Mitchelville was a town built during the American Civil War for formerly enslaved people, located on what is now Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was named for one of the local Union Army generals, Ormsby M. Mitchel. The town was a population center for the enterprise known as the Port Royal Experiment.
During the first year of the Civil War, on November 7, 1861, Union forces consisting of approximately 60 ships and 20,000 men under the command of Union Navy Captain Samuel F. DuPont and Army General Thomas W. Sherman attacked Confederate forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Drayton (a local planter) defending Hilton Head Island at Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard. By 3:00 p.m., the Confederate forces had retreated from the forts; when Union troops landed on Hilton Head Island, they encountered no resistance and discovered that the white inhabitants of the island had already fled to the mainland. [1]
Hilton Head Island became the Union's southern headquarters for the war and a military supply depot. Fortifications (such as Fort Howell), a hospital, barracks, and other utilitarian structures were built for the military, which at times numbered 30,000 men. [2] The island was used as a staging ground for the blockading of Savannah and Charleston. [3]
Within two days of the Union capture of the island, approximately 150 former slaves (or those left behind by the Hilton Head Island planters when they fled the island) came to the Union army's encampment; by December 15, approximately 320 former slaves had sought refuge at the Union army's encampment. [4] One Union soldier stationed on Hilton Head at the time recounted:
Negro slaves came flocking into our camp by the hundreds, escaping their masters when they knew of the landing of "Linkum sojers" [ sic ], as they called us - many of them with no other clothing than gunnysacks
— Trinkley 1986.
In February 1862, there were at least 600 contrabands living in Union encampments on Hilton Head Island. [5]
These former slaves were regarded as "contraband of war" or as simply "contrabands;" they were not yet technically "freedmen", and the Union army was unsure of what to do with them. General Thomas West Sherman repeatedly wrote his superiors in Washington asking for guidance regarding, and supplies for, the "contrabands". Official policy regarding "contrabands" varied between Union-occupied areas, a problem which persisted throughout the war. [4]
On February 6, 1862, General Sherman issued General Order 9, which requested assistance for the contrabands from the "highly favored and philanthropic people" in the north. Help came from two sources: from the philanthropic northerners whom Sherman requested assistance from (such as that given by the American Missionary Association); and from Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who sent his colleague and outspoken opponent of slavery Edward L. Pierce to Port Royal to examine and eventually oversee the government effort regarding the freed slaves. Pierce and representatives from the American Missionary Association quickly devised a plan for the education, welfare, and employment of the former slaves. [4] In April 1862, a military order was issued freeing the blacks on the Sea Islands. On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the rebellious/Confederate states, which included South Carolina:
The Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom ... and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages
— NARA 2005.
Many Union officers complained that the former slaves "were becoming a burden and a nuisance." [3] Some Union troops stole from the citizens of Mitchelville, and it is apparent from primary resources that the racial attitudes of some of the Union troops towards the blacks were negative; General Mitchel remarked that he found "a feeling prevailing among the officers and soldiers of prejudice against the blacks." [3] By February 1862, the former slaves were living inside the Union camps, in whitewashed, wooden barrack-like structures built specifically for them and under the control of the Quartermaster's Department; similar camps were also built in nearby Beaufort, Bay Point, and Otter Island. [6] But by October 1862, however, Union leaders believed this approach was a failure, as living conditions for the freedmen were substandard and there was a need to separate the soldiers from the former slaves, and vice versa:
Some wholesome changes are contemplated by the new regime, not the least of which is the removal of the negro quarters beyond the stockade, where they can at once have more comfort and freedom for improvement ... Accordingly, a spot has been selected near the Drayton Plantation for a Negro village. They are able to build their own houses, and will probably be encouraged to establish their own police.
— CFI 1995
Maj. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel, Commander of the Department of the South and headquartered at Hilton Head, decided to develop a town for the former slaves. Built in a cotton field on the former Drayton Plantation and in close proximity to the military camps, it was eventually known as Mitchelville after the commander. Unlike other contraband camps, Mitchelville was developed as a regular town, with roads, one-quarter-acre lots, elected officials (some officials were appointed by the Union military, however), a church, various laws addressing such issues as community behavior and sanitation, collection of taxes, and a compulsory education law for children between the ages of six and fifteen. This was likely the first such law in the South. [7]
By late November 1862, Federal tax commissioners were able to fix taxes on local plantations, with Fish Hall (Tract No. 3) being assessed as being worth $5,200.00, with $156.00 in taxes owed. When Thomas Drayton failed to pay the taxes due on the property, it was advertised for sale by the Federal government. The government purchased it, holding it until 1875, when white Democrats regained control of the state legislature shortly before the end of Reconstruction. [3]
The town was established by late 1862, and contained about 1,500 residents by November 1865. The residents of Mitchelville supported themselves largely by wage labor for the military, earning mostly between four dollars and twelve dollars a month, depending on their level of skill. Nearly all of the wage jobs for the residents of Mitchelville ceased when the Union military departed the island in 1868, more than two years after the end of the war. The residents switched to a subsistence farming-based economy, with many forming farming collectives, joining together to rent large tracts of land from the government. [7] Documents show that many of the Hilton Head Island freedmen experienced an extreme shortage of food after the military departed the island. [8]
The town or village continued relatively intact into the early 1870s. But sometime in the early 1880s, Mitchelville ceased being a true town. It dissolved to a small, kinship-based community that survived into the 1920s. A 1920 topographic map of Hilton Head Island shows a cluster of buildings centered around a church. Previous archaeological investigations have concluded that the majority of Mitchelville was abandoned by c. 1890. [8]
The First Baptist Church was founded in 1862 with 120 members and with the ex-slave Abraham Murchison as its first minister. By 1866, there were three churches in Mitchelville—the First Baptist Church, a Free Will Baptist church, and a Methodist church. [4] Several missionary groups were active on Hilton Head Island during the war, but by 1866 all but the American Missionary Association had left the island. The American Missionary Association was largely funded by the Wesleyan Methodists, Free Presbyterians, and Free Will Baptists during the war years. After 1866, it relied on funds from the United States Tax Commission as northern interest waned in the freedmen on the Sea Islands. [4]
In 1866 Hilton Head Island was divided into five school districts: Mitchelville, Marshland, Seabrook, Stoney, and Lawton. In Mitchelville District, the American Missionary Association supplied most of the teachers, and offered primary, intermediate, and high school classes at the various churches. There were as many as 238 students being taught in the district at one time, with classes meeting for up to five hours per day. Attendance varied according to job requirements and travel conditions of the students. Most teachers were white northerners, but in 1869 there was at least one black assistant teacher, and Sunday school lessons were taught by black teachers around 1870. [4] Descendants of the former-slave town of Mitchelville built the Cherry Hill School in 1937. [9]
Military sawmills provided free lumber for the houses, which were built by the freedmen. Each house was on a one-quarter-acre lot. The typical house measured approximately 12x12ft, was of frame construction, had wood pier foundations, glass-paned windows, wood floors, weatherboard siding, wood shingle roofs, and having either metal stoves or brick and/or "tabby" or wattle and daub ("stick") chimneys. There were four stores in Mitchelville; several closed down after the military left, perhaps because they had survived by overcharging the residents (supplies sold in Mitchelville were priced nearly 600% higher than those sold by the AMA). (Trinkley/CRC-21 1987).
Congress soon passed laws restoring lands confiscated by the U.S. government to the Southern landowners who had owned the land prior to the Civil War. In April 1875, the Drayton Plantation lands were returned to the Drayton family. Unfortunately, the U.S. government failed to plan for the protection and preservation of Mitchelville, and its future looked bleak. However, the Drayton family was no longer interested in farming the property, and sold the land to anyone who was interested and had money – including many freedmen. [5]
Most, if not all, of the Mitchelville property was purchased by an African-American carpenter, March Gardner. Gardner was illiterate, but was locally well respected and very successful in his business ventures. Gardner placed his son, Gabriel, in charge of his Mitchelville properties, which at that time included a cotton gin, grist mill, and store. Gabriel eventually took advantage of his father, and obtained a deed for the property in his own name instead of his father's; Gabriel then transferred the property deed to his wife and daughter. [5] In the early 20th century, March Gardner's heirs sued Gabriel Gardner's wife's heirs, claiming that Gabriel Gardner had stolen the property from March and that they were entitled to the property. The legal papers produced by this court case provide a unique insight into Mitchelville during the period. [5]
The daughter of March Gardner, Emmeline Washington, testified that there were a number of families living at Mitchelville and farming three or 4-acre (16,000 m2) plots of land adjacent to their houses. The money that was collected from them for rent was used to pay the taxes on the property. March Gardner had built a cotton house, cotton gin, a steam-powered grist mill, and a shop on the property. Also named were several late-18th and early-19th century residents of Mitchelville: Scapio Drayton, Bob Washington, Jack Screven, Robert Wiley, John Nesbit, Caesar White, Charles Robins, Charles Perry, Clara Wigfall, Renty Miller, Linda Perry, Stephen Singleton, Joe Williams, Billy Reed, Peter Flowers, Charles Pinckney, and Hannah Williams (Hannah Williams stated that she had bought a house in Mitchelville for $5.00). [5]
The court directed that a survey be made of the Mitchelville property, and the property to be divided between each heir of March and Gabriel Gardner involved in the case, with the cost of the case being divided amongst them. [5]
Eugenia Heyward redeemed her 35-acre (140,000 m2) property on June 7, 1923; Celia and Gabriel Boston obtained the adjacent tract of property on September 2, 1921. Linda Perry, Clara Wigfall, and Emmeline Washington also obtained their parcels in 1921. By 1930, Eugenia Heyward's property was sold for $31.00 by the sheriff to pay a defaulted tax bill of $15.00; the property was purchased by Roy A. Rainey from New York, who was purchasing land on Hilton Head Island for hunting. [5]
In 1890, there were approximately 3,000 African-Americans living on Hilton Head Island; by 1930 there were only about 300 living on the island. [5] According to a 2010 estimate approximately 2,766 of the 37,099 year round residents on Hilton Head are African American. [10]
Beaufort County is a county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 187,117. Its county seat is Beaufort and its largest town is Hilton Head Island.
Beaufort is a city in and the county seat of Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston. A city rich in history, culture, southern hospitality, and a seaside charm, Beaufort is affectionally known as the "Queen of the Carolina Sea Islands". The city's population was 13,607 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Hilton Head Island–Bluffton metropolitan area.
Forty acres and a mule was part of Special Field Orders No. 15, a wartime order proclaimed by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865, during the American Civil War, to allot land to some freed families, in plots of land no larger than 40 acres (16 ha). Sherman later ordered the army to lend mules for the agrarian reform effort. The field orders followed a series of conversations between Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Radical Republican abolitionists Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens following disruptions to the institution of slavery provoked by the American Civil War. Many freed people believed, after being told by various political figures, that they had a right to own the land they had been forced to work as slaves and were eager to control their own property. Freed people widely expected to legally claim 40 acres of land. However, Abraham Lincoln's successor as president, Andrew Johnson, tried to reverse the intent of Sherman's wartime Order No. 15 and similar provisions included in the second Freedmen's Bureau bills.
St. Helena Island is a Sea Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The island is connected to Beaufort by U.S. Highway 21. The island has a land area of about 64 sq mi (170 km2) and a population of 8,763 as of the 2010 census. It is included as part of the Hilton Head Island-Beaufort Micropolitan Area. The island is renowned for its rural Lowcountry character and being a major center of African-American Gullah culture and language. It is considered to be the geographic influence behind the children's television program Gullah Gullah Island.
Thomas Fenwick Drayton was a planter, politician, railroad president, slave owner and military officer from Charleston, South Carolina. He served in the United States Army and then as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. His brother, Percival Drayton, was a Naval Officer and fought on the Union side during the war.
Charles Pickard Ware (1840–1921), was an American educator and music transcriber. An abolitionist, he served as a civilian administrator in the Union Army, where he was a labor superintendent of freedmen on plantations at Port Royal, South Carolina, during the American Civil War. This included Seaside Plantation. It is here that he transcribed many slave songs with tunes and lyrics, later published in Slave Songs of the United States, which he edited with William Francis Allen and Lucy McKim Garrison. It was the first published collection of American folk music.
Robert Smalls was an American politician, publisher, businessman, and maritime pilot. Born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, he freed himself, his crew, and their families during the American Civil War by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, on May 13, 1862, and sailing it from the Confederate-controlled waters of the harbor to the U.S. blockade that surrounded it. He then piloted the ship to the Union-controlled enclave in Beaufort–Port Royal–Hilton Head area, where it became a Union warship. His example and persuasion helped convince President Abraham Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army.
Contraband was a term commonly used in the US military during the American Civil War to describe a new status for certain people who escaped slavery or those who affiliated with Union forces. In August 1861, the Union Army and the US Congress determined that the US would no longer return people who escaped slavery who went to Union lines, but they would be classified as "contraband of war," or captured enemy property. They used many as laborers to support Union efforts and soon began to pay wages.
Rufus Saxton was a Union Army brigadier general during the American Civil War who received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions defending Harpers Ferry during Confederate General Jackson's Valley Campaign. After the war he served as the Freedmen's Bureau's first assistant commissioner.
Fort Howell is an earthworks fort built in 1864 during the American Civil War, located on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was named in honor of Union Army Brigadier General Joshua B. Howell, and Its primary function was to protect Mitchelville, a Freedman's town located to its east.
The Port Royal Experiment was a program begun during the American Civil War in which former slaves successfully worked on the land abandoned by planters. In 1861 the Union captured the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and their main harbor, Port Royal. The white residents fled, leaving behind 10,000 black slaves. Several private Northern charity organizations stepped in to help the former slaves become self-sufficient. The result was a model of what Reconstruction could have been. The African Americans demonstrated their ability to work the land efficiently and live independently of white control. They assigned themselves daily tasks for cotton growing and spent their extra time cultivating their own crops, fishing and hunting. By selling their surplus crops, the locals acquired small amounts of property.
The Grand Contraband Camp was located in Elizabeth City County, Virginia, on the Virginia Peninsula near Fort Monroe, during and immediately after the American Civil War. The area was a refuge for escaped slaves who the Union forces refused to return to their former Confederate masters, by defining them as "contraband of war". The Grand Contraband Camp was the first self-contained black community in the United States and occupied the area of the downtown section of the present-day independent city of Hampton, Virginia.
The Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island, also known as the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, or "Freedman's Colony", was founded in 1863 during the Civil War after Union Major General John G. Foster, Commander of the 18th Army Corps, captured the Confederate fortifications on Roanoke Island off North Carolina in 1862. He classified the slaves living there as "contraband", following the precedent of General Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe in 1861, and did not return them to Confederate slaveholders. In 1863, by the Emancipation Proclamation, all slaves in Union-occupied territories were freed.
Stoney-Baynard Plantation on Hilton Head Island, SC was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The listing included one contributing site on 6 acres (2.4 ha).
The Fish Haul Archaeological Site, an "address restricted" site located in Beaufort County, South Carolina, is significant because of its archaeological remains from two different eras. The pre-historic findings, which date from 1800 to 1300 BC, offer evidence that small groups of people lived in the area. The historic component represents a freemen's village, Mitchelville, which was occupied during the transition between slavery and freedom by Sea Island blacks. The Fish Haul site represents the only known freedmen village established by occupying Union troops. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 1988.
Green's Shell Enclosure is a historic archeological site located at Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina. The site includes one of 20 or more prehistoric Indian shell middens in a ring shape located from the central coast of South Carolina to the central coast of Georgia. They are believed to date early in the second millennium BC, and they contain some of the earliest pottery known in North America.
Cherry Hill School is a historic school for African-American students located at Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It was the first separate school building for African-American students on the island.
The Battle of The Pineberry Battery was a series of minor engagements, fought April 29, 1862, in Charleston County, South Carolina, during the American Civil War. The engagements proceeded from an attack by the Union Navy on a battery on John Berkeley Grimball's plantation on Edisto Island. After successfully destroying the battery, the ship was attacked twice by Confederate artillery forces before returning to its station. The attack was a part of Union efforts to secure Edisto Island, which housed a large colony of escaped African Americans and served as a launching point of a campaign against Charleston.
Edisto Island during the American Civil War was the location of a number of minor engagements and for a time of a large colony of escaped African-American slaves during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Edisto Island was largely abandoned by planters in November 1861 and in December 1861, escaped slaves began setting up their own refugee camps there. In January 1862, armed African Americans from the island and Confederate forces clashed and a Confederate raid in reprisal killed a small number of unarmed African Americans. In February, Union forces were stationed on the island to develop it as a staging area for future campaigns against Charleston, twenty-five miles away, as well as to protect the colony, which would eventually number thousands of African Americans. As Union forces took control of the island, a number of skirmishes occurred, but Confederates withdrew. In June, most of the Union troops left the island in a campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Secessionville. In July, the remaining troops withdrew, and the colony was removed to St. Helena Island. For the rest of the war, a small number of escaped slaves and plantation owners remained and farmed the island, but it was largely abandoned. Near the end of the war, the island was again used as a location of colonies of freed slaves.
The Laurel Hill Plantation, also known as Laurel Hill Farm was a historic Southern plantation located on Lady's Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina. The area is now called Coosaw Point, a upscale community with clubhouse, pool, tennis courts, and dock. The area is known for its woodlands, parks, wetlands, and the Coosaw River.