle to his son Richard I. Lowndes (1, p. 3).
  

• Mid-1900s – Belle Isle Plantation was renamed Black Out (1, p. 3).
  

• Mid-1900s – The property was being used a hunting club and wildlife preserve (1, p. 3).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,110 circa 1819 (2, p. 260)

• Primary crop – Rice (1, p. 3)

  A rice chimney still exists on the property. It is one of seven that still remain in Georgetown County (1, p. 3).
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 44 in 1817 (3)

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination Form - submitted in 1987 by J. Tracy Power - requires Adobe Reader
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. Information contributed by Elizabeth Carrington from:
   Edward Ball, Slaves in the Family (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1998)
   
   

3. Ball, John Sr. Estate ~ Inventory of Slaves - Lowcountry Africana
   

4. Ball Family Slaveholders, 1698-1865 - Lowcountry Africana