If you could.........

http://www.boonehallplantation.com/images/page_image05.jpg I always felt that if I could live in any time period, it would be in the south on one of those magnificant plantations. I felt that way when I went to see the magnficant Boone Hill Plantation in south Carolina with its magnificant oaks that line the drive which is about a mile long before you come to the main gate. They line both sides of the drive and if you have seen the series, North and South, you would have seen that drive several times as well as the front of this beautiful plantation. It has a lovely working farm which is still in existance and a stable as well as a breathtakingly beautiful flower garden. I felt like a regal queen as I sat on the veranda with my daugthers and watched the guides in their period style long dresses walk about the mansion talk about it.

I could pretend I was the lady of the house. I could walk about those lovely gardens with my husband by my side. It would all be so wonderful....

But reality struck when we stepped inside the slave cabins. The look in my daughters face tells how we all felt in that deep dark, dank surroundings that resembles more of a cave then a kitchen. Yes, it was one room where the whole family lived and slept but you could tell it was a kitchen because of the iron kettle that in the corner over the fireplace in that room.

Until that point it all seemed like such a romantic time. But when you think of how some had to live, there was nothing 'romantic' about it at all.