Walnut Grove Plantation’s Law & Order: Backcountry Investigates How Settlers Kept Peace on South Carolina’s Frontier
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In 1760s South Carolina, frontier outlaws rustled cattle, stole horses, robbed travelers, and broke into homes. Far from the nearest law enforcement, Backcountry citizens known as Regulators, who perhaps included Charles Moore of Walnut Grove Plantation, took matters into their own hands and formed well-armed militias to confront lawlessness and disorder.
At Law & Order: Backcountry, reenactors from the South Carolina Rangers will demonstrate the weapons and tactics used to tame the region. They will conduct weapons firing demonstrations and lead militia drills for the kids! Representatives from today’s professional emergency services, including modern firefighters with a fire truck and their equipment from the Roebuck Fire District, will be on site to talk about modern public safety.
Guided tours of the plantation house, kitchen, and academy occur throughout the day. Visitors can also walk the plantation grounds to see outbuildings like the barn, smokehouse, and wheat house, visit the Moore family cemetery, and hike the nature trail. Picnics are welcome!
Law & Order: Backcountry takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 28 at Walnut Grove Plantation located at 1200 Otts Shoals Road in Roebuck. Admission is $6.00 for adults, $3.00 for children 6-17 years, and free for children 5 years or younger. Emergency service workers, active duty military, and veterans with confirming ID will receive 15% off their admission. For event information and/or directions to the site, call 864-576-6546 or email walnutgrove@spartanburghistory.org.
Walnut Grove Plantation tells the stories of the free and enslaved people who settled the South Carolina Backcountry and the rest of Britain’s American colonies, who fought for independence, and who, in the end, built a new nation. Charles and Mary Moore established the plantation on a 550-acre land grant. The Scots-Irish family raised ten children, including Revolutionary War heroine Kate Moore Barry, in the house they built about 1765 and lived in for the next 40 years. In late 1781, Loyalist William “Bloody Bill” Cunningham killed three Patriot soldiers at the plantation and sparked a small skirmish with local militia, which is reenacted each year in early October.
Operated by the Spartanburg County Historical Association, Walnut Grove offers the public guided tours of the plantation’s 250-year-old buildings. Frequent special events examine the history of 18th-century America and usually feature reenactors portraying soldiers and artisans from the time. Groups of ten or more people from schools, churches, scout troops, senior citizen groups, and other community organizations can schedule special tours and activities in advance.
SCHA activities and events are supported in part by The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg and its donors, the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives funding from The National Endowment for the Arts, the City and County of Spartanburg, and by corporate and individual partners.
For more information, visit our website at www.spartanburghistory.org, “Like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/spartanburghistory, “Follow” us on Twitter ay www.twitter.com/sptbghistory, or see photos from our special events on Flickr at flickr.com/spartanburghistory
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