Bill Riski is a retired USAF Officer and systems engineer. His hobbies include history, photography, writing, and travel. Maintaining this website is a labor of love for the Dataw Historic Foundation in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, where he and his wife now live.
For centuries the ultimate enabler of an individual’s wealth was land ownership. This was certainly true in the Lowcountry, as rice, lumber, indigo, cattle, and cotton crops created tensions over land. One of the early and successful indigo plantation owners on a sea island was Robert Sams (~1706 – 1760), father of “our” William Sams (1741 – 1798). Robert was a planter up on Wadmalaw Island. As the American Revolution took a toll on the sale of indigo dye cakes to the British, a new sea island-compatible crop was arriving. Sea island cotton’s exceptional quality and world events in France and England drove Europe’s demand. It was first grown commercially on Hilton Head in 1795, and by 1810 nearly all the suitable cotton land in our area was spoken for. This brings us on a fast trip to the Datha Island plantation brothers, Lewis Reeve Sams (1784 – 1856) and Berners Barnwell Sams (1787 – 1855). They inherited Datha Island from their father and mother once they came of age, in 1805 and 1808, respectively. LR Sams had Datha Point plantation on the north, and BB Sams had Datha Inlet plantation on the south.
As Dr. Rowland tells us in his first volume of The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina (1514 – 1861) by 1850:
“Dr. Berners Barnwell Sams had 2,097 acres and 174 enslaved people on Datha and Lady’s Island…His brother Lewis Reeve Sams had 1,467 acres and 166 enslaved people on adjoining property…”
It wasn’t Datha alone that afforded the brothers, and their children, the luxury of elegant homes in Beaufort. It was the totality of their holdings.
Sometimes luck is due to your hard work. Other times it comes from factors that cannot be explained or are beyond your control. Wars have a way of stringing together events that leave in their wake both the fortunate and unfortunate. This week I identify four Sams who died on the eve of, or during, the Civil War. They range in age from 16 to 36. There were many more Sams who served and came home to live another day. These four did not.
April holds a special place in the history of the United States. From where I sit today, in the heart of the South, its significance cannot be overlooked. On Friday, April 12, 1861, the Battle of Fort Sumter began the Civil War. In addition, April events bookend the American Civil War. On April 9, 1865, “the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia in the McLean House in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia signaled the end of the nation’s largest war.” We are fortunate to have some first-person insights into both ends of the war. They come from Robert Oswald Sams, the grandson of “our” Lewis Reeve Sams.
This week in my 52 Sams in 52 Weeks series the theme is TRAVEL. Several weeks ago, I happened to bump into a Sams that had moved to Japan. So I penciled him into Week 20 – TRAVEL, suspecting he might be an exciting story. Miles Stanhope Sams (1860 – 1933) was the grandson of Lewis Reeve Sams and his first wife, Sarah Fripp.
The Sams family’s success and prosperity could not have been achieved without the hundreds of enslaved men, women, and children who worked silently tilling the land, harvesting the sea island cotton, building the structures, and serving their Sams masters in many ways. Datha’s enslaved peoples were an undeniable and vital part of this island’s plantation era history. Their lives and work on plantations on Datha Island, Ladys Island, and St. Helena Island spanned three generations of the Sams family.
Women’s History Month was ‘born’ in 1987, though its roots go back to 1911. So many Sams women, and we don’t know enough about them. It seems reasonable to assume they all were strong to survive the circumstances of their southern antebellum era. For most women, their role in the family in the 19th century was still defined by the husband [Hussung, 2015.]
Here are four particular women who persevered, even excelled, despite the challenges they encountered back then: Elizabeth Fripp Sams, Sarah Stanyarne Sams Sams, Ma Lilly, and Kate Gleason.
We are compiling a list of the “Grande Dames of Datha Island” and adding each tree’s location and approximate age to the map below. We’d love to have residents participate by going to the Google Form at this link and entering data on whichever tree you wish.
For the Sams of Datha Island (19th century name), there is a particular source of their prosperity; Sea Island cotton.
Recently, tour requests have begun to pick up. So I thought it would be a good time to introduce you to the winter home of Dr. BB Sams (1787-1855) and his family. Their tripartite house is one of several tabby structures in the Sams Plantation Complex Tabby Ruins, accepted on the National Register of Historic Places on March 4, 2011. In the antebellum period, and the sea islands of Beaufort in particular, nearly all planters had a summer home and winter home. The summer home is where they lived in the hot months to get away from their plantation(s) and the diseases associated with heat, humidity, and bugs. In summer, they went to their homes in Beaufort or St Helenaville. Summer was also the prime time of the year for socializing and for children to be tutored. In winter, the planters lived in their plantation homes. So the ruins you see today on Dataw Island are of Dr. BB Sams winter home and yard.
In my recent post on Sarah J Sams, you saw restored photographs of her and her husband, Dr. R Randolph Sams. Large reprints are hanging in the Dataw Island History & Learning Center through the generosity of Teresa (Winters) Bridges. Sarah’s original image (i.e., ambrotype) holding their daughter Phoebe was taken in about 1858 when Sarah was in her early 20s. Randolph’s image (i.e., daguerreotype) shows a handsome young man upon graduation from college in 1849, also in his early 20s. What’s most interesting about Dr. R. Randolph Sams is his role in the earliest days of modern dentistry.
Reproduction of a circa 1858 ambrotype of Sarah Jane Graham (Sams) Sams (1835 – 1920), courtesy of Teresa Bridges. Sarah Jane Graham Sams married Dr.Robert Randolph Sams (1827 – 1910),…
In response to an article about Northern Datha Island, a resident who has lived here thirty years (!) commented, “I have always questioned why ALCOA did not call the Island by its real name: Datha?”
Researching this question took me on a fascinating journey from a Muskogean Indian Chief to the King of Spain to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. In the end, I can provide this answer; Dataw Island is the name of our development on a sea island in South Carolina called Datha Island.
What’s left for this journey is to explain why our sea island is called Datha Island and why our development is called Dataw Island.
