Cherokee Village of Esseneca/Fort Hill Plantation of John C. Calhoun

Native Americans inhabited this site prior to the American Revolution. In 1775 naturalist William Bartram described the Cherokee village of Esseneca as “situated on the east bank of Keowee,” later the Seneca River, with a council-house and chief’s house on the west shore. The Cherokee presence ended when Maj. Andrew Williamson ordered the town and food stores burned during the Cherokee War of 1776.

Fort Hill Plantation covered some 1,100 acres. Enslaved African Americans cleared fields, terraced hillsides, and herded livestock. They also planted and harvested crops. The enslaved labor force included blacksmiths, carpenters, millers, and gardeners, along with domestics and field hands. The gristmill stream called Sawney’s Branch for enslaved laborer Sawney Calhoun was the Mill Creek, later renamed Hunnicutt Creek.

On Clemson U. campus