The Early Days of Kiawah
Welcoming Native Americans, a pirate, a governor, generations
of enslaved persons and an overseer named Quash Stevens
have all played roles in Kiawah’s long and colorful history.
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By Christine Sudell
lthough our Island bears the name of its first
inhabitants, the Kiawahs, they moved to the
island only after the English usurped the
territories near the Ashley River (known then
as the Kiawah River) that belonged to this friendly tribe.
Soon, the English sought the tribe’s new lands, as well, and
persuaded its members to relinquish their rights to Kiawah
and other nearby Sea Islands for items of relatively little value,
such as cloth, hatchets and similar goods.
The first Englishman to own Kiawah was a former privateer
and suspected pirate, George Rayner, who used the riches he
gained at sea to buy entry into Charleston society. He received
the island as a grant from the Lords Proprietors of Carolina in
1699. After passing through several other owners, Kiawah was
acquired by John Stanyarne. He initially used it to raise cattle
and provisions for the plantation including corn and wax
myrtle (used for candles). Later, he began cultivating indigo,
a crop which had become popular in the Sea Islands because
it had considerable commercial value and could be grown in
areas not suitable for the cultivation of rice. Producing indigo
for the market was a labor-intensive effort which caused
Stanyarne to increase the number of enslaved persons on his
plantation. To house them, he created a small settlement on
the southwestern side of the island. Upon Stanyarne’s death,
his daughter Mary Gibbes and his granddaughter Elizabeth,
wife of Arnoldus Vanderhorst II, each inherited half the
island, dividing Kiawah into two plantations.
During the Revolutionary War, these two plantations fared
quite differently. Robert Gibbes, who had been a patriot at the
start of the war, switched his allegiance to the British side. As
a result, British troops left the Gibbes house untouched. In
contrast, they burned the Vanderhorst house as punishment
for Arnoldus Vanderhorst IV’s loyalty to the American
cause. Arnoldus fought in the war as an officer under Francis
Marion, the Swamp Fox. Later, he served in both houses of
the South Carolina legislature, as mayor of Charleston and
Governor of South Carolina.
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