tabby Ruins on Sapelo Island

Chocolate Plantation was once a prosperous antebellum Sea Island cotton plantation. The tract was occupied by French Royalists from 1789 to 1795 then sold to Edward Swarbreck. The tabby ruins of the slave cabins and main house were constructed about 1819 by Swarbreck. Charles Rogers owned Chocolate Plantation in the 1830s and built the tabby barn overlooking Mud River. The sturcture was restored to its present appearnace by island ownedr Howard E. Coffin in the 1920s. The main house burned in 1853 while occuupied by Randolf Spalding. The name "Chocolate" was given by its french owners and derives from the Guale Indian village on Sapelo named Chucalate. (Note: This information was taken from the sign located at the present entrance to Chocolate Plantation.)

The photographs in the top row were made in 2004 and all others were made in March of 2005.