There are several stories regarding the introduction of rice to America. One talks of a Dutch ship that in 1694 set sail from Madagascar. Storm-battered, it took refuge in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbour, Charleston’s inhabitants gave the crew a warm welcome and helped repair the ship.
The departing ship’s English Captain expressed his gratitude to the community by presenting it with a sample of his cargo, ‘Gold Seed Rice’. These precious rice seeds were the forerunners of a now famous rice type- ‘Carolina Golde’.
South Carolina became the first American state to farm rice although, following the Civil War it ceased to do so and rice farming moved westward to Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.