Professor Tsahiridis Takes Students to Middleton Place

We had such a great time! 25 students joined me at Middleton Place for a private tour of the gardens on Sunday September 29th, as well as the history beyond the fields explaining slavery and what life looked like while it was a working plantation.

I was happy to be able to watch their awe of the natural beauty of the land, but also to hear heavy things that it took to shape the land we stood on. For many of my students, they had never been outside of downtown, so to show off the Lowcountry was a treat. I love what I do and being able to bring others into the world of history is a pleasure I’m honored to help facilitate.” 

Thank you so much for dedicating your time and effort to arrange the field trip today. Being from the Midwest, I never have seen or been to a plantation site so today I learned a lot. I think the most interesting thing I learned was the research they do connecting history with real life people.

The big wall at the end of the trip in Eliza’s cabin that had all the families and names of the enslaved people was amazing in such a sad way, it really put into perspective that over 800 people were enslaved on the plantation.

I was also blown away by the fact that the Middleton Foundation has reunions every 5 years with the Middleton family and the ancestors of those were enslaved. It is so incredible they can connect the distant family members together and I would imagine it heals a lot of generational wounds.

I also really enjoyed the gardens that were everywhere, it really shows how fertile and lush the landscape is.  I loved that there were beautiful butterflies everywhere and loved how pretty the land was, it made me feel sad that such a beautiful place holds such awful memories, but I felt privileged to be able to walk into history. Thank you again for arranging this trip, it was very interesting, and I learned so much!”