Thomas Price, one of Spartanburg County’s earliest entrepreneurs, sold general merchandise, food staples, wine, rum, and whiskey in a store located next to his house. As postmaster for the area, he also operated the local post office inside the store. Area residents could pick up needed supplies from Price or his storekeeper, George, while sending or receiving mail. Price also kept a tavern and inn that provided food, drink, and lodging to travelers passing by on the road in front of the house. Travelers slept dormitory-style on the third floor.
Mr. Price was also a significant landowner with 2,000 acres to his name. He raised cattle, sheep, pigs, corn, and cotton.
Running the tavern, general store, post office, and plantation required a great deal of labor. Little is known about the enslaved African American men, women, and children who lived at Price House, but Mr. Price probably owned some slaves when he arrived. A bill of sale indicates that in 1794, the same year he purchased his first parcel of land, he also purchased a woman named Phillis and a child named Harry. When Price died in 1820, he owned twenty-four enslaved people. Though not original to the property, the site exhibits a typical upcountry slave cabin.
1200 Oakview Farms Rd, Woodruff, SC
VISIT
Guided tours and living history activities explain how free and enslaved residents transformed the frontier Backcountry into the antebellum Upcountry through improved roads and communications, new businesses, and an explosion in cotton farming and slave labor.
ADMISSION
*The Price House is currently under renovations and closed to the public.