[birds twittering] (Mary Long) The scent of yellow jessamine on a spring day, the reds, whites, golds, and greens of nature, the melodious sounds of a warm South Carolina morning, color you can almost feel, fragrances you can almost touch, beauty that overwhelms the senses... it is in nature surrounded by order, peace, and harmony that we hear the subtle overtures composed by a creator's hand.

Around us... is a song of life.

[birds twittering] [no audio] But what is nature without man, what is meaning without understanding, and what is understanding without the gentle touch of a human hand?

Welcome to Magnolia Gardens, the South Carolina seat of the Drayton family.

♪ [acoustic guitar music] ♪ ♪ ♪ Three hundred years ago, Thomas Drayton Jr. came to these shores and founded a dynasty which would be important in the creation of South Carolina and the United States.

His ancestry can be traced to the 11th century, to the Norman conquest of England.

Aubrey de Vere, first of the Drayton line, came to England with William the Conqueror.

He became great chamberlain under King Henry I.

Due to his courage during the Battle of Hastings, de Vere was awarded an ancient Saxon stronghold in Northampton called Drayton House.

Since 1066, this has been the ancestral seat of the Drayton family.

[no audio] In the 13th century, Sir Walter de Vere, an heir to Drayton House, changed the family name to Drayton, the name of the ancient Saxon castle.

Draytons spread throughout England, assuming many important governmental positions.

In the mid-1600s, Thomas Drayton and son Thomas Jr. sailed for the Barbados.

At this time, that tiny West Indies isle was an important place to Englishmen, who were interested in British expansion and increasing their own fortunes.

However, the small island soon had a tremendous population, so opportunities were diminished.

Therefore, Thomas Jr. decided to seek his fortune elsewhere.

[footfalls on gravel] When Thomas left Barbados, there were older, more established British communities in Massachusetts and Virginia.

Most Barbadian immigrants chose to go there.

We don't know why Thomas selected South Carolina instead of one of the more established communities.

Perhaps it was a strong sense of adventure, perhaps the challenge to tame a wild, unknown land, or perhaps, having spent time in overcrowded Barbados, he desired a new, open country where economic gain was more feasible.

Be that as it may, he left Barbados in 1671 and set sail for a new world and a new life.

[footfalls on gravel] [no audio] In the year Thomas Drayton Jr. arrived here in South Carolina, another immigrant from the Barbados, Stephen Fox, also settled here.

He bought this land upon which we walk today.

It's 10 miles up the Ashley River from the original Charles Town settlement.

Shortly afterwards, his daughter Ann married Thomas Drayton Jr., and upon Fox's death, Drayton inherited this property.

He named his new estate Magnolia for the great number of laurel trees, or, technically speaking, Magnolia grandiflora, which had been planted here.

In 1680, the first Magnolia mansion was built.

Unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire, and all we have is an architect's rendering of what it must have looked like.

However, we do have a description written by Governor John Drayton, a descendant of Thomas.

He writes, "He settled and adorned "a beautiful country seat "on the south side of the Ashley River.

"There he built a mansion house of brick.

"The house had a kitchen and offices underneath, "and the ceiling of the first floor were remarkably high, "being almost 18 feet.

"The front, next to the river, "had a large door in the center "with a portico and steps of brick to a gravel walk in the yard."

Though the house does no longer remain, the gardens do.

[no audio] It is here in the gardens that one senses the true spirit of Magnolia Plantation.

This is Flowerdale, originally planned by Thomas Drayton in the 1680s when the first manor house was built.

Flowerdale, being over 300 years old, still follows the formal design as planned by Ann Fox Drayton and her mother, Phyllis Fox.

Originally a small garden, by the 1700s Flowerdale included 10 acres, and by the time of the War Between the States, it included 50 acres of the Drayton estate.

♪ [soft piano music] This is the oldest garden in the western hemisphere.

No garden of this age exists today in the United States.

As we tread paths once walked by Thomas and Ann Drayton, we find nature in its ultimate glory.

We're enveloped in a mantle of rich colors.

The air around is fragrant with the scents of spring, is filled with the harmony of birdsong.

♪ But there's another scent that assails the senses.

It's the smell of fresh earth, a fragrance that makes us feel at one with the land, a kinship with the warm soil.

We are absorbed in the process of rebirth.

We are willing participants in the miracle of life.

One almost feels he will find around the next turn or on the next path the Creator at work.

♪ ♪ [lively, up-tempo piano music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Just as spring brings its own miraculous growth of regeneration and rebirth, so does winter indicate a time of quiet and a long rest.

Thomas Drayton Jr. died in 1717, leaving behind one of the most beautiful homes and splendid plantations in the Carolinas.

Thomas designed this tomb in 1700, and here he rests, as do all of his descendants of his family until 1891, when the Reverend John Drayton preferred to be buried at Saint John in the Wilderness, the chapel near his summer home at Flat Rock, North Carolina.

The tomb was used again in 1917, when it received the remains of Drayton F. Hastie, the uncle of the present owner.

The marble plaque on the face was carved by Jardella, the first sculptor of note in America.

The features of the cherubs were vandalized by the bayonets and rifle balls of Federal troops who occupied the plantation during the War Between the States.

The large crack on the face of the tomb is a reminder of the earthquake of 1886, which leveled the city of Charleston.

Thomas Jr. left his estate to his eldest son, Thomas III.

He expanded the plantation, and as the economy of the colony grew, so did Magnolia Plantation.

But it's not with Thomas III that we are concerned.

It's his younger brother John who continued the Drayton family heritage in South Carolina.

[no audio] John the junior bought land next to his brother Thomas's holdings.

Not having inherited any of Magnolia, he very early in life built himself a stately home on his own property.

He named it Drayton Hall.

A neighbor called it "Mr. Drayton's palace," and it's considered the finest example of early Georgian architecture in America.

[no audio] Its builder, John Drayton, who was later appointed royal judge of the province, was considered one of the wealthiest men in the colony.

Upon the death of his brother, Thomas III, his nephew, Judge William Drayton, inherited Magnolia.

Judge Drayton was invited to be come chief justice of Florida and, upon his departure, sold Magnolia to John.

The two plantations were thus united under a single ownership.

Now, royal judge John was married several times, and with his second wife, Charlotte Bull, the daughter of Lieutenant Governor William Bull, they had two sons, William Henry and Charles.

William Henry was the eldest son, and he expected to inherit Magnolia upon the death of his father.

John died at Strawberry Ferry on the Cooper River in 1779.

Along with his family, he was escaping from Charleston due to the British invasion.

His grandson later said of him, "He was a man of indifferent education, "of a confined mind, proud and stingy.

"Such was his character.

"He lived in riches, but without public esteem.

He died in a tavern, but without public commiseration."

He lies in an unknown, unmarked grave.

[no audio] William Henry was born at Drayton Hall in 1742.

When he was 11, he was sent to school in England under the care of Charles Pinckney and educated at Westminster.

He returned, began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in the 1760s.

He was a Loyalist and highly favored by the British, given many high offices under British colonial government.

When thoughts of the American Revolution began, William Henry remained a staunch Loyalist, espousing all of the concerns for the Crown.

However, by 1774, his attitudes began to change, and he became of the opinion of the Liberty Boys, which advocated total independence from Great Britain.

In 1776, he was made chief justice of South Carolina, and when Governor John Rutledge was sent as a delegate from South Carolina to Philadelphia, the assembly appointed William Henry Drayton as governor of South Carolina.

It had been assumed that William Henry would be his father's heir and, as mentioned earlier, that he would inherit Magnolia Plantation.

He had acted as advisor on many legal affairs for his father and had helped royal judge John through many difficulties!

In 1778, William Henry was appointed delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and he left in March of that year.

Later, when British invasion of Charleston became imminent, royal judge John insisted his son return to Charleston to be by his side during the coming difficulties, and William Henry refused.

He told his father he could not betray the faith placed in him by the people of South Carolina.

Angered by his son's refusal to bow to his tyrannical demands, royal judge John cut his son out of his will.

This was possibly due to an illness and also to his concern over the coming British invasion.

However, he left his elder son practically nothing.

His son Charles inherited Drayton Hall, and another son, Thomas, was given the larger plantation, Magnolia.

And so at the end, the two plantations again were under separate ownership.

William Henry would not have been able to enjoy Magnolia even if he had inherited it because he never returned to South Carolina.

He died on September 3, 1779, in Philadelphia, while faithfully serving as a delegate to the Continental Congress.

He had given up not only a vast inheritance of wealth, but also his life, in regard and respect of his fellow man.

It's obvious that John Drayton, with his selfish disposition, would never have been able to understand the high ideals held by his eldest son.

In 1800, the original Magnolia mansion burned.

Thomas Glen Drayton, who inherited the property from his father, royal judge John, built a new home on a site a few yards away from the original so he could have a view of the Ashley River.

In 1820, realizing that he had no male heirs, Thomas Glen Drayton willed his property to the two sons of his daughter, Thomas and John Grimké, provided that they would change their name to the family name of Drayton.

John Grimké Drayton didn't expect to inherit very much and so prepared himself for the ministry.

While he was in England studying, he received word of the death of his older brother.

So at the age of 22, John Grimké Drayton became one of the wealthiest plantation owners in South Carolina.

[no audio] Magnolia was a working plantation and, of course, a slave plantation.

It's been said, however, that Reverend Drayton was the kindest, most considerate slave owner in the state of South Carolina.

He owned almost 300 slaves, and he treated them very well indeed.

If one had to be a slave in the 1800s, life on Magnolia was indeed enviable.

In spite of state laws, Reverend Drayton built a school on his plantation and gave his people a good education.

He instructed them in religion and took care of their medical needs.

He spared no expense in their care.

Now, on most Southern plantations, overseers were white and were often very cruel and violent.

But for Reverend Drayton, his overseers were slaves themselves.

[no audio] His concern for them was naturally due to his strong religious beliefs, but also to the fact that, in his childhood, he had been strongly influenced by his two aunts, Angelina and Sarah Grimké.

The Grimké sisters were ardent abolitionists.

Their opposition to slavery and their fiery speeches made them become officially banished from South Carolina!

In the North, they were considered to be fanatics.

Shortly after the new Pennsylvania Hall was built in Philadelphia, they made a speech there, and the mob became so excited that the building was burned!

They are the only two women who were able to cause a riot both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Reverend John Grimké Drayton is the man responsible for expanding the gardens at Magnolia and leaving us the magnificent heritage we have here today.

He totally devoted himself to creating, as he said, "an earthly paradise."

He carried out his work despite many hardships.

In 1865, the second Magnolia manor house was burned to the ground by marauding troops of the Northern army.

After the war, Reverend Drayton returned here.

He had lost everything and was near complete poverty.

But somehow, he was determined to save his home and continue his work on the gardens.

[no audio] He sold his Sea Island holdings, his Charleston town house, and much of the land here for very little.

Following the War Between the States, land values were greatly diminished.

He owned a summer home at Summerville, 14 miles up the Ashley River.

He had it completely disassembled, placed on barges, and floated down the river here to Magnolia where it was reassembled.

It stands today on the burned-out ground floor of the second Magnolia manor house.

It's very unique in that it boasts a number of architectural styles.

It consists of an early 1800s ground story mounted on a pre-Revolutionary structure with Victorian elements that were added in the 1880s.

It's the proud successor to the oldest plantation house in the Carolina colony.

While not as grand as neighboring Drayton Hall, it has an atmosphere all its own.

It's a symbol of the difficult days of Reconstruction following the War Between the States, a reminder of a time when the South and the Southern economy were at their darkest moment.

Because of Reverend John Grimké Drayton's love for Magnolia, it remains a house of warmth, a house that feels lived in.

Reverend Drayton spent his later years and what money he had designing and building Magnolia Gardens.

He introduced the first azaleas to this country.

He was the first to utilize the ca mellia in an outdoor setting.

When many gardens in America still followed the formal French style, his drew on changes he had seen taking place in English gardening.

It was a style that allowed one to develop the soft, natural beauty of a site.

He did that here at Magnolia.

In 1889 at the age of 74, Reverend Drayton realized that, like his grandfather, he had no male heirs.

But unlike his grandfather, he didn't insist the Drayton family name be carried by his descendants.

It has been said, he willed th e plantation to his daughter, Julia Drayton Hastie, and her children.

In the following year, ownership of Magnolia Plantation passed on from the man who had devoted a lifetime to leaving more beauty in the world than he had found.

[no audio] [birds twittering] Today these gardens are under the ownership and loving care of J. Drayton Hastie, ninth-generation descendant of Thomas Drayton Jr.

The gardens are open to the public.

[birds twittering] [birds twittering] In 1921, John Galsworthy wrote of Magnolia, "I specialize in gardens and freely assert "that none in the world is so beautiful as this.

"So lovely, wistful, so richly colored... "it's a kind of paradise, "a miraculously enchanted wilderness.

It is otherworldly."

So Thomas Jr. and Ann, the Reverend John Grimké Drayton, and all of their descendants have left to the people of South Carolina and, indeed, to the world a secluded haven of timeless beauty and a magnificent sanctuary devoted to the miracle of life.

[no audio] ♪ [acoustic guitar music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Program captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning, Inc. 803.988.8438 ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪