The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 17, 1999, Page Page 6, Image 6
EVENTS
The Flys, tonight at Tremont Mu
sic Hall, Charlotte.
Scott Carpenter and the Real Mc
Coys w/ Sol Divers, Thursday a
The New Brookland Tavern.
|Page 6
Rice plan
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labor-intensive crops, and slaves usuall)
toiled from dawn to dusk.
But on Lowcountry rice plantations
slave labor developed under the task sys
tem. In this system, each slave had a cer
tain task to complete for the day. After the}
WmJx Jk
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Hampton Plantation, near the Santee F
tion in its time. No one lives there now,
'Ah! Wilde
by Ali Freeman
Gamecock Critic
Ah, the good old days: when a car <
ride was an exciting outing, Bernard
Shaw was risque reading, a kiss meant
marriage, a family meant everything
and the American dream still seemed
attainable. "Ah! Wilderness."
Eugene O'Neill's classic comedy, ]
"Ah! Wilderness," looks back at those '
good old days in the context of the
events in one lamuy duly 4 ana o, <
1906. USC's production of this clas- 1
sic play runs through Feb. 21 at Dray- i
ton Hall. '
O'Neill was originally going to 1
name the play "Nostalgia." It is indeed
a play of wistful, fond remem- <
bering. But these are not memories ]
of anything we know. The play reeks
of candy-coated, hollow resolutions i
smoothly skating to a happily ever af- 1
ter.
The theatre department shrewd- i
ly dubs it an "imagined reality." While i
any play is an imagined reality of sorts, <
this sentimental memory is one in <
particular. <
The play's design nicely follows i
the theme of "imagined reality," with 1
a set, costumes and lights that bor- i
Mortorola $Q 95
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1945-14 Decker Blvd.
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738-9400
by Rob Gioielli
Viewpoints Editor
Thanks to films, television and out-of
date history textbooks, many of us hav<
preconceived notions about slavery in th<
American South.
The stereotypical view of slavery usu
ally focuses on the overworked black fielc
hand, who labors in cotton fields from sunuj
to sundown under the watchful eye of th<
white slavedriver.
The reality of plantation life was
much more complicated for both masters
and slaves. But, factually, more slaves la
bored over cotton than any other crop as
thev worked in groups under the commanc
of a slave driver or overseer.
But in the Lowcountry of South Caroli
na and Georgia, a very different kind of slav
ery existed.
Growing mostly rice and a Sea Islanc
strain of cotton, slaves in this region exer
cised more control over their-lives, whicl
was quite unusual for the antebellum South
Slaves on most cotton and tobacco plan
tations labored in the gang system. Gangs
were groups of field hands who labored with
an overseer moderating the speed and effi
~r?i : l. ^
t
tatinne at
finished, they could spend the rest
day as they pleased.
Tasks ranged from the daily n
nance of one-quarter acre of rice to c
3 500 to 600 square feet of irrigation d
3 These tasks could be very diffici
unlike the gang labor system, wh:
matter how quickly they worked, i
1 required more work from the slavi
d task system provided an incentive
3 slave to work as hard as
possible.
3 After they finished ^
3 their tasks, slaves could rice *.
generally do whatever slave
3 they wanted. They par1
ticipated in a variety of regio
activities, but the over- mOfC
whelming majority chose ,, .
to grow crops and raise tneiT
livestock. This was not was <
1 unusual for plantation r .i
slaves. Throughout the
i South, slaves had veg- Soutl
etable gardens andsome
small livestock, such as
3 pigs or chickens.
i But in the Lowcountry, the sur
- usable farmland and the unusual a
j of free time slaves had created a unic
r uation. On other plantations, inc
dent food production usually just s
, mented the provisions received frc
master. But Lowcountry slaves wei
to move beyond this to produce a s
r thev could market.
-
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liver between Georgetown and CharU
and the (Plantation serves only as a 1
mess' wor
ier on the real but are clearly calcu- i
lated. The costumes, designed by the- :
atre graduate student Nicole Matthai, 1
could all be authentic turn-of-the-cen
tury attire, but their clean and sooth- ;
ing earth tones make the family ap- i
pear to be an immaculate yet fading
portrait, carefully coordinated. i
Guest set designer Michael Phihp- i
pi had two openings in one week- 1
end: the set for "Ah! Wilderness" as 1
well as one for the Broadway revival 1
of "Death of a Salesman." His deli- ]
nous design, including a quaint Vic- i
torian home and a white picket fence,
suggests the real while demanding ]
the recognition of the imaginary. i
All is smiles and laughter in the i
quaint world created on stage, but i
perhaps not as much in the audience. 1
The audience did laugh some, but for i
a comedy, "Ah! Wilderness" is not par
ticularly hilarious. ]
Director Jim O'Connor has done
a pretty good job of charting the move- i
ment and finding the funny moments :
af the play. But this was not executad
flawlessly, perhaps due in part to J
apening-night jitters. The first ]
scene was awkward and forced. It was 1
the second scene before the actors got 1
into the dialects and the rhythm of
Trlnlti
503 Meeting St.
Columbia (across from McDonalc
939-0001
Ei
The Gc
ive slaves
; of the Even though they were grov
portion of their own food, Lowcoi
lflinte- still rerpivpd nrnvisinns from t.hf
ligging The amount of these surplus ?
[itches, be quite large,
lit, but Slaves started out trading
ich, no with each other, their master
always local whites. But, over time, a [
es, the nal economy developed,
for the Although it was an anomaly i
ican South,
sving mostly ^"was th<
Uld COttOIl, rest of the we
c in thi?i sphere. In pi
cieties throi
'II CXerciSCCl Caribbean
J control over America, si
,. , . , usually rest
lives, which growing thei
juite unusual These s
ie antebellum ^thfoulsi
1." plantation, i
. were expecte
majority of
food.
plus of Internal economies develope
mount same as in the Lowcountry, wl
pie sit- set up markets and traded witl
lepen- of the entire community. In Ja
upple- slaves' independent productior
>m the ally responsible for feeding most
re able pie on tne island,
urplus By the 1850s, at the height
duction, the internal economy (
country was at its strongest,
. ^S^'- --,!
Erin Reed The Gamecock
jston, was a prosperous rice plantatourist
site.
thy effort
the play, out of which they occasionally
lapsed. The lack of sophistica
tion appropriate in the Belle scene
was coupled with another layer of
awkwardness, that layer unique to
uncomfortable actors.
But the cast, a combination of undergraduates
and seasoned professionals,
overall does a fairly good job.
They manage to handle the daunting
tasks of some moments that could
have been sickeningly cheesy, instead
pulling them off sincerely tear-jerking.
The mythical Richard Jennings is
particularly notable in that capacity.
He performs well as Nat Miller,
showing his background of screen accolades
was not a fluke. Guy Molnar's
brief stage time as David McComber
is a show-stopper. Daniel
Roach is a likable, though not quite
poetic enough, Richard Miller.
Overall, the nrnduet.ion is hest de
scribed as "nice," pleasing without
standing out as incredibly amazing.
But the deceptively easy execution is
fitting for a script that remembers the
perfect childhood we never had, blissfully
concluding, "From all reports,
we are completely surrounded by love."
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imecock
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tang a large slaves boasted large amounts of property,
mtry slaves some even more prosperous than local EJh
iir masters, whites.
foods could Many had horses, which were considered
the great status symbol of the Low- %'
their goods country. A horse gave a slave position, not f]
and other only in the black community, but in Low- . \
large inter- country society in general.
One reason slaves were able to attain
ntheAmer- this level of prosperity was that, during the tti
slaves pro- late antebellum period, rice was just as prof- jS
own provi- itable as cotton.
j rule in the The Lowcountry was the largest riceistern
hemi- producing region in the world, with South jl
antation so- Carolina alone growing 160 million pounds y|
rghout the of rice per year. Planters were doing ex- j||
and Latin tremely well, and this prosperity trickled S|
aves were down to the slaves.
tonsible for By producing their own goods and ac- JE
r own food, cumulating wealth and property, Lowcountiy f?j
ilaves were slaves had the kind of freedom few of B
nlot of land their counternarts had in the antebellum lH
i - r a??
tirts of the period. Even though they were still H
where they slaves, the task system let them control the flj
;d to grow a pace and method of their labor. They had
their own larger amounts of free time than most other
slaves, which they used for their personal
d much the benefit.
lere slaves By growing their own crops and then
b members having a surplus, slaves were able to enter
.maica, the into market relations, thus becoming more
l was actu- active members of their community.
; of the peo- In the South, they had the freedom to
associate with and exchange goods with fje|(
of rice pro- whomever they chose. And they could dis- tjon
)f the Low- pose of their goods and income however they stai
and many wished.
Hopsewee Plantation, in Georgetown County, was once a i
privately owned and inhabited by a family who gives tours o
and kitchen houses can be toured at any time.
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Wednesday, February 17, 1999 |
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, Erin Reed The Gamecock
/es used truck docks to hold water back in the rice
Is. This truck dock is located near Hopsewee plantai
in Georgetown County and is one of the few still
tiding in its original condition.
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Erin Reed The Gamecock
iroductive rice plantation worked by slaves. It is now
if the house from March through October. The grounds
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Chappelle Guillermo Diaz
a Gaby Hoffmann Kate Hudson
pton Christina Ricci Paul Rudd
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