The Turbulent History of Daufuskie Island

Once home to many Gullah families, this South Carolina Sea Island has a rich history, including the Yamasee War in Bloody Point and the once-thriving Daufuski Oysters business.

A wedding at the Union Baptist Church. Daufuskie Island was once home to hundreds of Gullah — but only 12 or so remain today.

Part of Daufuskie’s charm lies in its unspoiled landscape. Gnarled limbs of old growth live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Outlying marshes of Spartina grass rustling in the wind. Many of its roads are still unpaved, which is one of the reasons we were unable to visit last year due to heavy rainfall. 

The South Carolina Sea Island, situated between Hilton Head Island and Savannah, Georgia, has many dilapidated historic properties — but there are also a couple of newer gated communities, including the upscale Haig Point and Bloody Point, which are strictly off limits to non-residents. The island was once mostly populated by Gullah, African American descendants of slaves living in South Carolina (and called Geechee in Georgia). Nowadays, less than a third of the homes on Daufuskie are owned by the original Gullah families — and only 12 or so Gullah actually still live there. 

“The Yamasee War was a massacre, as native weaponry was no match for European firepower — which is how the neighborhood Bloody Point got its name. ”

Chief Tamochichi, with his nephew, of the Yamacraw, a native tribe composed of Creek and Yamasee. (Incidentally, when Pat Conroy wrote about Daufuskie in this memoir, The Water Is Wide, he changed the island’s name to Yamacraw (but he wasn’t fooling anybody.)

The First Inhabitants: A Deal With Spain

In the 1500s, the Muscogee (aka Creek) native tribe encountered the invading Spaniards, who claimed the Atlantic coast spanning from St. Augustine, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina. However, when they stopped on Daufuskie, they decided that this wasn’t an ideal place to start a new colony. They left a few Iberian horses known as the Carolina Marsh Tacky and made a deal with the Muscogees. If the natives were to fend off any other Europeans looking to colonize the area, the Spaniards would back them up with military support and pay them in gold. 

Despite the Spanish promising they’d help the Native Americans fend off other European invaders, they abandoned them to the British.

The Yamasee War: How Bloody Point Got Its Name

Time passed, and the next two centuries had little effect on the natives, until the English established a colony on Daufuskie. Suffice to say, the Spanish didn’t keep their word in offering support and were nowhere to be found. 

Inevitably, conflict arose, in part because the British settlers believed it was their sovereign right to claim the land. And while the indigenous Muscogee and Yemassee traded food, animal hides and local knowledge for knives, copper kettles and beads, the exchange rate wasn’t deemed fair. 

Tomahawks and bows were no match for the British army’s guns. The Yamasee War resulted in the slaughter of the indigenous people.

This prompted the Yamasee, who inhabited the nearby coastal region of Georgia, to join the Creek in attacking the British settlers. The raids turned into massacres, as native weaponry was no match for European firepower — which is how the neighborhood Bloody Point got its name. 

A small one-room wooden home known as a single pen house on Daufuskie

The Rise of Slave Labor 

After the war ended, English settlers cleared the island of vegetation to cultivate crops. They also divided the island into 11 plantations. According to our guide Ryland, with Tour Daufuskie, it was so thoroughly cleared, it was said that you could see from one end of Daufuskie to the other — a depressing fact given that the island is five miles long and two and a half miles wide. 

The British brought slaves from the Rice Coast of West Africa as well as Central Africa. European settlers relied on the skills of the enslaved to cultivate rice, cotton and indigo, resulting in some of the wealthiest antebellum plantations in the South. 

Over time, the enslaved Africans developed a dialect also called Gullah. The vocabulary and grammatical roots came from English and African languages. Isolated from the mainland, the Gullah maintained African traditions, culture and religion. Gullah is a living language that’s still spoken in the region. 

The Uncle Remus stories, including the tales of Brer Rabbit, were written in Gullah.

The British tried growing rice and sugarcane — crops that had flourished on nearby Hilton Head. But because Daufuskie is at a higher altitude, its ground-water levels were too low to sustain these lucrative crops for export. 

Indigo was the first profitable commercial crop and a significant part of the economy for about 50 years, followed by Sea Island cotton. The indigo plant was grown to produce a royal blue dye that was exported to England. “If it had ‘royal’ in the name, they were gonna buy it,” Ryland said.

The spongey palmetto logs used to build Fort Moultrie helped absorb cannon fire from the British armada.

Why South Carolina Is the Palmetto State

Throughout the Revolutionary War, South Carolina remained loyal to England. Part of this was an economic motivation: The colonists believed their defeat would end the demand for indigo. However, as the British fleet got closer, the settlers realized it didn’t matter whether or not they were loyalists; they would still be attacked. 

To defend Charleston harbor, the colonists built Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island from the palmetto, or cabbage palm. The name cabbage palm comes from the fact that the heart of the palm can be eaten raw or can be cooked into what was known by early settlers as swamp cabbage. 

Palmetto isn’t a traditional type of wood. It’s soft, doesn’t splinter and is almost sponge-like due to its high water content. Fort Moultrie had two walls of palmetto logs and sand, a combination that worked well at absorbing cannonballs fired at it by British ships. This unique wood helped save South Carolina, which became the Palmetto State, and the tree now has a place of honor on the state flag. 

After the war ended, England did indeed stop importing indigo from South Carolina. They basically said, if you’re not part of our kingdom, we don’t want your indigo. The crown had a new colony in India, and to this day, India is the world’s top producer of indigo. 

However, England did continue to purchase Sea Island cotton because it was just rare enough that they couldn’t be very picky about where they got it from. Freed slaves who lived on the island grew cotton through the Civil War, until fields were ruined by the boll weevil. 

Out Back Daufuskie Way by Alexandra Sharma

From Reparations to Sharecropping

Union forces captured Daufuskie in 1861. Their main job was to keep track of the ships going in and out of the Savannah River and ensure that no weapons, food or ammunition reached the Southern states. Plantation owners fled, leaving behind their property as well as their elderly slaves, who weren’t deemed worth the expense to relocate.

After the Emancipation Proclamation, Daufuskie was home to a large population of freed slaves who had worked on the island’s plantations. As a form of reparation, slaves received 40 acres and a mule, land abandoned by White colonists throughout the South. 

However, President Andrew Johnson intervened, ordering most of the land to be returned to its former owners. Despite having settled the land, the Gullah on Daufuskie had to switch to sharecropping, a system where the landowner allowed use of the land in exchange for crops. The situation wasn’t unlike serfdom, tying the Gullah to the land and trapping them into high debts.  

The oyster industry employed Daufuskie residents in its heyday. When the oyster beds were polluted from a nearby paper mill, most islanders left — never to return.

Aw Shucks: When the World Was Their Oyster

Indigo and cotton weren’t the only lucrative industries on the island. L.P. Maggioni & Company established an oyster cannery on Daufuskie in 1894 and employed many Gullah men, women and even children. Containers with the distinctive profile of an Indian chief on its label can be seen in the Daufuskie Island History Museum.  

Gullah men went out on the water in bateaux, flat-bottomed wooden boats, during low tide to pluck up all the oysters they could haul back. It was the women who shucked the oysters, though — up to 7 to 9 gallons a day. 

While the men went out in the boats to gather oysters, it was women (and children) who had to shuck them all.

Even though the local cannery closed in the 1950s, you can still get Daufuski Brand Oysters — they just come from Korea now.

There was a cannery on the island from 1898 to 1956. Around that time, wood pulp waste from a paper mill on the Savannah River polluted the water and contaminated the oyster beds. With the closing of the factory, most families left for better opportunities in nearby Savannah. 

Daufuski Oysters are still available — they’re just harvested in Korea.

Some of the Gullah homes on Daufuskie are available as vacation rentals as part of a program to preserve them.

Heirs’ Properties on Daufuskie 

As we drove around the island in a golf cart, we noticed wood-framed homes sitting among the vegetation in varying states of disrepair. We asked Ryland about them, and he informed us that they’re historic Gullah homes known as oyster cottages. Referred to as “heirs’ properties,” these homes are passed down from generation to generation without legal documentation. Most Gullah never returned to Daufuskie, but all heirs have the same claim to the property, whether or not they live on it, pay taxes on it or have ever set foot on it. Because so many people can be involved, it’s tough to sell or restore one of the homes since everyone must agree on the course of action. As a result, many of the oyster cottages have become dilapidated. 

Enter the nonprofit Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation (now Preservation South Carolina), which developed the Daufuskie Endangered Places Program in 2011. The initiative was funded in part through a grant provided by the 1772 Foundation, an organization whose mission is to preserve historic properties. The trust’s first project was to restore the Frances Jones House. 

It’s a cool program: Descendants retain ownership under a long-term lease with the preservation group. Restored cottages are available as vacation rentals. Once the lease is paid off, the homes revert back to the heirs. By staying on Daufuskie Island, you’re helping preserve its history. 

The haunted-looking Melrose Resort on Daufuskie, long abandoned after its owners swindled investors out of millions and declared bankruptcy.

Financial Fraud at Melrose Landing 

In the modern era, Daufuskie has developed some high-end gated communities. But even the best-laid plans can go awry. Case in point: Melrose Landing. The namesake resort was developed in the 1980s and included an inn, beach cottages, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course and a ferry landing.

The resort was purchased in 2011 by Utah-based developer Pelorus Group, which, over eight years, proceeded to defraud its investors. The real estate firm ran a dubious Ponzi-like scheme, including wire and tax fraud, using $1.8 million of investor money for personal use without disclosing any of it to the IRS. The vacation property first filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and again in 2017, when the firm’s managing partner, James Thomas Bramlette, was indicted. In the end, the Pelorus Group owed creditors about $35 million. The derelict resort is currently seeking an investor willing to put up $19 million in cash. Any takers?

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The following photos were taken by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe from 1977 to 1982. At the time, less than 85 permanent residents lived in the 50-some homes on Daufuskie. The island’s amenities consisted of a co-op store, a two-room school, a nursery, a church and two active cemeteries.

An Old Woman Sitting at a Table in Her Home by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

Susie Sanding Next to a Holy Picture in Her Living Room by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

A Shrimper and His Son by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

Boiling Crab by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

Daufuskie’s Rich but Tragic History: Hope for the Future

Daufuskie has a turbulent history: bloody battles, mistreatment of slaves, the lost oyster industry. It once bustled with activity and commerce, but now few Gullah people remain. In fact, much of the island is home to wealthy White residents living in private gated communities such as Haig Point and Bloody Point. 

But by learning about and visiting the island, we can help preserve a vibrant heritage. And thanks to Preservation South Carolina and others like them, future generations of Gullah families might someday be able to return to the island. –Duke

 

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Check out those sideburns on Conroy!

READ ON: Daufuskie Island Tour: Learn about bestselling author Pat Conroy’s connection to the island, see the historic sites and meet some local artisans.

Daufuskie Island History and Artisan Tour

Hop in a golf cart and see the real-life Yamacraw Island, South Carolina, including the school where author Pat Conroy taught and the history museum, with stops at Daufuskie Soap Company and the Iron Fish. And stop by the Old Daufuskie Crab Company before catching the Daufuskie Island Ferry back to the mainland.

Daufuskie doesn’t have a bridge to the mainland, so your only option to visit is by boat.

For years, Wally and I have wanted to visit Daufuskie. The remote southernmost Sea Island is tucked away between Hilton Head, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. 

What was the appeal? The small island retains the rich history of the Gullah-Geechee people, descendants of West and Central African slaves brought to the region and forced to work on Lowcountry plantations. It also boasts a small but thriving makers community — but I’ll get to that later.  

There’s no bridge connecting Daufuskie to the mainland, and the only way to reach it is by ferry or water taxi. Last year, rain prevented us from going, and before that it was closed to tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

A day trip to Daufuskie is a good excuse to get out on the water. The Daufuskie Island Ferry leaves from this dock by a distinctive failed restaurant just over the bridge from Hilton Head.

This December we booked a guided History and Artisans Tour with local operator Tour Daufuskie and took the 45-minute ferry ride from Buckingham Landing just off of Hilton Head. Roundtrip rides cost $50 per person. 

Gullahs, descendants of slaves, once made up most of the population of Daufuskie. Now few remain. Their cemeteries were by the water so their spirits could travel back to Africa.

What Daufuskie?! 

According to local lore, Daufuskie got its name from the Gullah “Da Fus Cay,” meaning “the first key (or island).” However, we were disappointed to learn that the name actually comes from the island’s first inhabitants, the Muscogee, or Creek, Indians. In their language, daufa means “feather” and fuskie “pointed.” Combine the two, and you have something that translates to “Pointed Feather,” a reference to the island’s distinctive shape. 

Once Wally and I disembarked at Freeport Marina, we met our guide Ryland, who was waiting for us at the end of the boardwalk. We were provided with golf carts and given a quick tutorial on how to use them. There are very few cars on the island. Golf carts and bikes are the preferred modes of transportation.

At the first stop, Ryland told us a bit about the island’s history. Ancient piles of oyster shells, and artifacts such as pottery fragments and arrowheads left by the indigenous Muscogee and Yemasse tribes were discovered by archaeologists on Daufuskie — with some dating as far back as 7000 BCE. 

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RELATED: The Sea Pines Shell Ring Mystery

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This old schoolhouse now serves as the first stop on a tour of the history of Daufuskie — and acts as the community’s library.

An Education at the Jane Hamilton School

Our tour began at the Jane Hamilton School, part of the Billie Burn Museum complex. The one-room schoolhouse was built in the late 1930s using blueprints provided by Julius Rosenwald, head of the Sears, Roebuck and Company mail order empire. Rosenwald was a philanthropist who met renowned educator and prominent African American thought leader Booker T. Washington and recognized the need for educational facilities for disadvantaged Southern Black children. This sparked a transformative collaboration between the pair, and a program emerged to construct modest educational buildings, which later became known as Rosenwald Schools.

Kids used to go to school here until 5th grade, when they’d have to work their family’s farm full time.

The Jane Hamilton School provided education from kindergarten to 5th grade. As this was built at the tail end of the Great Depression, Rosenwald was unable to provide the raw materials required to build the facility. It was financed using money raised by the island community and erected by local craftsmen and workers employed by the government-funded Works Progress Administration (WPA) — with some help from the children themselves. 

The school year started in September and ended in March, Ryland informed us. Most Gullah families could not afford to send their children to the mainland to continue their education. Once they completed 5th grade, they were expected to work on the family farm full time. (This prompted some kids to purposely fail to prolong their education, according to our guide.) Today the former school is home to the Gullah Learning Center and the community library. 

The Daufuskie Island History Museum was once a Baptist church.

An Alligator and Gullah Bible at the Daufuskie Island History Museum

The next stop was Mount Carmel Baptist Church Number 2, so named because the first was destroyed by a hurricane in 1940. It’s now home to the Daufuskie Island History Museum. Among the artifacts on display are a taxidermied 11.5-foot alligator, a 19th century Gullah Bible, Indian arrowheads and a restored 1890s pump organ. The museum also has a nook that sells books about the island’s history. 

Wally poses by Al, the taxidermied alligator on display.

The history museum has a jumble of artifacts, including a charming pump organ and a Bible written in Gullah. Here’s John 3:16: “Cause God lob all de people een de wol sommuch dat e gii we e onliest Son.”

Sarah Hudson Grant’s Buggy: A Labor of Love

Our final stop in the museum complex was a small structure sheltering the one-horse buggy of Sarah Hudson Grant. When women went into labor on Daufuskie, they would ask for Mrs. Grant aka Granny to come. She became a midwife in 1932 and was married to the island’s undertaker. When he died in 1962, she stepped in and took his place. Grant charged $5 to deliver a baby or $10 to deliver a baby and do a week’s worth of laundry after. 

The horse-drawn carriage used by legendary midwife Sarah Hudson Grant was restored by Amish craftsmen (who painted it black, which they felt was much more proper than red).

Over a 37-year period, Grant “grannied” 130 babies on Daufuskie without losing one — and as the undertaker, she was the last to bid farewell to many. The Gullah said, “Granny bring ’em ’n she tek ’em away.”

With no medical instruments or doctors on the island, locals would holler from one property to another to alert her as to who was going into labor and where — at which point, she would hook her horse Tillman up to the carriage and hurry off to deliver the baby.

Ryland told us that electricity didn’t reach the island until the 1950s, with the first telephone following two decades later, in 1973.

Grant retired in 1969. 

Billie Burn Museum Complex
44 Old Haig Point Road 

The local Baptist Church is the oldest original building on Daufuskie and has been restored twice.

You Gotta Have Faith: The First Union African Baptist Church

The First Union African Baptist Church was built in 1884 and is the oldest original building on the island. It has served as a place of worship and faith for over a century and was built on the grounds of the former Mary Fields cotton plantation.

The structure has had two major facelifts. The first was in 1952, when the island received electricity. Fixtures were converted from gas to electric, and the second was in 1982, when the foundation was reinforced, as over time the structure had begun to slowly sink into the ground. Even today you can still notice a tilt to the walls and doors.

To become a member of the parish, you had to go on a spirit quest into the woods to commune with God.

When the parish was first established, it wasn’t a traditional church, where you could simply show up and attend. You would have to go to the church leaders and tell them you were interested in joining the congregation. They would instruct you to find a quiet place in the woods to pray, and while there, you would hopefully receive a message from God. You’d report back, and a spirit guide would be summoned to interpret your vision. If they weren’t convinced, you’d have to try again, because God (and the church) wasn’t quite ready for you. 

Members of the congregation had assigned seating. Men sat on one side and women on the other. The church was the head of the community, in charge of law enforcement, finances and school openings. If you did something that made the community angry, you would be seated in the back, so that everybody knew you were being scorned.

The Praise House on the grounds of the church was a gathering place for slaves, where religious services were held.

Praise You at the Praise House

Tucked to the side of the First Union African Baptist Church stands a simple, weathered wood structure. It’s a reproduction of the original “praise house” that stood there for more than a century. These structures were intentionally built small to prevent large gatherings of slaves, as plantation owners feared that they could easily be overthrown or killed. 

When the house was open, the deacon or worship leader would stand on the top step or in the doorway, and most slaves would gather to sit outside on the grass. Those members of the congregation inside the praise house would rhythmically stomp upon the wooden floors, creating a communal drum of sorts. 

Singing was an important element of the services and hymns were often sung in round, a short musical piece in which multiple voices sing the same melody but start the song at different times. Services also included songs known as call and response, where the leader would sing out a phrase that was answered by the congregation. These buildings might have been called praise houses, but because of the cacaphony heard during services, plantation owners referred to them as shout houses.

First Union African Baptist Church
School Road 

Daufuskie Soap Company started out on a porch like other artisan workshops on the island.

Peachy Clean at Daufuskie Soap Company

Part of the tour was to visit local artisans (those makers I mentioned earlier). One of them is Jan Crosby, who makes soap, lotions and other body care products inspired by the scents of the island. Before we entered the shop, Ryland told us it was originally named Daufuskie Peach — a nod to Crosby’s native roots in Georgia. Like most artisans on the island, she started out by creating a workshop on her porch. Tired of people expecting a fruit stand, Crosby has since changed the name. We purchased a bar of sandalwood soap. 

Daufuskie Soap Company
228 School Road

Stop by Daufuskie Blues to see some amazing patterns — and ask for a demonstration.

Indigo Immersion at the Mary Fields School 

A short golf cart ride from the church is the Mary Fields School, where local celebrity Pat Conroy taught schoolchildren in 1969. The historic schoolhouse was built in 1933 and now contains Daufuskie Blues, a shop selling indigo-dyed clothing. 

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RELATED: How Indigo Is Made

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For 20 years, the school had no cafeteria or lunchroom. Eventually one was built in the back, and it’s now School Grounds Coffee. We greatly appreciated the chance to get a caffeine fix on an island that doesn’t offer much in terms of places to eat.

The two-room schoolhouse where Pat Conroy once taught is now an indigo shop, art studio and coffeeshop.

Kindergarten through 3rd grade were taught by Mrs. Brown in one room, and 4th through 8th grade by Frances Jones in the other. When Jones retired in 1969, she was replaced for one year by the late novelist Conroy. Fresh out of grad school, he wanted to come to Daufuskie to teach, inspire and motivate students. But his methods were unconventional — and controversial. He would regularly take students over to the mainland to places like Bluffton, Savannah and even Washington, D.C. At the end of his first year teaching, Conroy was fired. He went on to write an autobiographical book about his time at the Mary Fields School called The Water Is Wide, adapted into a movie starring Jon Voight named Conrack, which is how the Gullah children pronounced Conroy’s name. 

Conroy never returned to teaching, but he did keep in contact with his students and continued to write. Ryland added that even though Conroy was forced out of the school, he made out all right, going on to have a successful literary career, penning bestselling books like The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides.

Daufuskie Indigo
School Grounds Coffee
203 School Road

Chase Allen’s artwork has gotten quite popular and won an American Made award from Martha Stewart Living.

Reeling in Art at the Iron Fish

Our final stop was the Iron Fish, where a whimsical menagerie of fish, mermaids, stingrays and other coastal creatures fashioned from distressed sheet metal are displayed in the open-air gallery owned by artist Chase Allen. 

Allen has an outdoor workshop on the island.

Payment is on the honor system.

Allen asks patrons to pay by the “honor system”: Leave a check in the box on his front porch or make a mobile payment through Zelle. 

The Iron Fish 
168 Benjies Point Road 

The Old Daufuskie Crab Company has a great outdoor space — but it was too cold to enjoy when we visited in December. It’s one of only a couple of restaurants that stay open all year.

Lunch Stop at Old Daufuskie Crab Company

Our two-hour tour wrapped at 1 p.m., so Wally and I wanted to grab some lunch before catching the 2:30 ferry back to the mainland. We decided it’d be best to get back by the harbor, so we stopped into the Old Daufuskie Crab Company. We ordered beers and a basket of spicy shrimp — but passed on the “scrap iron,” an Arnold Palmer-esque cocktail made with moonshine. 

Old Daufuskie Crab Company
256 Cooper River Landing Road

Ryland, with Tour Daufuskie, was a storehouse of interesting local knowledge. The poor guy is only one of a few people his age on the island.

A visit to Daufuskie is a great day trip if you’re in the Hilton Head or Bluffton area. You get to be on the water, tool around in golf carts and learn some fascinating Gullah history. And you couldn’t hope for a better guide than Ryland. We enjoyed spending time with him and were impressed with his knowledge of the island. While the weather was a bit cold on our visit in December, we were happy to finally have made it to Daufuskie. We’ll be back. –Duke

 

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RELATED: Gullah History of Hilton Head

The Sea Pines Shell Ring Mystery

Hidden in the Sea Pines Forest Preserve on Hilton Head is a 3,500-year-old Native American archaeological treasure.

An archeological team excavates the Sea Pines Shell Ring to better understand what it was used for thousands of years ago

Whenever we visit my parents on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, we like to explore the forest preserve. As we wander the trails, we cross boardwalks over pitch-black bogs covered in neon green flora. We’ll see a line of horseback riders plodding along on an excursion from nearby Lawton Stables. Families throw lines in the water in the hopes of catching a fish for dinner.

And if we head between Lake Joe and Lake Thomas, we’ll come upon the Indian Shell Ring, as we did one day a couple of years ago. It’s usually a quiet spot under the cover of trees — but on this day, we stumbled upon the midst of an archeological dig.

“Our best guess is that the ring was a place where people lived year-round and would occasionally hold large-scale gatherings in which they feasted on shellfish and other foods.”

— Matthew Sanger, Binghamton University, New York

The man in charge of the excavation is Matthew Sanger, assistant anthropology professor and co-director of the public archaeology program at Binghamton University in New York. He came right over and told us all about the mysterious shell ring. He obviously has a passion for the project.

Matthew Sanger, a professor at Binghamton University in New York, leads the project

What first drew you to the Sea Pines Shell Ring?

I have worked at other shell rings located in Georgia and had heard about the one at Sea Pines. There are at least 50 known shell rings spread across the coast between South Carolina and through the Gulf Coast to Mississippi.

The Sea Pines Shell Ring is well known for being one of the most accessible (others are often on uninhabited islands or well off the beaten path) and being one of the best preserved (many others are under parking lots, have been disturbed or destroyed by rising sea levels, etc.).

A team of students gets hands-on experience unearthing artifacts at the Sea Pines Shell Ring

Tell us a bit about how the project works.

I bring a crew of students to Hilton Head every summer as well as occasionally during our other breaks (Winter and Spring Breaks are the most common). The crew works with me over a month or so as we excavate the site in search of clues to how the ring formed, who lived there, etc.

Where will the artifacts end up?

We bring all of the artifacts back to Binghamton with us at the end of the summer. We then spend the rest of the year processing and analyzing the artifacts. We will hold onto the artifacts for the next few years, but plan on ultimately transferring them to a local institution in South Carolina.

What’s the timeline?

We are currently planning on continuing to do excavations at the Sea Pines Shell Ring for the next two to four years, depending on funding and what we find.

Hurricanes Matthew and Irma caused Hilton Head Island to be evacuated in recent years. How did the hurricanes affect the project?

We were very lucky that the ring survived both hurricanes unscathed. We had some downed trees, but really almost no damage at all.

Archeologists attempt to solve the mystery of the shell ring and the house that might have once been situated inside it

What’s your best guess about what the ring was used for?

So far, our best guess is that the ring was a place where people lived year-round and would occasionally hold large-scale gatherings in which they feasted on shellfish and other foods.

The Sea Pines Shell Ring is one of the smallest shell rings, so it may have been a year-round home to a small group of families — perhaps only four to six households.

But on occasion, the ring might have hosted events that brought together dozens, perhaps more than 100 people.

What type of people lived in this area at the time of the shell ring?

Roughly 3,500 years ago, when the Sea Pines Shell Ring was forming, the South Carolina coast was inhabited by Native Americans. It is impossible to characterize these Native Americans as belonging to a particular modern tribe, but their progeny likely includes members of a wide number of tribal groups, including the Yemessee, Escamacu, Edisto, Coosa, Pee Dee and Sewee, to name a few.

What was the biggest surprise you found on the dig?

Last summer we came across what looks to be the remains of a house inside of the ring. The evidence is very ephemeral — which is not surprising, considering that the house has been gone for more than 3,000 years. But we came across some stains in the soil that look like where a few walls might have been located as well as an area that looks like it could have been a floor. We are returning to further excavate this area this coming summer to see if this is indeed an ancient home.

Note: For the past couple of years, the Sea Pines Shell Ring has been off limits due to hurricane cleanup in the forest preserve. –Wally

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Heading to Hilton Head?

The Gullah History of Hilton Head Island

A Civil War battle in Port Royal, South Carolina, the first ex-slaves to be paid wages and a Reconstruction village all play a part in this African-American community’s heritage.

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The Gullahs of Hilton Head Island were descended from African slaves and are a key part of the history of the Civil War and Restoration

We liked him right from the get-go. He had a great sense of humor and has been a part of the Gullah community his whole life.

“My name’s Irvin Campbell — but you can call me Irv,” he said.

“The blacks on Hilton Head Island were the very first former slaves to earn wages and actually get paid for their labor.”

My mom had suggested we take the Gullah Heritage Tour, a two-hour bus ride around Hilton Head Island, South Carolina that highlights a vibrant African-American community.

“The Gullah people are the descendants of the slaves who worked on the rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia,” said historian Joseph Opala. “They still live in rural communities in the coastal region and on the Sea Islands of those two states, and they still retain many elements of African language and culture.”

The Gullah Heritage Corridor stretches from St. Augustine, Florida up to Wilmington, North Carolina, and Hilton Head Island played a key role in the community.

Not so long ago, Gullahs owned much of the land on the 26,880-acre isle. Today, they own less than 1,000, Irv informed us.

 

The name Gullah comes from a corruption of their original African tribe.

These descendents of West African slaves take their name from the Gola or Gula tribe from Liberia and Sierra Leone. They settled on the 100 Sea Islands in the Hilton Head area. After the Civil War, more than 1,200 freed slaves remained.

Gullahs are also called Geechees.

The word is synonymous with Gullah. It means “living by the water,” according to Irv.

Gullah tends to be used more often to describe those living in South Carolina, and Geechee for those in Georgia.

 

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Union troops quickly took over Hilton Head Island from the Confederacy during the Battle of Port Royal

The heart of the Battle of Port Royal only took about five hours.

During the American Civil War, Union troops wanted to stop trade in the Confederacy, which led to an attack at Port Royal Sound, off of Hilton Head Island.

It didn’t take Union troops long to gain control of the island, according to Irv. “They didn’t have any opposition,” he said.

The Port Royal Experiment involved paying freed slaves for the first time — right near the start of the Civil War.

When the Union Army occupied South Carolina’s Sea Islands, including Hilton Head, on November 7, 1861, it freed about 10,000 slaves. Keep in mind that this was all near the beginning of the Civil War.

The Confederate Army and the white plantation owners hightailed it out of there, and the Union Army found itself in possession of a region famous for growing cotton.

It decided upon the novel idea of an “experiment”: Try paying wages to these contrabands (the awful word used to describe slaves freed by Union forces as well as for those who had escaped). The blacks on Hilton Head Island were the very first former slaves to earn wages and actually get paid for their labor.

Missionaries, teachers, doctors and ministers came from New York and Pennsylvania to educate and help shape the African-American community.

The Gullah community used to look after its own.

In the Gullah communities that developed on Hilton Head, everything was shared, and everyone knew each other.

“We’d catch enough fish to feed those families who didn’t have a boat. We took care of each other,” Irv told us.

That's not the case any longer, he added.

Hilton Head Island really changed when the bridge to the mainland was built. (And changed again with the Cross Island Parkway.)

After the Civil War ended, Union soldiers auctioned off the island, according to Irv. Northern businessmen, called carpetbaggers for the soft-sided bags they traveled with, bought the entire island and sold it off. Many Gullah families purchased acreages, and for nearly a century, they farmed their land.

But once the bridge that connected the island to mainland was built in 1956, there was an influx of people to the island.

“That’s when families started locking their doors” (which comes out sounding like doe), Irv told us.

There used to be just one paved thoroughfare on the entire island. “We called it the Tar Road,” Irv said.

Later, in 1989, the Cross Island Parkway was constructed, making Hilton Head even more accessible to the vacationers (many from Ohio, as it’s about the max you’d be able to drive in a day) that now flock here every summer.

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A Mitchelville family poses with a Union soldier

The Reconstruction after the Civil War began on Hilton Head Island at Mitchelville.

In what is now called Fish Haul Creek Park on the “heel” of the island, the community of Mitchelville was created. The government provided freedmen a quarter of an acre of land and the materials to build a 22-by-18-foot house. I couldn’t get over how small that really is. I had a hard time imagining even one person having room to lie down to sleep in a space of that size — especially if there was a stove or table or any other piece of furniture, never mind if an extended family lived together.

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The government gave former slaves the material to build small houses and a plot of land to farm on in Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island. It was the first freedman’s community after the American Civil War

Mitchelville lasted from 1862 to 1877, when it finally dissolved.

“Many people realized they could move anywhere else,” Irv said.

Irv’s involved in a project to restore Mitchelville.

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Harriet Tubman, famous for her involvement with the Underground Railroad, had to see what the Mitchelville hype was all about

Mitchelville’s most famous visitor was none other than Harriet Tubman.

“These industrious new citizens built homes on neatly arranged streets, elected their own officials, developed laws, built an economy and implemented mandatory education for their children,” Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park reports. “In fact, the reports of the success of Mitchelville were so glowing, that the famous Underground Railroad freedom fighter, Harriet Tubman, was sent to Hilton Head to see this bustling town, so she could share the story of Mitchelville’s self-governed success with future freedmen towns.”

The most successful local Gullah family would sail off to trade goods.

One plantation was named Spanish Wells for the freshwater wells dug by the first European invaders.

In the 1920s to the ’50s, Gullahs would trade fruit, veggies and wild game on the Simmons family’s property in Spanish Wells. Whatever was left was given to Simmons, who would sail off to Savannah, Georgia once a week to sell the goods. It was a 45-hour journey — and sometimes the winds weren’t favorable, so they couldn’t make it Savannah, and the perishable goods would be lost.

Indigo Run Plantation was where the healers lived.

The neighborhood once known as Gardner was home to the Aiken family, the “medicine makers,” according to Irv.

There weren’t proper doctors on Hilton Head, and this father and son handled medical cases — at least the ones the midwives didn’t attend to.

“But Mr. William Aiken took his recipes with him when he died,” Irv said.

One of the main crops was rice, which led to fatal diseases — among the white folk, at least.

Rice cultivation needed freshwater ponds, but these bred hordes of mosquitoes, which in turn carried malaria and yellow fever.

Thing is, only the whites were affected; because South Carolina has a similar semitropical environment to Africa, and the Gullahs had sickle cell immunity, slaves didn’t get sick, Irv told us.

Many early structures were constructed of an unusual material.

Irv drove us past the ruins of part of a plantation owner’s home — that of William Pope, known as “Squire” because he had so many properties.

The structure looks like an art project, as if there are shells stuck all over it. And indeed, there are: Buildings of this era were made of tabby, which consists of lime, sand and oyster shells.

Squire Pope is the largest Gullah neighborhood on the island. Its original inhabitants were known for fishing and shrimping.

Gullah cemeteries are placed by the water.

We passed a small cemetery, which Irv points out is atypical, as it’s situated inland.

"You see, Gullahs bury their dead along the edge of a waterway because they believe that's the only way we can get back to their homeland,” Irv told us. “It’s so spirits can take the waters back to West Africa.”

Most homes and schoolhouses were built on stilts.

You’ll see stacks of bricks propping up the buildings. This was because people kept chopped wood underneath so they’d always have some dry wood to cook with and keep them warm.

Beach pavilions were once quite a scene.

In the Chaplin neighborhood, Irv told us about beach pavilions. Back in the day, the pavilions would have changing rooms, showers and a dance floor, all under one roof.

We stopped at Driessen Beach Park and headed down the boardwalk to take photos by the water.

“They used to bring in Motown singers, from 1957 to ’70,” Irv reminisced. “We’d drive right on the beach. In 1965, Ike and Tina Turner were here. I remember that one well. I was 18 years old.”

Hilton Head natives like their privacy.

When I first came to the island as a kid, I learned that McDonald’s had to build a brick restaurant to fit in with the Hilton Head aesthetic, and that they weren’t allowed to put up their trademark golden arches. I thought that was the coolest thing — a town telling a huge company like Mickey D’s to follow their rules or shove it.

Strict rules remain when it comes to construction projects.

“People come to the island and complain they can’t find anything!” Irv said. “On Hilton Head, we believe in setbacks and buffers. It's the law on Hilton Head that nothing can be built to the curb. And there are strict tree laws. Gotta be setbacks and buffers.”

The Stoney plantation was once the main drag.

“This used to be our downtown,” Irv said.

There were four Gullah general stores that sold gas, along with a vast assortment of other goods.

“You could get anything at these stores, from penny candy to a piece of equipment for your horse harness,” he told us.

Then Irv regaled us with a tale from his childhood.

“You could buy all-day jawbreakers there. You’re too young to remember Sugar Daddy [caramel pops]. You could suck that for two days! We’d save the wrapper, suck on it all day, then put it on our windowsill. Next day, what would it be covered with? Ants! We’d take that candy to the water pump, wash off those ants and start sucking on it again!”

Tip: We found a $2 off coupon in one of the free publications, Island Events. Tickets cost $32 for adults; $15 for kids 12 and under.

If you’re spending some time on Hilton Head, there’s much more to do than play golf and go to the beach. Consider hopping on the bus for an insightful tour of the island’s fascinating Gullah heritage. –Wally

Haint Blue Porch Paint

My parents painted the ceiling of their front porch haint blue, a tradition in the Lowcountry

Tired of evil spirits raiding your home? Victim of vengeful ghosts? Try haint blue! 

No one wants to share their home with angry, vengeful spirits. And that's exactly what haints are.

These ghosts are trapped somewhere between the worlds of the living and the dead. Needless to say, that makes them grumpy.

“Gullahs paint the ceilings of their porches a pale blue to keep away pesky poltergeists.”

Gullahs, the descendants of African slaves who worked the plantations of Georgia and South Carolina, found a clever way to exploit the spirits' one weakness: They cannot cross water.

Rather than digging a moat around every one of their homes, they decided to trick the haints. 

By taking lime, milk and some odd pigments, and mixing them up in a pit, the Gullahs ended up with a pale blue color. They used to this to paint the ceilings of their porches to keep away the pesky poltergeists.

Sure enough, it fooled the haints, who believed they couldn't cross the threshold and found another home to haunt. 

As a bonus, wasps, too, get tricked, local superstition has it. They supposedly mistake haint blue for the sky and build their nests elsewhere.

The tradition lives on today in the South. My mother has painted the ceiling of her front porch and sunroom a lovely haint blue.

As for sinister spirits of the dead? Haint no spirits here! –Wally