Members of the Ravenel family — including a visiting French cousin from Vitré, Tanneguy Frain de la Gaulayrie, and his wife Anne-Clothilde — joined Castle Pinckney Historical Preservation Society members for a special flag raising ceremony at Castle Pinckney on Apr. 2, 2025.
They lowered the French Tri-Color flag that was hoisted a few days earlier to honor Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to Charleston in 1825, and replaced it with a replica of the Ravenel family’s Woodboo plantation flag. “Woodboo” is the Native American for “big water,” and the flag is part of the family’s history.
Woodboo Plantation was located next to Wantoot and Pooshee plantations in Berkeley County. Isaac Mazyck gave the plantation to his youngest son, Stephen Mazyck, and his wife, Susanne Ravenel, daughter of Rene Louis Ravenel. Stephen Mazyck and his wife then left the plantation to their son, Stephen Mazyck II, and his wife, Ann Wilson.
According to family lore, a homemade flag was raised at Woodboo Plantation on the evening of Dec. 21, 1860, the day after South Carolina passed its Ordinance of Secession. The flag was attached to a staff and nailed to the northern post of the frame gate, which opened to the avenue leading to the house.
Ladies of the house, Mrs. T. P. Ravenel Sr., her mother Mrs. T. J. Heyward, and her two sisters, Harriet G. Heyward and Meta C. Heyward, made the flag. The flag had a white ground, with a palmetto tree on one side in green and a star and crescent on the reverse side.
Parlez-vous Francaise? The Ravenel family visit to Castle Pinckney was covered in the November 2023 Issue of the French digital magazine, Vitré Journal N° 179.
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