Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, Historic rice plantation in Brunswick, United States
Hofwyl-Broadfield is a plantation covering roughly 1,268 acres near Brunswick with a preserved main house from the 1800s, several nineteenth-century outbuildings, and marshlands stretching along the Altamaha River. The grounds display how rice farming shaped the landscape and what structures supported this agricultural operation.
William Brailsford founded the property in 1806 and turned it into a major rice producer within a few years. By the 1800s, the operation grew to employ hundreds of workers from West Africa across thousands of acres.
The site shows how European landowners and enslaved African people shaped coastal life through shared labor. Their stories remain woven into the landscape and buildings that visitors walk through today.
The property can be explored on foot with guided tours of the main house and walking paths through former rice fields. Visitors should wear comfortable shoes since the ground in the wetland areas is uneven and can be muddy.
The same family owned the property for five generations before selling it, switching from rice farming to dairy operations to sustain the land. This shift let them preserve the historic buildings rather than develop the site commercially.
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