Hamburg, Aiken County, South Carolina

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Hamburg, SC as shown in Mills' Atlas, 1825 Mills1825SE 250.gif
Hamburg, SC as shown in Mills' Atlas, 1825

Hamburg, South Carolina is a ghost town in Aiken County, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was once a thriving upriver market located across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia in the Edgefield District. It was founded by Henry Shultz in 1821 who named it after his home town in Germany of the same name. The town was one of the state's primary interior markets by the 1830s, due largely to the fact that the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company chose Hamburg as the western terminus of its line to Charleston.

Contents

The enervation of the town, which relied on its in-land port being the destination of cotton headed toward the ports of Charleston or Savannah for business, began in 1848 after Augusta siphoned much of the town's river traffic with the completion of the Augusta Canal. The town's decline was finalized in the 1850s when the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company extended its line into Augusta.

After the American Civil War, Hamburg was repopulated mostly by freedmen and was within newly organized Aiken County. The town became notorious in 1876 as the site of a massacre of blacks by whites in what was one of a number of violent incidents by Democratic paramilitary groups to suppress black voting in that year's elections. The Democrats regained control of the state government and federal troops were withdrawn the next year from South Carolina and other states, ending the Reconstruction era.

History

Early years

The founder of Hamburg, Henry Shultz, was a parvenu until his origin was discovered in 2016 by Jürgen Möller. [1] Born in Germany in 1776 as Klaus Hinrich Klahn, Shultz arrived in Augusta in 1806 as a simple day worker. But, by 1813, the business dealings of Shultz had elevated him to a position capable of building a long-lasting bridge across the Savannah River, a feat which one of the wealthiest South Carolinian of the 1790s, Wade Hampton I, had failed to accomplish on two previous occasions. [2]

Shultz would go on to become a leading citizen in the city of Augusta, owning part of the Steamboat Company of Georgia as well as a wharf in Augusta. But, like many bank owners (Shultz used his bridge to back a bank which he called the Bridge Bank) in the 1810s, Shultz issued paper currency which led to his bankruptcy during the Panic of 1819. After being sued by his creditors, the Georgia state officials seized the Augusta Bridge from Shultz. [3] : 20 

Shultz felt slighted by the city of Augusta and purchased a swath of land opposite the Savannah River which had previously been owned by Chickasaw indians in order to compete with the city. [3] : 21  The following year, Shultz sought and procured loans from the South Carolina General Assembly to improve inland navigation between the town and Charleston. On top of this, the General Assembly exempted all taxable property within the town from taxation for five years. [3] : 22 

Shultz established a second bank, the Bank of Hamburg, in 1823, backed by his Hamburg property which "faded into oblivion" within two years. [4] Ten years later, a decade bank was founded with support from the General Assembly. This second iteration became one of the best-known banks in the country, reliable enough to be used by many families to pay colleges in the North. [3] : 25  The establishment of the second bank coincided with the decline of the South Carolina wagon trade. From 1819 to 1823, the trade shrunk to one-fourth its former size as steamboats became the cheaper form of transportation for upcountry harvests. [5] : 39  The emergence of steamboats led Hamburg and other towns strategically located at the fall lines of major rivers such as Camden and Columbia to become economically important for the first time. [3] : 40 

During his American tour as 'Guest of the Nation', the Marquis de Lafayette visited Hamburg on March 24, 1825. [6] In a book recounting their trip, Lafayette's secretary wrote that Lafayette was invited to visit "a sort of prodigy", a "village called Hamburg", which was "not yet two years old and its port was already filled with vessels." [7]

Slave market

According to the Anti-Slavery Bugle in 1848, Hamburg was successful in part because it was a slave market located just outside Georgia, which had a state law banning interstate slave trading, [8] "Hamburg, South Carolina was built up just opposite Augusta, for the purpose of furnishing slaves to the planters of Georgia. Augusta is the market to which the planters of Upper and Middle Georgia bring their cotton; and if they want to purchase negroes, they step over into Hamburg and do so. There are two large houses there, with piazzas in front to expose the 'chattels' to the public during the day, and yards in rear of them where they are penned up at night like sheep, so close that they can hardly breathe, with bull-dogs on the outside as sentinels. They sometimes have thousands here for sale, who in consequence of their number suffer most horribly." [9] The Georgia law prohibiting the importation of slaves across state lines was repealed in 1856. [8]

Traders

The main trading cluster was likely on Center Street. Some of the slave traders working in Hamburg in the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s:

Competition with Augusta

A poster drawing of the Augusta Bridge from 1836. Augusta Bridge drawing from 1836.png
A poster drawing of the Augusta Bridge from 1836.

At the completion of the South Carolina Railroad in 1833 (at the time the largest railroad under single management in the world) Hamburg became the railroad's western terminus. [21]

In its heyday, 60,000 bales of cotton worth $2,000,000 were brought by wagon to Hamburg each year. [22] With the completion of the Augusta Canal (1848) and general expansion of railroads in the 1850s, strenuous overland hauls to Hamburg became unnecessary and the famous wagon traffic declined. [23] : 238  Hamburg became a ghost town by the time of the Civil War. [23] : 20 

Remnants of Hamburg, SC in 1921 (on the river above "B M 122") HamburgTopo1921.jpg
Remnants of Hamburg, SC in 1921 (on the river above "B M 122")

After the Civil War

Following the war, Hamburg was repopulated and governed by freedmen, starting with Prince Rivers; Samuel J. Lee, a free man before the war, who was elected as the speaker of the House and was the first black man admitted to the South Carolina Bar; and Charles D. Hayne, a freeman from an elite Charleston family. These three men were founders of Aiken County. They began to redevelop Hamburg, attracting freedmen. To celebrate Aiken County's 125th anniversary, a stone-and-bronze marker was installed at the county courthouse. Rivers, Hayne and Leeld are listed as founders but their race is not indicated. [24]

After the deaths and damage in the Hamburg Massacre of July 8, 1876, the town declined for good. [25] : 154  Augusta began construction of a river levee after a 1911 flood, but Hamburg remained unprotected. [26] : 210  Particularly disastrous floods finally forced out the last residents in 1929.[ citation needed ]

Site of Hamburg, SC viewed from Augusta, GA. The road bridge is at the same location as Henry Shultz's 1814 bridge. The broken piers remain from the South Carolina Rail Road, which operated from 1854 to 1908 HamburgFromAugusta.jpg
Site of Hamburg, SC viewed from Augusta, GA. The road bridge is at the same location as Henry Shultz's 1814 bridge. The broken piers remain from the South Carolina Rail Road, which operated from 1854 to 1908

Geography

Occasionally styled as Hamburgh (especially after the American Civil War), the town was named after Shultz's home town in Germany. It was located at 33.4799°N, 81.9579°W directly across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia. Population at its peak in the 1840s reached 2,500 (Haskel 1843:257), and exceeded 1,000 in the 1870s. [27] For the most part the town was on the Savannah River floodplain. The town was originally accessible by a stagecoach road starting at the Edgefield County Courthouse, and later by the Edgefield and Hamburg Plank Road. [28]

Under protection of the Clarks Hill Dam and Lake, adjacent North Augusta has begun to develop on the grounds of old Hamburg.

Notable people

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References

  1. ↑ "Henry Shultz Unmasked!". Henry Shultz and his Town of Hamburg, SC. December 14, 2016. Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  2. ↑ National Register of Historic Places Inventory Form for the FitzSimons-Hampton-Harris. Submitted 1976. Found at https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/2e601930-fd24-4268-a1c7-c4350caad9f6 Archived July 27, 2023, at the Wayback Machine . Page 4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Taylor, R. (1934). HAMBURG: AN EXPERIMENT IN TOWN PROMOTION. The North Carolina Historical Review,11(1), 20-38. Retrieved May 27, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/23515073
  4. ↑ Downey, Thomas More. Planting a capitalist south : the transformation of western South Carolina, 1790-1860. p. 151. OCLC   46403540. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  5. ↑ Freehling, William W., 1935- (1992). Prelude to Civil War : the nullification controversy in South Carolina, 1816-1836. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-507681-8. OCLC   24955035.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Cashin, Edward J., 1927-2007. (1991). The story of Augusta. Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co. p. 86. ISBN   0-87152-452-X. OCLC   24068684.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Levasseur, Auguste. (2006). Lafayette in America, in 1824 and 1825 : journal of a voyage to the United States. Hoffman, Alan R. (1st ed.). Manchester, N.H.: Lafayette Press. p. 66. ISBN   978-0-9787224-0-1. OCLC   85812563.
  8. 1 2 "Slave Laws of Georgia, 1755–1860" (PDF). georgiaarchives.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 20, 2023. Retrieved July 18, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Slave Trading in Georgia". Anti-Slavery Bugle. October 27, 1848. p. 3. Archived from the original on August 15, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Atkins & Spiers". The Daily Constitutionalist and Republic. January 19, 1851. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  11. ↑ "The American slave code in theory and practice: its distinctive features shown by its statues, judicial decisions, and illustrative facts ..." HathiTrust. pp. 54–55. hdl:2027/loc.ark:/13960/t7np25m2c. Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  12. 1 2 "Oliver Simpson & W.C. Ferrell". The Weekly Telegraph. April 17, 1833. p. 4. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Virginia Negroes for Sale by T. Goldsmith, Agent". Edgefield Advertiser. November 12, 1840. p. 3. Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Negroes! Negroes! Negroes!". The Daily Constitutionalist and Republic. February 5, 1851. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  15. ↑ "200 Negroes". The Weekly Telegraph. December 5, 1833. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  16. ↑ "R.M. Owings & Co". The Daily Constitutionalist and Republic. April 3, 1857. p. 4. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  17. 1 2 "For Sale Two Hundred and Twenty Likely Young Negroes". Georgia Journal and Messenger. April 17, 1834. p. 4. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  18. ↑ "Spires & Wilson". The Charleston Mercury. February 8, 1853. p. 3. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  19. ↑ "N.C. Trowbridge". The Daily Constitutionalist and Republic. March 21, 1849. p. 4. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Bill of sale for Leander, an enslaved person, from N.C. Trowbridge to E.H. Simmons, 1851 April 17 :autograph manuscript signed. / American Slavery Documents / Duke Digital Repository". Duke Digital Collections. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  21. ↑ "South Carolina Railroad". Archived from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  22. ↑ Cordle, Charles (1940). Henry Shultz and the Founding of Hamburg, South Carolina. Studies in Georgia History and Government. University of Georgia Press.
  23. 1 2 Chapman, John A. (1897). History of Edgefield County, South Carolina. Genealogical Publishing Company. ISBN   0-8063-4696-5.
  24. ↑ "County, once booming, now shadows town it used to rival" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine , Augusta Chronicle, July 2014, hosted at Rootsweb
  25. ↑ Vandervelde, Isabel. (1998). Aiken County : the only South Carolina County founded during Reconstruction. Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co. ISBN   0-87152-517-8. OCLC   39763469.
  26. ↑ Cashin, Edward J., 1927-2007. (1991). The story of Augusta. Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co. ISBN   0-87152-452-X. OCLC   24068684.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  27. ↑ Budiansky, Stephen. (2008). The bloody shirt : terror after Appomattox. New York: Viking. ISBN   978-0-670-01840-6. OCLC   173350931.
  28. ↑ "Notice". Edgefield Advertiser. October 15, 1856. p. 4. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  29. ↑ "Florida Governor James Emilius Broome". National Governors Association. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  30. ↑ "PARROTT, Marcus Junius, (1828 - 1879)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2013.

Further reading

33°29′N81°57′W / 33.483°N 81.950°W / 33.483; -81.950

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