Kiawah Island Digest May 2020 | Page 8

KIAWAH HISTORY The Early Vanderhorsts of Kiawah 1780 Map of South Carolina and Georgia shows Key Waw Island. Library of Congress. The Vanderhorst name is prominent on Kiawah today, giving names to KICA’s second security gate and the still-standing private plantation house on the eastern part of the island. But who were the Vanderhorsts and how did their name become such a foundational element of the island? Here we’ll explore the first of the island’s many Vanderhorst inhabitants. The Vanderhorst story on Kiawah begins in 1772, following the death of John Stanyarne. Stanyarne was a wealthy local planter and only the third owner of the property, uniting the two tracts previously owned by the Davis and Raynor families. He passed his Kiawah estate to his two grand-daughters, the western half to Mary Gibbes and the eastern portion to Elizabeth Vanderhorst. Elizabeth’s husband was Arnoldus Vanderhorst 11, who would go on to make a long-standing mark on the island. THE WORKINGS OF THE PLANTATION Originally, the Kiawah plantation grew subsistence crops and raised cattle for use by the inhabitants. Indigo was grown on the island as a cash crop since the time 8 | KIAWAH ISLAND DIGEST of John Stanyarne. After the Revolutionary War, indigo prices suffered as Britain had been colonial planters’ primary market for the blue dye. According to Charleston County Public Library historian Nic Butler, “By the early 1790s, there was a worldwide oversupply of indigo dye, and South Carolina planters realized that chasing after indigo profits like they had before the war was now a futile endeavor.” The inset of the 1780 map shows slaves processing indigo (right).