Home to South Carolina's Secession Governor, William H. Gist, the Rose Hill Plantation offers an insightful look of daily life on an antebellum plantation. Located in the Piedmont Region of South Carolina, the Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site focuses on a period from 1828 to 1860. Built on a bluff along the Tyger River, this historic site takes in 44 acres. Complete with the two story mansion and outbuildings, the plantation is surrounded by a wonderful garden setting. Completed in 1832, complementary porches were added to the stucco mansion in 1860.
   The historic site offers in-depth tours of the Union County plantation. It's afternoon mansion tours introduce park guests to the history behind antebellum kitchen gardens. Here on tour, guests may discover the basics of the southern diet in the early 1800s, foods that were grown here, and the variety of vegetables that were a mainstay at their dinner table. Rose Hill visitors may also enjoy the ornamental rose garden. Master gardeners discuss heirloom roses, fertilization schedules, pruning techniques and rose selection. The rose garden also features several antique varieties of roses, although the originals that the mansion is named for no longer exist.
   Rising from a modest background, William H. Gist was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1858. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln as United States President, Gist began to believe the only way to protect the plantation owner's way of life was to withdraw from the Union. Governor Gist played an important role in South Carolina's bid to secede from the United States.

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