Thomas and Frances Fruster at Fort Hill

Thomas and Frances Fruster at Fort Hill

Fruster
Photograph
Post-Emancipation

The Frusters were enslaved at Fort Hill until emancipation. Following the Civil War, they continued to work for Thomas Green Clemson as farm laborers. After Clemson's death, they worked the land that had become Clemson College and would go on to purchase land in the area before 1900, becoming some of the first African American landowners in Pickens County. Several of their descendants still live in upstate South Carolina.

Clemson University Historic Properties

Fort Hill Slavery Archive

ca. 1800

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Photograph