Griff's Great American South (2025) Season 1 Episode 6
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Short filmTranscript
00:01The Great American South.
00:06From the Atlantic to the Gulf,
00:08and a few points in between,
00:10in a runabout sort of way.
00:12Come with me, exploring its rich, its wondrous,
00:15and, let's face it, its sometimes troubled history.
00:20Rejoicing in the spiritual.
00:24And the creative.
00:25Now I have faith in welding.
00:27Wrapping myself in legend and myth.
00:30It's like a sort of American Gothic novel.
00:33Stuffing myself with southern food.
00:36And what is your secret?
00:39Me.
00:44I want to explore America where the crawdads sing.
00:48By land, by air, by water.
00:52It promises to be uplifting, exciting, and very beautiful.
00:57I'm going with Griff.
00:58Yes, ma'am.
00:59The Great American South.
01:01I've changed my mind!
01:02Ours for the taking.
01:03Safe travels.
01:04Welcome to South Carolina.
01:05And for those interested in geography, it's just south of North Carolina.
01:10It's hot and humid.
01:13It's Spanish moss, cotton fields, and alligators.
01:14And I'm sailing into the port of its oldest and largest city, Charleston.
01:16Honestly, there's nowhere better to get to grips with the old south, because history is all around us.
01:19Just behind me there is Fort Sumter.
01:20Very important place.
01:21Very important place.
01:22Because when South Carolina, it's just south of North Carolina.
01:25It's just south of North Carolina.
01:27It's hot and humid.
01:29It's Spanish moss, cotton fields, and alligators.
01:33And I'm sailing into the port of its oldest and largest city, Charleston.
01:38Honestly, there's nowhere better to get to grips with the old south, because history is all around us.
01:44Just behind me there is Fort Sumter.
01:47Very important place.
01:49Because when South Carolina, the first state to secede, to leave the Union of States, decided it wanted that fort,
02:01it started firing cannons at it.
02:05And those shots were a call to arms from both sides.
02:10The Civil War was a bloody solution born of deep divisions, and nobody can ignore it.
02:16I'm sailing straight into a story of conflict and resolution.
02:20And that history still explains a lot of the south today.
02:25I'll need to unpack it on this journey.
02:31Drif, can you bring that sail in?
02:32Yep.
02:33Ready?
02:34OK.
02:40So, Todd, what advice have you got for me here while you're in Charleston?
02:45If you hear somebody say, bless your heart, they ain't really blessing your heart.
02:50Why not?
02:51It's facetious for...
02:53Is it?
02:54Yeah.
02:56Bug off.
02:58In your language, it's bug off.
03:00Is it?
03:01Yeah.
03:02So this is the beginning of Southern Charm, is it?
03:04It sounds charming, but don't be fooled.
03:07OK.
03:08Right.
03:09Well, that's something to look out for as well.
03:13All right.
03:14Tie us off, Griff.
03:19Don't forget your bag.
03:22Thank you, Todd.
03:23I'm here.
03:24I'm safe.
03:25I'm on land.
03:26Bye-bye.
03:27I hope you get a pineapple.
03:28Right.
03:30OK.
03:31I hope I get a pineapple.
03:36I don't know what that means, but we'll find out.
03:39Oh, when the saints go marching in
03:43Oh, when the saints go marching in
03:46This is Charleston, named after England's King Charles II.
03:51Any journey through the Deep South might well begin here
03:54because it's been the gateway to the territory
03:57since the British arrived here in 1670
04:00and established a trading centre.
04:04So successfully,
04:05that by the middle of the 18th century,
04:07Charleston was the wealthiest city in North America.
04:11And it still looks it.
04:13It's amazing, these houses.
04:15They just go on and on.
04:19Any one of them you'd sort of long to live in.
04:22It feels like I'm walking from a perfect history lesson
04:25in red brick and painted wood.
04:27When the saints go marching in, marching in
04:30But I need a few guidelines of my own to my new world
04:34and luckily, I bump into Charlotte.
04:37What kind of food do you like?
04:38Oh, I want to try all food.
04:39I'm here to try it out.
04:40Oh, sweet potatoes.
04:41Yeah.
04:42Do you like sweet potatoes?
04:43I love sweet potatoes.
04:44Sweet potatoes.
04:45And we eat rice.
04:46They eat a lot of rice here too.
04:47Because they grow rice.
04:48Because they grow rice.
04:49Yeah.
04:50And then we're not far from the ocean also too.
04:53So fish.
04:54I better get some fish.
04:55Do you use oysters?
04:56Yes.
04:57How do you like your oysters?
04:59I like a stewed.
05:00But now, if somebody says, to you says,
05:03I'm going to fix you some mountain oyster,
05:05put the hand up.
05:07Talk to the hand because we already know
05:09that that is pig nuts or cow nuts.
05:12Okay.
05:13So I don't want a mountain oyster.
05:15Yeah, you're not a mountain oyster.
05:16Yeah, I do.
05:17Okay.
05:18Don't let them give you that.
05:19Go.
05:20Okay.
05:21But answer me this.
05:22This is a puzzle for me.
05:23What are grits?
05:25You never eat grits?
05:27I never eat grits.
05:28I don't know what grits are.
05:30It doesn't sound very appetizing.
05:33Grit?
05:34A grit?
05:35You remember that movie?
05:36A grit?
05:37What is a grit?
05:38But anyway, grit is like a corn.
05:41You know, they have to grind it up and all like that.
05:44Like a porridge made of corn, is it?
05:45It is.
05:46And you have to, you have to really cook it slow.
05:49Okay.
05:50And if you like, I like butter in my grits.
05:53I wish you could come with me.
05:55I wished I could too.
05:56I wish you'd come with me and then you can tell me
05:58and show me all these things to eat.
05:59Thank you very much.
06:00Thank you very much.
06:02It was really great to meet you.
06:04Bye-bye.
06:05I don't think I've ever been in a town where virtually every single building has a plaque commemorating
06:21its historic value.
06:24And some of them then say this building was partially destroyed by a tornado and then later by an earthquake.
06:31It's a miracle.
06:32It's a miracle that any of them has survived at all.
06:36But I still want to understand what got them built in the first place.
06:41This is Rainbow Row, probably the most photographed area of Charleston.
06:45It's the longest pre-revolutionary structure in America.
06:48And these were all built as private homes in the 1700s.
06:53It was the busiest port in the south.
06:56And it was considered the social and cultural capital of this region as well.
07:03And what were they sending out?
07:05Rice, cotton and indigo.
07:07And rice was by far the biggest export.
07:10It was called Carolina gold rice.
07:12And we have rice plantations throughout the area.
07:15And the Carolina gold rice made Charleston the wealthiest city in colonial America.
07:19Which we see.
07:20It's all around us.
07:22These houses, these buildings, these churches, they were somehow related to the rice industry.
07:31The original families that came over to Charleston on the first three ships in 1670,
07:36they were direct descendants of British aristocracy.
07:39They liked to drink, they liked to have fun, just like King Charles II did.
07:42So Charleston was known as a lot more fun place than a lot of other places in the south.
07:48They were people who came here in order to behave like Milords and Milanes.
07:53Yes.
07:54Right.
07:55100%.
07:56It's quite exciting to come face to face, as it were, with the chivalry, the aristocracy, who built Charleston.
08:09And they lived a life of almost unimaginable luxury.
08:15Eating, going to the theatre, listening to music, engaging in social occasions.
08:23But the wealth can be traced to this tiny picture here.
08:34They went back to their plantations and they were absolutely dependent on enslaved labour.
08:43All the pretty historic houses of Charleston, and the fancy lifestyles of their owners, were built on the back of misery and oppression.
08:54This is one of the important lessons to learn about the real Old South.
08:59I, er, I didn't know where to stay.
09:15You know, there's a lot of coming to America for any of us, which is just the joy of experiencing Americana.
09:24So I sort of want to stay in motels, I need to get into diners.
09:28I need to have the proper southern breakfast.
09:33All these things.
09:34But one of the great joys of travelling in the States is the good old bed and breakfast.
09:44Well, the bed was pretty good.
10:02Now...
10:03Carol?
10:04...for the breakfast.
10:07All right, Griff.
10:14You asked for it.
10:16Oh, wow.
10:17You have your traditional southern grits.
10:20That sounds just absolutely delicious.
10:23Now, will you sit with me while I try your...
10:25I'd love to.
10:26Try these.
10:27But I must show you how to eat the southern grits.
10:29Yes, of course, yes.
10:30All right.
10:31You take a pat of butter.
10:32Butter?
10:33And you're going to put it right in the centre of your grits.
10:35Okay.
10:36Almost make like a little butter well.
10:38Yes.
10:39There you go.
10:40I've taken a huge amount.
10:41That's far too much.
10:42Yes.
10:43That's good.
10:44That's good for starters.
10:45Oh, is it?
10:46Good.
10:47All right.
10:48I'm going to put a little bit of salt on this because I'm not fond of salt.
10:49So, oh, that's a pineapple, isn't it?
10:50It is.
10:51Okay.
10:52A sign of hospitality.
10:53Is it?
10:54It is.
10:55Okay, good.
10:56Well, you've helped me a lot there in two ways.
10:57You're introducing me to grit and you're telling me that the pineapple is the sign of hospitality.
11:00It absolutely is.
11:01Brilliant.
11:02Right.
11:03Yes.
11:04A little bit of grit.
11:05What a good buttery bite.
11:06Yeah.
11:07And, and, let me just taste this.
11:15Well, now look.
11:20I, I have to tell the audience at home I can taste butter.
11:23Delicious butter from Wisconsin.
11:26And I can taste salt.
11:28And I like salt.
11:29It's quite salty.
11:30I put rather too much on.
11:32But the grits have no flavour.
11:35I'm just going to put a bit more butter on my grits.
11:43Full of Southern breakfast and laden with butter, I'm ready for battle.
11:50We're on our way now to a group of guys who keep the Civil War alive even more than the
11:59rest of the South does because they're a Civil War enactment group.
12:04And I'm assuming they dress up in uniforms and start taking pot shots at each other.
12:12It was Mark Twain who said in the South they don't, they don't measure things from A.D. or B.C. or the birth of Christ.
12:20They measure everything from the American Civil War.
12:25And up here, up here, is a genuine railway crossing which we've seen in so many films.
12:32Ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding.
12:34That sort of stuff.
12:35Fantastic.
12:37I'm very excited.
12:39I feel like I am in a film.
12:41Well, funnily enough I suppose I am.
12:45So, the year is 1865.
12:52Now that's four years after Fort Sumter and things are not going well in South Carolina.
12:59The South are losing.
13:01Most battles are now just last ditch skirmishes between Union soldiers and ragtag groups of Confederates.
13:08But it's all hands to the pump and I have decided to volunteer.
13:14If I had been living in South Carolina then, I might well have joined the Confederate Army despite my obvious grey hair and flat feet.
13:22Sir, excuse me.
13:24Yes, sir.
13:25I just wondered if it was possible for me to volunteer.
13:29Yes, sir.
13:30I've got a confession to make which may affect this.
13:33I'm 70 years old. Does that make any difference?
13:36No, sir. You got all your teeth?
13:38I have as far as I know.
13:39Hold your hands up.
13:40Yes, you can enlist.
13:41Okay.
13:42Are you enlisting?
13:43I mean, what sort of people are now joining the Army at this stage?
13:46Well, cradle to grave is the statement.
13:4813 to 70.
13:50So, anyone who's capable of bear arms, bearing arms, to stop the advance of the Federal Army.
13:56So, we will get you outfitted, Sergeant.
13:58Start with the jacket, please.
14:00It comes in two sizes, too big or too small.
14:03It will go over your right shoulder.
14:06What you've got here is your cap pouch and waist belt.
14:10I think I'm the size of a militiaman.
14:15Hang on, I'm just going, how's that?
14:17Is that good?
14:18All right, so let's get you adjusted here.
14:19Yeah.
14:20All right, and the rifle.
14:22This is the most high technology of the 1860s as far as military weaponry goes.
14:27So, this is cutting edge at that point.
14:29Okay, and it'll be ready.
14:31Take aim.
14:33And fire.
14:35Just as I'm getting the hang of things, a Yankee ambush.
14:41Run, boys, run!
15:01Send yourselves!
15:06So, all I want to know is, this is the real question.
15:09It's all summed up in this.
15:12Why?
15:14I think if most people that ask me that, I give them the reason of...
15:19So, me personally, I grew up growing to, like, going to historical places,
15:23going to different forts, going to, you know, things all over the south,
15:26especially South Carolina, because that's where I grew up.
15:28And for me, growing up knowing my heritage, growing up knowing where I came from
15:33and the people that came before me, I have 14 Confederate grandfathers.
15:37Re-enactors were restaging Civil War battles even during the war itself.
15:43It's a time-honored tradition.
15:45It's a commitment, is it?
15:47It really is, it's a commitment.
15:48I've been doing it since I'm 14 and I'm 27 now, so I've been doing it for over 10 years, yeah.
15:53Isn't there an element in this issue, you know, the Mason-Dixon line,
15:58the south versus the north, the republicans versus the democrats or whatever, whichever way,
16:02that this is still a bit of a live issue?
16:05Um, the Civil War soldiers, north and south, the veterans themselves,
16:10the best thing I can point to is look at their attitudes to each other at the end of the war.
16:15Not our modern-day attitudes.
16:17Like, people today want to fight a cause.
16:19At the end of the war, a lot of the old Confederates had to apply for pardons.
16:23And their letters tell a lot, because they're like,
16:25we stood for something, right or wrong, our state went this way, we went with our state, we lost.
16:31We are now American citizens again.
16:33Um, we always tell people, it's kind of unique, the American Civil War is an odd one.
16:36We had one Civil War. One.
16:39As a country, we went, that was so violent, we never want to repeat that again.
16:44Is it significant that you're in a Union, uh, uh, uniform and you're in a Confederate uniform?
16:52For me, it's, like, for both, I do both. I can do both sides.
16:56Um, like, I had family that fought on both sides.
16:58Um, so for me, it's, it's more of an American heritage kind of thing,
17:03where all these men came together.
17:05It was a brother war, you know, brothers against brothers, fathers, sons all fighting against each other.
17:10And I think that's the big point about doing what we do, is to show that this was, this is about America.
17:16One other question, why would I be looking for a pineapple?
17:19Um, depends on where you're going.
17:23Don't put it on a pizza.
17:25Yeah, uh, a pineapple is a symbol of welcome.
17:28Um, but, uh, if you happen to find that the pineapple has been sliced up and ready to serve for you to eat,
17:34uh, that means, uh, your welcome is going to be worn out and it's time for you to pack your bags.
17:37Okay.
17:38Well, sliced pineapple means it's time to go.
17:40Yep.
17:41I better, I better keep an eye on that.
17:43This has been the central marketplace in Charleston for more than 200 years.
17:58Southerners have always bought and sold produce here.
18:01And today, one of the premier purchases is the sweet grass basket.
18:07These are really the most beautiful things in the entire market.
18:12Woven from a particular grass found growing along the Atlantic coast, the baskets were a craft of the enslaved Gullah people.
18:20And important to production of the rice crop.
18:23This is my lovely wife.
18:25When she was about 12 or 13 years old, she started learning this craft, this gift of sweet grass baskets from her grandmother.
18:33Her and her grandmother would own and operate a sweet grass basket stand along Highway 17 together.
18:39Yes, sir.
18:40I was fortunate to have met her.
18:42Were you going to buy a basket?
18:44No.
18:45Were you going to buy a hat?
18:46No.
18:47I had transitioned from a small subtropical island I lived on in the upper northern part of America down to the south and met her my very first day here.
18:59Wow.
19:00And we ended up getting married three years later.
19:01What was that subtropical island?
19:02Oh, it's called Manhattan.
19:04Oh.
19:05Yes.
19:06Yes, sir.
19:07Yes, sir.
19:08Oh, this is good.
19:09That's my home.
19:10Because you are the first Yankee I've met here.
19:13You are.
19:14And I wanted to meet Yankee.
19:16Thank you very much.
19:17Yes, sir.
19:18I need to go up to Catfish Row, which is Church Street, which is up there.
19:22Yes, sir.
19:23And I wondered if we could walk and you could just tell me a little bit about the culture that you've experienced here, found, and the south, surely.
19:31Sure.
19:32When I moved here, I found a deeper, richer side of being black in America that I didn't learn in New York.
19:45Yeah.
19:46You have to know how to spot it, but you can see where it's, they call it the slave mentality.
19:53You still can see some of it.
19:56Does it bother you that you're in a town which was actually built so openly, the riches, on the exploitation of black people?
20:07But I see the history everywhere I go.
20:10We've built and have given to the development of America in such a way our handprint is throughout history.
20:24No matter which way you go, in the past or into the future, because a lot of these styles and ways of doing have come from my ancestors.
20:36So, as I walk around in Charleston and I see the beauty of many of the buildings, I'm touched to know that my people did it.
20:49And thank you very much for helping me out.
20:54Yes, sir.
20:55That's great.
20:56And why should I, have you ever had a pineapple given to you?
20:59Most definitely.
21:00During the time of civil unrest in America, when soldiers would get called to war.
21:04Yeah.
21:05The wives would stay home and take care of the homes and everything.
21:08Yeah.
21:09When the soldier, when and if the soldier returned, the wife would go to the pantry and grab a pineapple and place it outside the door.
21:17Yeah.
21:18That was for letting her neighbors know that my husband's here, come welcome him.
21:23Okay.
21:24And letting her boyfriends know my husband's home, don't come by.
21:27Now we heard the church here saying, is Church Street that I'm looking for somewhere up here?
21:34This is Church Street.
21:35Okay.
21:36I've come here on a little bit of a pilgrimage, because we're right in the centre of town and this is Church Street, but it used to be called Cabbage Row.
21:48And the reason for that was, although it's almost impossible to believe now, this was a slum.
21:55And people lived here, sometimes 70 to a building, and they sold cabbages here, not pineapples.
22:01But the reason I've come is because it was the setting for a novel which was made into an opera by George Gershwin.
22:11This is Catfish Row from Porgy and Bess.
22:20The celebrated opera, based on a novel by Dubois Hayward, documents poverty in Charleston.
22:26Its most famous tune, Summertime, could well be an anthem of the south.
22:31But Gershwin was a New Yorker.
22:33Many of what we now regard as quintessentially southern songs about lazy rivers and easy living were actually penned by northerners.
22:41Today, Gershwin's Summertime is a favourite here at the Sound of Charleston recitals.
22:47Tell me, what's your feeling about the piece, Anne?
22:50I mean, here's a piece which, in a way, is written by a New York Jewish guy, white guy.
22:59Is it possible for African Americans to own that piece too?
23:04Yeah, and I think early on, it wasn't really received in the south at its onset.
23:14But it does belong to us.
23:20So why did he choose a southern subject like this?
23:23George came to Charleston several times to work with Dubois on the opera.
23:28And when he would come south, when he would come to Charleston, he would have Dubois and other people drive him around to the black churches, the black honky-tonks.
23:39And he listened to that music, and he absorbed that, and he took that into his soul, and it came out into the score of Porgy and Bess.
23:48And some of his music sounds like spirituals, because that's what he heard, and that's what he incorporated into his composition.
23:55And, Gershwin could have listened to any number of the 6,000 spirituals known to exist, but he may not have picked up on the double meaning hidden in many of them.
24:06And, you know, when we talk about the spirituals, a lot of the songs talk about being free.
24:13And they were also coded message songs.
24:16Uh, Wade and Water is a coded message song.
24:20Um, Follow the Drinking Gourd is a coded message song about the Underground Railroad.
24:26So they were used to talk about freedom and escaping, because they could not just talk about it the way we can sit here and talk about it.
24:40So, Anne, would you be able to give us a taste of the spiritual that, in a way, influenced Gershwin?
24:49Do you have a song that you could sing for us?
24:55What comes to mind?
24:56Over my head, I hear music in the air. Over my head, I hear music in the air. Over my head, I hear music in the air.
25:21There must be a god somewhere...
25:29Anne gives me directions to a nearby park
25:33where my onward quest suddenly takes on a massive new proportion.
25:38Well, I've seen quite a lot of small pineapples on the way,
25:54but this one seems to indicate that the pineapple
25:57must have some kind of significance around here.
26:08Now, as we travel further out into the country,
26:12you hear that banjo playing, don't you?
26:19Everything to do in the South that we're going to encounter,
26:24especially the history of the South,
26:26is in fact dealing with climate, with geography,
26:31what grows here and why.
26:33And I hope we can find some experts here
26:36who can tell us.
26:39Here we are.
26:42Magnolia Gardens.
26:46Ah! Look at that!
26:48Pineapples at the entrance!
26:53Are you James?
26:54I am. Are you Griff?
26:55I'm Griff. Good. Good to meet you.
26:57Perfect.
26:58Well, here we are.
27:00Yes.
27:01A vast estate.
27:02Come on, let's wait.
27:05Three hundred years ago, Magnolia Plantation was one of the
27:09biggest rice producers in the area.
27:12God's going to trouble the water.
27:15It delivered untold riches to the planters who owned it,
27:19but an untold burden to others.
27:22So, yeah, we can hop off here and you can see...
27:28Oh, sorry.
27:29Yeah.
27:30See a little bit more.
27:34So, James, this...
27:36This is beautiful.
27:38The swamp.
27:39Oh, yeah.
27:40Absolutely.
27:41Lots of colour right now, at least along the edge.
27:43Are you a swamp person then?
27:44Yeah, I'd say I'm a swamp person.
27:46And you're just sort of opposite of what people expect from a swamp,
27:50but this is really...
27:52And this was a rice field?
27:54Yes.
27:55So, this was a rice field.
27:56Basically, all around us was all rice fields.
28:00This was a huge job to clear...
28:05It was, yes.
28:06...these areas.
28:07Yeah, so absolutely.
28:08So, any of the enslaved that would have been on these plantations
28:12during that time, you know, they would have had to go into these areas,
28:17cut trees that, to me, even with a chainsaw, I couldn't even really think of doing.
28:23They're doing that all with hand tools, cutting those trees down, leveling the fields afterwards,
28:30and growing the rice.
28:36And we're talking about an area which is, in climate terms, is called subtropical, is it?
28:43Yes.
28:44And there's a lot of rain.
28:45There's a lot of...
28:46There's a lot of insect life.
28:48Yes.
28:49There's a lot of malaria.
28:50Yes, absolutely.
28:51And even here now, as it's rewilding, I mean, you've got, what, alligators?
28:56Yeah, so there are definitely going to be some alligators out here.
29:01They can be tricky to try and spot.
29:04Oh, yeah.
29:05I can see it.
29:06Yeah.
29:08We've got alligators watching us here.
29:11Yes.
29:12Yes.
29:13Good.
29:14An incredible place for a European to decide,
29:19yeah, I can make my fortune here.
29:22Yes.
29:23And a European is not, I mean, they didn't want to, they didn't want to work.
29:26So they brought in African people.
29:28Yep.
29:29And enslaved them to make them work in this hideous environment.
29:33Now it's used for conservation space.
29:36And by ensuring the conservation of these areas, not only are we helping the wildlife, but we're also able to keep these historic fields intact and be able to tell the story and keep that dialogue going for years to come.
29:54The other aspect of owning a plantation and living like an English lord was to build yourself a perfect English manor.
30:04Something like this.
30:06It's just astonishing.
30:16What an entrance hall.
30:19And how utterly 18th century.
30:22Total symmetry.
30:25The chivalry.
30:28They used these houses.
30:30Their intention was to have endless balls, dinner parties, socializing.
30:36They lived a life of continuous partying, hunting, and horse racing.
30:48So the house, did it fall into a state of sort of disrepair before you arrived?
30:53Well, yes.
30:54So this house has stayed in the Drayton family for seven generations.
30:57Yeah.
30:58All the way up to 1974, the Drayton family was here in this house.
31:02And so the National Trust for Historic Preservation purchased the house.
31:06And so they said, this is so unusual.
31:09We want to protect this.
31:10We want to keep it this way.
31:11And that's why you see we haven't restored it.
31:14How did they do this?
31:16Because this, when I walk in here, I go, oh, hello.
31:20I mean, sort of 18th century England.
31:24Who designed it?
31:26We think John Drayton designed this house for himself.
31:29It was common at the time, especially in Charleston, for someone to be a gentleman architect.
31:34So he wasn't trained as an architect, but he had enough money to buy architectural pattern books.
31:39John Drayton raised cattle for export to the Caribbean.
31:43That was one of the ways that he made so much wealth.
31:46Right.
31:47And presumably, this is a question, you know, I've been asked just at the very beginning of my journey through South Carolina to get a pineapple.
32:01Okay.
32:02Yeah.
32:03Do you think there's a connection there that the pineapple might have come from Barbados?
32:08Could be.
32:09There's a lot of lore around pineapples here, that they're a symbol of Southern hospitality.
32:13And that you might get one, but you also might have one taken away.
32:17Really?
32:18If you've overstayed, you're welcome.
32:20Well, I hope I haven't done that.
32:23It's time to venture deeper into South Carolina.
32:49In search of another crop that was eventually to define much of the Southern United States.
32:56It doesn't take long driving in the low country in South Carolina to suddenly find common.
33:10This is the land of common.
33:12Right, right.
33:17Excuse me.
33:18I'm going ahead a little bit because I want to come and examine close to my first field of cotton.
33:28Welcome.
33:29I don't know what I expected.
33:34I was sort of expecting in a funny sort of way that it would be in some state which wouldn't resemble a cotton bud.
33:42But of course, when you pick it, astonishingly, look, just come forward and just have a look at this.
33:49Because, astonishingly, it's like something you could use to wipe your face.
33:56It's not...
33:57What sort of processing does it go through from this stage?
34:01Well, from right here on the plant, the cotton picker goes through the field.
34:05And it goes down each row.
34:07It goes down each set of six at a time.
34:09And it's got fingers that are spinning real quick that grab the fibers off the plant.
34:14It used to be a six-man process with two pickers and two module builders to pack the cotton
34:20and then someone else to put it together.
34:22But now it's just a one-man job with just a picker.
34:26Once it's picked, it goes to the cotton gin, which it just means...
34:32It sounds exotic, but it just means engine.
34:34And that separates the fiber from the seed.
34:38Yup. It separates the fibers from the seed and picks all the trash out.
34:41Because, like, you see there'll be dead leaves on there.
34:43A lot of that trash will get into the gin as well.
34:47That used to be the hard part of cotton.
34:51That used to be, I think it took one person like eight hours per pound of cotton
34:55to separate the fibers from the seed.
34:57But now with the cotton gin, they're able to do that on a substantial scale.
35:01So it's transformed the farming, the cotton farming industry,
35:06the machinery that makes it possible for you today.
35:09Yup, absolutely.
35:11The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 had an unintended consequence.
35:16The enslaved population grew from 800,000 to 4 million across the American South
35:23as plantation owners expanded their farms and cashed in.
35:28As ever, the human consequence of slavery drove the wealth of the Old South.
35:34Today, cotton is still very much a part of the booming Southern economy.
35:40And as far as you're concerned, this is a life that you see for yourself?
35:44Yup, yup, this is what I've done as long as I can remember
35:48and hopefully as long as I will remember.
35:50So you're going to be here helping your father, do it?
35:53I'll be here helping as long as he's here, yup.
35:56But he won't be here for too much longer.
35:58Right.
35:59And I'll be here helping myself.
36:01Why won't he be here for too much longer?
36:03You don't mean that he's, you're thinking that he might be sort of going to die?
36:08Hopefully not, hopefully not.
36:10He's actually moving to Guatemala to, he's taking the family and they're going to do mission work.
36:16Right.
36:17Over in Guatemala.
36:18Yeah.
36:19So me and my brother are going to be left here to run the farm.
36:23That was seriously just sort of remarkable things to see.
36:32First of all, there's sort of the American capitalist dream that farmers got together and built that huge, huge gin.
36:40Basically, you know, there was all that cotton in the fields.
36:44And then, would you believe it?
36:46Ryan is taking over his father's farm because dad's off to become a missionary in Guatemala.
36:53It's like a sort of American Gothic novel.
36:56We really are in the deep south.
36:59There's no doubt that this country grows a lot of stuff.
37:06But didn't the first person I met, Charlotte, recommend something else?
37:12Yup.
37:13Before I leave this Atlantic seaboard, I think I'd better try oysters.
37:18And not the mountain variety either.
37:21OK.
37:22Well, I'm transferring from one boat to another now so we can get closer in.
37:29And I'm...
37:30I'm transferring from one set of clothes to another because, well, oysters, what they like is mud.
37:41Tom.
37:42Hi.
37:43Watch your head there.
37:45Am I under?
37:46Yup, you're good.
37:47Very good to meet you.
37:48Welcome aboard.
37:50We're suited up.
37:51Yeah.
37:52There's lots of oysters and they're covered in mud so we'll have some bibs to keep us semi-clean.
37:56We're not going to stay dry.
37:57No.
37:58And then we'll have some thick gloves to keep us protected.
38:01So, Tom, we're going to...
38:02In order to gather your oysters, you jump out of your boat and just literally pull them out of the mud, do you?
38:09Pretty much, yeah.
38:10They're on a reef.
38:11They're kind of clustered up together and they're growing one on top of the other generation after generation.
38:16They're kind of ecosystem engineers in that regard.
38:19And without them, this area would look completely different.
38:21They're kind of what holds the shorelines in place around here.
38:24So, we're talking about millions and millions and millions of oysters.
38:28Oh, yeah.
38:29Probably millions.
38:30That have actually sort of partly created this whole river system that we see here.
38:35These oysters have nourished humans for thousands of years.
38:39The Native Americans, the Gullah, the early Europeans, and thanks to Tom, I might get to slurp down a few as well.
38:47So, finally, I'm putting gloves on.
38:50I'm getting a basket.
38:51And I've given instructions to just get the larger oysters.
38:56It's no good me picking up the really small ones because they're the babies.
39:00All right, I think we're about bottomed out here.
39:02OK.
39:03Oh, my God.
39:04Wait, wait.
39:05Wait.
39:06I need to explain.
39:07I can see in front of me like it's like a flower bed of oysters.
39:13And they're all sort of poking up and facing up into the sky.
39:18Yeah, you see that golden ridge?
39:20That's the really fresh growth.
39:22That's the razor sharp part.
39:23Wow.
39:24You can see them kind of glowing right here with the sun, you know?
39:29It's a bit like walking on Rice Krispies.
39:31Yeah, it's nice back here, isn't it?
39:32Yeah.
39:36This is...
39:37This is pretty hard work.
39:46There it is.
39:47Recognizably an oyster.
39:49I'm allowed to eat this?
39:50Oh, yeah.
39:51I'll join you.
39:52OK.
39:54Mmm.
40:02That was...
40:03It's a very fresh oyster.
40:05And he was, or she, or Ed, was quite salty.
40:09Quite a salty taste.
40:16All I can say, Tom, is I'm not entirely sure that, uh,
40:20that oyster gathering is a...
40:22..is a retirement option for me.
40:24HE LAUGHS
40:26HE LAUGHS
40:27HE LAUGHS
40:28That's such a moment of unadulterated joy.
40:42Not just...
40:43Not just joy for me,
40:45at seeing two estuary dolphins suddenly playing in our wake,
40:49but, obviously, joy for the dolphins too.
40:52I think that's why people enjoy them so much.
40:58With a two-dolphin escort, I'm getting my harvest home.
41:02Here we go, home.
41:04I brought you some oysters.
41:06Wonderful.
41:07There we go.
41:08Those look fabulous.
41:09I collected these with my own bare hands.
41:11You did?
41:12I did.
41:13At least two of them.
41:14Wonderful.
41:15Wonderful.
41:16Well, let's get them in the pot.
41:17All right.
41:18So, what are we doing?
41:19We're just boiling them or roasting them?
41:21What's the term?
41:22Well, there are different terms for it.
41:24We call this roasting.
41:26You can do it, actually, over the fire.
41:28Um, what we're gonna do is actually pick these up and, um...
41:31You wanna dump it in?
41:32Dump them in the water.
41:33Yeah.
41:34You wanna hold the pot?
41:35Thank you, Tony.
41:36I'm gonna stand back in case it's dead.
41:43All right.
41:44There we go.
41:45So, you always wanna make sure that you hold it with your, um, your rag.
41:49Okay.
41:50And then, um, you approach it from what we call the hinge.
41:53Yep.
41:54Which is like the little back, the back part of the shell right there.
41:56Yep.
41:57You just kinda wanna go in and gently lift it up like that.
41:59Right.
42:00Even if they're already open.
42:02Well, in that case, you can kinda cheat and you can just kinda lift it up.
42:05Yeah, I'm gonna cheat.
42:06I'm cheating already.
42:07That's okay.
42:08Okay.
42:09And then you just kinda scoop it off.
42:10And I get, just to get, uh, because oysters attach themselves to the shells.
42:15Mm-hmm.
42:16And I take a little bit of this, and I'm just gonna drop...
42:19This is Tabasco, is it?
42:20Yes.
42:21Ah.
42:22Lovely.
42:23Just gonna drop that on.
42:24I apologize, that was an undignified way of eating that oyster.
42:33I was, I was expected to go like this, but I realized it was too long.
42:37Oysters are kind of like spaghetti.
42:39They're not first date, it's not usually a first date kind of meal.
42:42Yeah.
42:43But...
42:44You get a big group of people sort of around a table and, um, you know, they don't necessarily
42:49know one another, but...
42:50No.
42:51They do after they've eaten the oysters.
42:52They sure do.
42:53Yes.
42:54To all you oyster doubters out there, all I can say is, they are utterly delicious.
43:03And I'm only saying that, of course, because I got down in the mud to pick them up.
43:10A writer once commented that the, the north of America, the Yankees, like to think of
43:18themselves only since the Civil War, as real America.
43:22And that everything in the south is a sort of aberration.
43:28But, it seems to me, if you want to get to the heart of the United States, you have to
43:33come to the heart of Dixie.
43:36Because, I've met credible people, I've eaten wonderful food, I've heard extraordinary
43:43music, and I've enjoyed a lot of Southern Charm.
43:50Bless your heart.
43:52Bless your heart.
43:53Bless your heart.
43:54Bless your heart.
43:55Bless your heart.
43:56Bless your heart.
43:57Bless your heart.
43:58Bless your heart.
43:59Bless your heart.
44:00Bless your heart.
44:01Bless your heart.
44:02Bless your heart.
44:03Bless your heart.
44:04Bless your heart.
44:05Bless your heart.
44:06Bless your heart.
44:07Bless your heart.
44:08Bless your heart.
44:09Bless your heart.
44:10Bless your heart.
44:11Bless your heart.
44:12Bless your heart.
44:13Bless your heart.
44:14Bless your heart.
44:15Bless your heart.
44:16Bless your heart.
44:17Bless your heart.
44:18Bless your heart.
44:19Bless your heart.
44:20Bless your heart.
44:22La-la-la-la-la-la.
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