With my trusty Fodor's guide in hand, I like to set out on vacations with a purpose in mind. It is not merely to take a break and relax for a week, but a chance to absorb all the information I can about a particular region or place. I like to think of my vacations as educational field trips and if only my mind could remember everything I read, for then I could surely go on Jeopardy. One of the most interesting and educational places we went was Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. 
Boone Hall is one of the oldest and most photographed plantations, along with being the site in which several movies such as The Notebook were filmed. We were able to tour the old slave quarters and learned endless insight into the lives of the slaves at that time. Forbidden to read, most slaves spoke in a manner to protect themselves, often misunderstood as ignorance, this lack of articulation was rather protection against their masters finding out they were becoming educated. Many hundred year old Oak trees dripping with Spanish moss line the walks at the Boone Hall Plantation.
Mr. Blake sang, danced and taught us all about the Gullah, it is not only a name for a people but a religion and a way of life. Gullah is a dying language in which many people today are embarrassed to speak it in fear of being persecuted or thought to be uneducated. Mr. Blake is doing all he can to preserve the Gullah heritage and is currently writing a book about its people.
We learned much about the way of life when cotton was king, but based off of what is hanging in my closet it seems as though cotton is really highly favored today. I have never seen cotton fields in person and it was exciting to see rows and rows of cotton balls.
