Henry Middleton begins work on his vision for the plantation’s gardens, now considered to be the oldest landscaped gardens in the United States. The labor of enslaved people enabled plantations like Middleton Place to expand and create ornamental gardens. Middleton hired an English gardener design six terraces and a pair of “butterfly lakes,” to be excavated by enslaved laborers.

Ellis, Barbara W., Jane S. Keough, Judy Powell, and American Horticultural Society. North American Horticulture, a Reference Guide. (New York: Scribner, c. 1982).

Hobhouse, Penelope. “The Development of North American Horticulture,” Plants in Garden History. (London: Pavilion Books, ltd, 1992), 259.

Ogden Tanner, “Middleton Place: Charleston’s Continental Classic”, Horticulture 62.2 (February 1984:28-33), p. 29.