Between the Waters is an interactive website that showcases the cultural history of Hobcaw Barony, a 16,000 acre historical site in Georgetown, South Carolina. Funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Humanities Council SC, Between the Waters is a multi-year collaborative effort between SCETV, the Belle W. Baruch Foundation, and the Georgetown County Digital Library. The Between the Waters team is excited to announce that the website will formally launch this September with a series of public events, open to the public. We encourage all of our followers to join us at these events as Between the Waters celebrates the momentous occasion!
A behind the scenes look at the navigation through Frienfield Village – a former slave village within Hobcaw Barony – in the Between the Waters website. Site visitors will be able to enter and explore each of the buildings in Friendfield Village.
The first launch event will take place September 12th at Coastal Carolina University. This event is free and open to the public, and we encourage you to drop in for the big reveal! The Between the Waters Team will guide the audience through a digital tour of Hobcaw Barony, while discussing the history of the project and the development process. A reception will take place afterwards, and guests are welcome to join the team for food and drinks, and further in-depth discussion of the project. You can find out more about this event on Coastal Carolina University’s event calendar, and on Between the Waters’ facebook.
Between the Waters will participate in the third annual Slave Dwelling Project Conference, September 19th through the 21st at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center; the project team will present on the morning of September 20th. The team will take audiences through the website, with an emphasis on Hobcaw Barony’s African-American history. You can find out more about the Slave Dwelling Project Conference and Between the Waters’ presentation on The Slave Dwelling Project’s website, and on Between the Waters’ facebook.
Following the Slave Dwelling Project Conference, the Between the Waters team will present in Charleston at the Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture. The team will guide audience members through the website and discuss the development of the project. In honor of the Avery Research Center’s beginnings as the Avery Normal Institute – a historic African-American school open from 1865-1954 – we will highlight the story of African-American education at Hobcaw Barony. You can find out more about this event on the Avery’s website , and on Between the Waters’ facebook.
Visitors unable join the Between the Waters team at these events will be able to take their own personalized virtual tour through Hobcaw Barony’s digital landscape. Visitors to the website set their own pace as they move down the roads and rice canals, entering slave dwellings and grand houses, watching videos, examining photographs, and listening to the stories of former residents and relatives. Visitors interested in exploring a particular theme will be able to navigate using content “trails” that lead directly to specific focus sites pertaining to a specified subject.
A behind the scenes look at exploring Jenkins House, one of the former slave cabins in Friendfield Village. Visitors will be able to enter and explore various buildings located within Hobcaw Barony, including Hobcaw House and Bellefield!
In addition to the tour through Hobcaw Barony, a variety of other resources are available to visitors in the website’s Discovery Center. Teachers interesting in making the most out of Between the Waters will have access to standards-based lesson plans developed in collaboration with SCETV’s Education Department. The Discovery Center also contains a database that allows users to explore and access individual Between the Waters resources outside the context of the virtual tour, such as primary source documents, maps, new and archival photographs, videos, original texts, and various other forms of media.
Once visitors have finished their digital exploration of Hobcaw Barony, they can always refer to Between the Waters social media pages and blog to continue their historical journey. Between the Waters’ Facebook, Twitter, and blog will continue to post and publish regularly after the website’s launch.
Make sure to follow our facebook, twitter, and blog for more information and regular updates about our upcoming launch events!
Making History Together 