Fall of the Rice Kingdom / Nov. 9, 1861

Lyrics and Story:

The Yankee gunships circled round and circled round again.
We hid beneath the ramparts, covering our heads.
The cannon balls dropped like hail upon the walls.
I closed my eyes, said my prayers and waited for the call.

Dupont’s down from Hampton Roads with fifty ships or more
To push us from the islands and put the troops ashore.
All along the Combahee, the white folks on the run.
It’s the end of all that we once knew down in the Rice Kingdom.

We left the sands of Hilton Head as fast as we could run,
the white flag in the distance raised on Beauregard.
It’s been a bad beginning, but I swear we will return
to drive the Yankees off the coast and to the sea again

Dupont’s down from Hampton Roads with fifty ships or more
To push us from the islands and put the troops ashore.
All along the Combahee, the white folks on the run.
It’s the end of all that we once knew down in the Rice Kingdom.

In Beaufort, slaves are sleeping on their master’s satin sheets.
The cavalry’s gathering to chase them from the streets.
It’s as if the blood red devil has come up to lead the dance
And turn the heavens inside out till God returns again.

Dupont’s down from Hampton Roads with fifty ships or more
To push us from the islands and put the troops ashore.
All along the Combahee, the white folks on the run.
It’s the end of all that we once knew down in the Rice Kingdom.
It’s the end of all that we once knew down in the Rice Kingdom.

Battle of Port Royal and The Fall of the Rice Kingdom

Before the Civil War, slaves cultivated over 100,000 acres of rice on low country plantations from Jacksonville, Florida, to Charleston, South Carolina.  Some of the richest men in America were rice planters, and Beaufort, South Carolina, was a town of mansions and great wealth.

The first week of November, 1861, 47 Union warships under the command of Admiral Samuel Dupont, arrived off of Port Royal Sound to take what was then considered one of America’s finest deep water ports.  Two Confederate forts guarded the mouth of the bay, Fort Walker on Hilton Head to the south and Fort Beauregard to the north on St. Helena’s Island.

Following the tactic used successfully in capturing Hatteras Inlet a few months before, Dupont sent his ships into the sound, close to Fort Walker.  The ships moved in a circle, firing each time they passed. Overwhelmed by the barrage, the rebels abandoned the fort. Fort Beauregard soon surrendered, also, essentially opening to Union Control what is now known as the ACE Basin.

From Beaufort and the surrounding plantations, white planters and their families escaped inland, taking many slaves with them, but leaving thousands behind. When the Union soldiers landed in Beaufort,  slaves had taken over the empty town and were celebrating in the streets.

The area became a base of operations for the Union from then on. Under the newly formed Freedman’s Bureau, thousands of freed African-Americans found refuge and began new lives in what became known as The Port Royal Experiment.

Links

Rice Cultivation, Slavery and Gullah Culture

The Gullah and Carolina Rice Plantations

Review of Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas

Excerpt from Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Rice Swamps, by William Dunisberre

Battle of Port Royal

Summary of Battleof Port Royal

Battle Details and Photos

Video Illustrating Battle of Port Royal

Account of the Battle  from Union Soldier’s Diary

Official Report of the Battle from Gen. Draydon, Confederate Commander

Beaufort History

History of Beaufort, South Carolina

Beaufort, Founding and History

Robert Smalls and Beaufort

Freed Men, The Port Royal Experiment and the Penn School

Detailed History of the Port Royal Experiment (with links)

Rehearsal for Reconstruction: Story of the Port Royal Experiment (from The New York Times)

Penn Center, National Historic Land District

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