Clemson history
Fort Hill and the making of Clemson
A historic house, the people who lived and labored on its land, and the university that followed.
A house within a campus
Start at Fort Hill
Fort Hill stands near the center of Clemson University, a surviving house from the plantation that preceded the college. John C. and Floride Calhoun lived here; their daughter Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson later inherited a share of the property. The house is a place to consider both the family’s political influence and the forced labor that supported its household and fields.
Today the university preserves Fort Hill as a National Historic Landmark and opens it for tours. Its history reaches beyond the rooms of the house: the landscape also holds the stories of enslaved families, later sharecroppers and the people who built the college.
The people of Fort Hill
The plantation beyond the house
Enslaved men, women and children cultivated crops, cared for livestock, built structures and worked in the household. Clemson’s burial-ground research identifies Sawney and Tilla as parents of eight children, including Sawney Jr., who escaped from Fort Hill at least once. A separate Fort Hill history calls Sawney Sr.’s wife Tiller and says only two children, Sawney Jr. and Issey, are known with certainty. The accounts differ in spelling and in how many children they identify. Daniel and Rosanna’s daughter Fanny named a child Daniel, after his grandfather. These family ties existed despite a system that denied legal recognition to enslaved people’s marriages.
After emancipation, some formerly enslaved people and others worked at Fort Hill as sharecroppers or tenant farmers. Surviving contracts show a changed legal status, but also unequal terms: Clemson’s account notes that Thomas Green Clemson’s contracts did not include a legal remedy for workers if he or his agent failed to keep the agreement.
The university’s history of the African American Burial Ground traces these lives through family histories, contracts and archival records. It is worth reading alongside the house’s account of its owners.
From estate to college
A founding and the people left out
Thomas Green Clemson’s 1888 bequest of a share of Fort Hill and money to South Carolina helped establish an agricultural college. The state accepted the gift in 1889; Clemson Agricultural College opened in 1893 as an all-white, all-male military school. The trustees leased convicted laborers to build the college, including Hardin and Sikes halls. South Carolina’s leased laborers were primarily African American; Clemson researchers believe at least twelve who died while working here were buried on Cemetery Hill.
The institution became civilian and coeducational in 1955. Harvey Gantt’s admission in 1963 desegregated Clemson; it became Clemson University in 1964. These changes belong to the campus story as surely as its founding.
Cemetery Hill
A burial ground and a continuing investigation
Cemetery Hill holds the interrelated African American Burial Ground, Andrew P. Calhoun family plot and Woodland Cemetery. University researchers believe enslaved people, sharecroppers, domestic and wage workers, convicted laborers and their families are among those buried in unmarked graves. Ground-penetrating radar has identified possible unmarked graves; it cannot by itself establish the identity of each person buried there.
This is a burial place, not simply a campus attraction. Treat graves and markers with care, follow posted guidance, and check the Cemetery Hill Project for current tour information and its virtual tour, which brings together maps, oral histories and primary sources.
Visiting Fort Hill
Check the house before you go
Fort Hill is near Fort Hill Street and Calhoun Drive. Clemson lists metered and accessible parking in front of the house. Its published hours include a midday closure Monday through Saturday, and the house closes on home football game days, university holidays and other occasions. Contact Historic Properties at 864-656-2475 or hisprop@clemson.edu to confirm hours and accessibility before visiting; school and group tours of ten or more require a reservation.
For a broader university visit and the nearby garden and lake, see the campus and Lake Hartwell guide. For parking and arrival context, see getting here.
Go deeper
Clemson’s history and visitor resources
Read the university’s research and confirm current access directly with the people responsible for these places.