Allston, Robert

Robert Allston, in full Robert Francis Withers Allston, (born April 21, 1801, All Saints Parish, South Carolina, U.S.—died April 7, 1864, Georgetown, South Carolina), rice planter and governor of South Carolina. Allston graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1821, and his papers, The South Carolina Rice Plantation, provide important agricultural, political, and social information about the pre-Civil War South. By scientifically draining and reclaiming swamps in his state, he developed one of the last great rice plantations in the Atlantic coast lowlands. He was also the author of two authoritative and influential works on crop raising. Allston became president of the South Carolina state senate (1847–56) and served as governor (1856–58).