When settlers first arrived to South Carolina from Barbados, they wanted a way to create large, wealth-generating plantations like the ones they had known in the Caribbean. Rice emerged as the dominate cash crop, but involved large-scale modification to the landscape—a complex system of geography and hydrography. This talk by Dr. Russell Fielding will explore this transformation in detail. Brookgreen Gardens, 1931 Brookgreen Drive. Wednesday, 10–11 a.m. Free with garden admission, but reservation required. (843) 235-6000, www.brookgreen.org