{{Short description|Former plantation in Camden County, Georgia}} {{Distinguish|Felicity Plantation}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox building | name = Rural Felicity Plantation | native_name = | former_names = | awards = | image = | caption = | location = Hazzards Neck, [[Camden County, Georgia]], U.S. | address = | coordinates = {{coord|31|03|35|N|81|34|02|W||display=inline,title}} | construction_start_date = 1787 | completion_date = | inauguration_date = | demolished_date = | destruction_date = | architect = | landlord = | owner = | cost = | floor_area = | floor_count = | references = | pushpin_map = | map_caption = | pushpin_label = Location of Hull Cemetery | building_type = | architectural_style = | structural_system = | client = | current_tenants = | height = | other_dimensions = | structural_engineer = | services_engineer = | civil_engineer = | other_designers = | quantity_surveyor = | main_contractor = | diameter = | mapframe = yes }}

'''Rural Felicity Plantation''' was a [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantation]], occupying around {{Convert|1300|acres|}} of land,<ref name="p170">''[[Reminiscences of Charles Seton Henry Hardee]]'', Martha Gallaudet Waring, ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', [[JSTOR]] (1928), p. 170</ref> in [[Camden County, Georgia|Camden County]], [[Province of Georgia]]. Located on the southern banks of the [[Little Satilla River (Atlantic Ocean)|Little Satilla River]], it was given by the [[Georgia (U.S. state)|State of Georgia]] to [[John Hais Hardee Sr.]] in 1787 for his distinguished service during the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Sankofagen Wiki / Rural Felicity |url=http://sankofagen.pbworks.com/w/page/14230788/Rural%20Felicity |access-date=2022-06-23 |website=sankofagen.pbworks.com |archive-date=2015-05-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504111912/http://sankofagen.pbworks.com/w/page/14230788/Rural%20Felicity |url-status=live }}</ref> He was one of the first burials there, upon his death in 1809, aged 61.<ref>{{Cite book |title=American Ancestry: Embracing lineages from the whole of the United States, 1888-1898 |year=1890 |pages=128}}</ref>

A family burial ground, which has come to be known as the Hull Cemetery, exists on the property. (Joseph Hull, who lived in nearby Little York, married Sarah Hardee, the sister of physician John Hais Hardee Jr., who was born in 1803.<ref name="p172">''Reminiscences of Charles Seton Henry Hardee'', Martha Gallaudet Waring, ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', [[JSTOR]] (1928), p. 172</ref> Hull was buried in the cemetery after his death in 1865, four years after his wife.)

Lieutenant general [[William J. Hardee]] was born at the plantation house in 1815.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mesch |first=Allen H. |title=Preparing for Disunion: West Point Commandants and the Training of Civil War Leaders |publisher=McFarland Publishers |year=2018 |isbn=9781476674254 |pages=122}}</ref>

The 1830 Camden County census indicated that John Hais Hardee Jr. and his sons, Thomas Ellis and [[Noble Hardee]] (brothers of William), owned 114 slaves.<ref name=":0" /> Upon the death of John Jr. in 1838, another of his sons, George Washington Hardee, took over the running of the plantation until the death of his mother, Sarah, in 1848, after which he moved across the nearby state line to [[Florida]].<ref name=":0" />

[[Charles Seton Henry Hardee]], another grandson of John Jr. and Sarah, visited his grandparents at the plantation, where he was born in 1830, several times during his childhood. He documented them in his memoir ''Reminiscences of Charles Seton Henry Hardee'', which was published by his granddaughter after his death in 1927.<ref>[https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/00307/ "Collection Number: 00307. Collection Title: Charles S. H. Hardee Reminiscences, circa 1830-1923"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419162407/https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/00307/ |date=2022-04-19 }} - [[University of North Carolina]]'s Wilson Special Collections Library</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Image 1 of [Reminiscences and Recollections] |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/wpalh1.12081602/?st=text |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA |archive-date=2022-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220622134127/https://www.loc.gov/resource/wpalh1.12081602/?st=text |url-status=live }}</ref> His father, John, was buried at the plantation upon his death, aged 32, in 1835.<ref name="p159">''Reminiscences of Charles Seton Henry Hardee'', Martha Gallaudet Waring, ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', [[JSTOR]] (1928), p. 159</ref>

"At the first bend of the stair case, 'in the house where I was born' at Rural Felicity, stood a [[Grandfather clock|Grandfather Clock]] about six feet high," wrote Hardee.<ref name="p167">''Reminiscences of Charles Seton Henry Hardee'', Martha Gallaudet Waring, ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', [[JSTOR]] (1928), p. 167</ref> "It was a source of never failing delight to me to watch the measured swing of its long pendulum and listen to its loud ticking, as it marked the rapid flight of time by seconds, minutes and hours."

At the rear of the house was a piazza that ran almost the entire width of the house. It looked northward "over an almost boundless continuity of marsh, with the Little Satilla River gleaming brightly in the sunshine in the distance."<ref name="p168">''Reminiscences of Charles Seton Henry Hardee'', Martha Gallaudet Waring, ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', [[JSTOR]] (1928), p. 168</ref> Rowboats travelling to or from [[Brunswick, Georgia]], "about ten miles from Rural Felicity, in a northerly direction, had to cross over the Little Satilla."<ref name="p168" />

A 16-year-old Hardee's final visit to the plantation occurred in 1846. His grandmother was living with George Washington Hardee, his uncle, who was "thirty-three years old at the time and unmarried."<ref name="p171">''Reminiscences of Charles Seton Henry Hardee'', Martha Gallaudet Waring, ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', [[JSTOR]] (1928), p. 171</ref>

== References == {{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Plantations in Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:Province of Georgia]] [[Category:1787 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:Camden County, Georgia]]