The rice fields warrant a little explanation. The water in the Ashley River is a mix of sweet and salt, the salt water comes with the tide. To get water for the rice fields, they built gates which siphoned of the top water which was sweet. (The heavier salt water sinks to the bottom.) The slaves were instrumental in this technique, as they were in planting and raising the rice. The white man had little experience of growing rice, but I learnt that rice had been grown in West Africa for quite some period before the slave trade started. So the slaves provided both the labour and the knowledge. The white man took the income. Nice story.