In 1937, after decades in the North, Archibald Rutledge returned to the hyacinth days and camellia nights of his native Carolina Lowcountry to restore his family home, Hampton Plantation. Originally published in 1947, these pages describe, in intimate and compelling detail, the plantation life he found upon his return. In the simple and lyrical language that has become the hallmark of the first poet laureate of South Carolina, Rutledge eloquently portrays the black men and women who labored alongside him in the marshes of the Santee. From his beloved companion Prince Alston to the master carpenter Lewis Colleton to Mobile The Hunterman, who saved his infant from the talons of an eagle with a single musket shot, the people of the plantation come to life in the hands of this southern literary legend.