The Richest Man in America

This story begins when Rice was King. Beginning about 1750, rice paddies was the dominant crop in the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. But many of these plantations had “absentee owners”. Pierce Mease Butler of Philadelphia, was a planter of thousands of acres of rice, with a population of slaves.

If you are riding along hwy 17 North into Darien, look to your left and you will see the plantation house on…