The Early Republic

Charles Drayton's tenure

After the end of the American Revolution, Charles Drayton purchased Drayton Hall from his young stepmother Rebecca Perry Drayton, his father's fourth wife. Rebecca moved to downtown Charleston and died there in her 80s. Though initially a patriot, Charles became more or less neutral after the British took over Charleston. Some of his friends even hinted that Charles was a Loyalist, but no charges were ever brought against him. In fact, in 1785 Charles was elected Lt. Governor of South Carolina and in 1789 he represented St. Andrews Parish at the South Carolina Constitutional Convention.

Politics never really suited Charles. In his diary, which he kept from 1784 until his death in 1820, Charles only mentions politics to complain about the cost of traveling to Columbia. His real interests were family and agriculture, preferring the life of a gentleman planter to that of a politician.

Like Thomas Jefferson, with whom he corresponded, Charles was a product of the Enlightenment. His diary is full of all kinds of scientific thought. In fact, he and Thomas Jefferson experimented in many of the same areas: botany, architecture, landscape design, animal husbandry, and design efficiencies. He conducted weather experiments, and his library was full of the latest discoveries. But it was agriculture that took up most of Charles' time and not just because it was his business.

Documents indicate that Charles grew some indigo around the time of the Revolution and may have continued to grow some for a short time afterwards. He also planted cotton after he acquired Drayton Hall, and in his diaries he made notes about the construction of a cotton barn, cotton stove, and cotton gin house. By 1790, he was managing three plantations from his base at Drayton Hall. He visited these plantations frequently, but only rarely went to town. He did not seem very interested in society, remarking once about having to go to so many Christmas parties: "There should be a day of rest in between each day of Balls.

In 1802, Charles made the first major changes to the main house when he replaced three Georgian mantles with Federal-style mantles in the withdrawing room, the library or "growth-chart room," and the large yellow room on the first floor. In addition, he became one of the first people in America to convert traditional fireplaces into Rumford fireboxes, when he installed five Rumford fireboxes in Drayton Hall in order to improve heat distribution. Research suggests that just over a decade later, Charles made the next major design change to the house, this time due to damage caused by a major hurricane when he replaced the original twelve-over-twelve pane windows with the much lighter six-over-six pane style.

Charles also oversaw the re-design of his father's formal garden into the more fashionable style of "la ferme ornee" (ornamental farm.) Popular in France and England at the time, the style blended utilitarianism and aesthetics and was chosen by Thomas Jefferson when he revised Monticello's landscape upon his return from France in 1789.