Album: Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation: Slave Quarters

National Center for Preservation Technology and Training

The Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation located in Glynn County, Georgia was a working rice plantation for over one hundred and fifteen years. The plantation is located along the Altamaha River and was owned by fifth generation Brailsford descendants until 1973. The low-country plantation’s lands were originally called Broadface under a 1763 King’s Grant but was renamed Broadfield by 1807 owner, William Brailsford of Charleston, South Carolina. Brailsford purchased the property after losses which included 70 enslave people drowning at his Broughton property during a Category 4 hurricane. When Brailsford passed away in 1817, the plantation was operated by his wife and daughter who married Dr. James Troup. Upon his death, Troup was documented as owning enslaved people and his property included over 7,000 acres of land. The plantation was divided and Hofwyl plantation was established for the Troup’s daughter. According to local lore, the Broadfield plantation house burned down in 1858 and the family relocated to the Hofwyl plantation house built about 1851. The overseer’s assertion is also considered local lore. Additional local lore has suggested the Hofwyl plantation house was initially an overseer’s house. The enslaved people that labored on the property were primarily of West African’s Senegal and Sierra Leone descent. Descendants of the enslaved are parts of the Gullah Geechee communities. In 1870, a 23 year old house servant named Mollie Black was documented in the Dent household. Mollie may have been one of the 89 enslaved youth counted on the U. S. Federal Census – Slave Schedule or an infant amongst the 125 enslaved people counted on the 1850’s Slave Schedule. The Slave Cabin located on the plantation is the only slave cabin that survives out of the approximate 60 that were once situated on the property.