Hilton Head Island; A Television History

Major funding for this program has been provided by grants from the South Carolina Humanities Council. The town of Hilton Head Island the South Carolina Arts Commission and foundation additional support provided by the Cultural Council of Hilton Head Island. The island that we call Hilton Head today certainly had other names given to it by the Indians and in colonial times it was known as island of the Bears for the many black bears that are on the island in those days. It was also called for the Indian chief. And in salmon a man named William French commissioned a series of nautical charts for the area and named the island after himself. This was in French Spanish and English. Of course I didn't catch the first part of the century. The island began to be divided up into plantations.

With the elimination of the embassy in 1728 and the founding of the city of Savannah shortly thereafter the English Landgrave saw more opportunities for their holdings in the Carolinas. The early planners were raising cattle indigo and other crops which drove the economy of Hilton Head prior to the Revolutionary War. The cultivation of rice was the economic mainstay of the South Carolina Lowcountry. But there was only one plant around this island who attempted to grow rice. His name was John. And his rice dikes still exist today and can be seen in the see Pownce forest preserve. The first plantation crop in the low country was right begun around Charleston in the 60s 60 90s and developed on a large scale in the Lowcountry south of Charleston. After the end of the embassy war as a matter of fact the period of 730 740 was a great boom in rice and the development of rice plantations in what is now Buford

County in Jasper County. But of course Hilton Head was not a place where Rice could be grown because rice requires fresh water so it was grown in the swamps and freshwater rivers that are 30 miles inland which meant that the planters who settled on the Sea Islands and had included were among the first settlers of this region were denied the opportunity to grow rice which was the principal crop export crop and cash crop of colonial South Carolina in 1744. They developed the second crop for South and it was a perfect perfect complement to Rice and that was Indigo Indigo as it turns out of grown primarily or ideally on high thin soil. It's a crop that doesn't like a lot of rain. So if you if you saw the sandy soil to see it was perfect for growing Indigo beginning in 1748 the British offered the Imperial Indigo bounty. The purpose of this was of course to produce a source within the British Empire for this blue dye so necessary for the.

British textile industry. When the United States declared independence from Britain the English bounty for indigo quickly became a thing for the past. During the Revolutionary War the residents of Hilton Head were paid for use while the residents of nearby island were loyal to the crown waterways around want to be used. Great deal by the British inland waterway when the Braves retreat back in the birth of their groups called very back of that and then when the French an American of course is a tax of that in the fall of seventy nine carats will be withdrawn ordered back. So let me very impressive marks if you're going to. Hold them out of you. We'll sail through. It afforded by a small base for you this way

goes on through them are. Groups. That. Actually arrive in time to help stop the Americans that helped save after the revolution in their search for a new cash crop to replace Indigo plantation owners turned to a variety of cotton which today we call short staple cotton in 1790 to Hilton Head land under named William Elliot. The second visited the West Indies and saw a very sturdy strain of cotton that could be grown in sandy soil. Much like you sort of feel in here now and. This was called long staple our Sea Island cotton. There were experimental crops grown in South Georgia before that but 1790 of the real great were the beginning of the cotton revolution on the sea and it began a metal plantation on cotton produced. Crops for South Carolina planter Sea Island planted. Seven hundred ninety eight thousand sixty one almost with out fail.

The stony Bannard ruins are the remains of a fairly substantial plantation house of the cotton era. This complex was the center of life for the 1000 acre Braddock's. Plantation. The ruins of the main plantation house are made of can be. Heavy was quite popular along the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. It is made from shells sand. Land which was derived from burning Worster shells and water. To make it. This concrete type mixture was poured into a box like wooden one. That produced a pool of about two feet in height with a wall sometimes as thick as I put. Out the wooden form was moved up and the process was repeated until the desired wall height was reached. Here we are in St. Bernard ruins in the middle of St. Patty's

plantation on a very typical. Summer afternoon with thunderstorms approaching. But I think that a lot of people would like to know who built this house and when did they build its house. Well the the house the Boehner House was really built by the Stoney family probably sometime between about 1790 and maybe as late as 18000. And of course Tabby is really great in low country architecture. The very thick walls are really good for insulating providing a little bit of comfort in these rather muggy afternoons. Yeah. The other great thing about it is all the materials are readily at hand. The the shell provided the aggregate. I would also be burned to make the lime the bind it together really all you'd add would be some water. And of course whole lot of slave labor. And most of these plantations had plenty of slave labor. How big was this house was it a three story house or a one story house well actually it's what we call a one and a half story.

What we're doing is standing here in the basement or the lower half storey we call it above us. From here on up would be the first floor that would be the main living portion of the house. We're the ones that represent all of these places are where you have would set into the tabby when it was originally poured. And right here of course would be about the first floor level and then it seems to go all the way around the house. Yes it does. The Bernard family worshipped at the Zion chapel of an Episcopal church that was located about mid members of the Bernard family were laid to rest in amounts which is located at the site of the Zion chapel of the. The mausoleum is a good example of tabby that has retained its exterior plastering and gives the appearance of being built by stone blocks. The cotton planters of the Sea Islands commonly own several homes and plantations and lived in luxury. But it would all end suddenly.

Cotton production ceased all the island's plantations on November 7th. Think 61. That's when the Civil War arrived on Hilton Head Island with a great union victory in the battle of Port Royal. Now this all began with an order from President Lincoln establishing a blockade of the Southern ports. Well what's basically going to happen is when Lincoln declares the blockade and right after the firing on Fort Sumter the United States is going to form it was called the blockade board and bring together some of the top minds of both the Navy and the coast survey together to begin to lay out how they want to blockade the Confederacy. And we're going to be the first modern blockade up to this time blockade for a very ineffective small sailing ship schooners could come in anywhere along the coastline. But now steam has come of age. Also the ports are now the main areas where you can bring in supplies you can't land anybody on Hilton Head or on any other little islands around here and effectively bring in supplies to bring munitions to a modern army. You have to

bring them in to establish ports that have a good anchorage that have railroad connections that can distribute the supplies out to the troops. So this blockade is going to be directed against major ports of the Confederacy and also it's steamships now. So they need places to keep coal. You can't go back to the North Pole. You can't go to Washington D.C. or New York to get coal you have to have coal on site. So the bottom board is going to choose what while to be the main calling station for the squadron that is both the watch over the coastline the North Carolina South Carolina border all the way to the Florida Keys. And what's sort of interesting on the blockading board is a Samuel Francis Dupont who later of course leads the attack in Port Royal. The battle of Port Royal made a hero of the naval commander Sami able to pot and was the first major union victory following their series of defeats. It became front page news and lifted the morale of the nation. For months

following the battle the military goings on in the port of sound were constantly in the news. The attack against the star planning of the November 4th that's when these vessels from the squadron would have been the lot which was up to that time the largest naval force put together by the United States had a very bad storm off Cape Hatteras that's going to scatter the entire squadron and will begin arriving beginning the first week of November off Fort royal sound and by November 4th and now the Duponts warships and the transports and everything else of the ride. They begin to sound the bar. Wanted to attack on November 6. Going to go ahead on November 7th. For that main line of warships nine warships to go before then on the

starboard side would be the gun boats they were spaced out and you could actually if you were in Fort Walker watching these vessels coming you could see the gun boats through the space between the major warships that were on the port side. They were to come in. And once they got into the sound the way the better it. Would be with you. Then by the plan would be a great main warships and they were passed back in front walk to sort of a look at Paul Walker. I was silent. The plants started out as hope the sound in the wind. The boats did great. The main warships started to start. The rest came into the sound and

began firing on what Walker there. Dupont and his flagship the Wabash followed by the maid came back from Walker one of the gunboat commander the running going on thought nobody was following the orders. I merely put his gunboat put it in the wind so there actually were three ships. In front of Walker on a single time to try to get the rest of the vessels in the line began firing at the first turn. It's going to go fairly well but for the second six hundred yard walk or slow down with your style against the board with the most effect. Fire ants walk on egg shells for the Confederates. At first very accurate fire against the warships. They said you could hear the large

rifle shells going through the wringer Dupont's vessels but they all were shot for the most part and then it. Was going to last about five thirty in the afternoon the Confederates majority their guns dismounted or disabled or going. Fortification. Or going to fall back to school waiting and over the November 7. Member. From the island. Was so awaited by. Not in his official report mentioned. Not gone by the plan or disobeyed orders right. Wife tell her about it. It's not going to be into the early 80s. That no one realized that this great circle never happened.

During the battle to strike a cotton planter on Hilton Head Island command of the Confederacy. While his brother Percival commanded the union vessel Pocahontas. A true story in the civil war. When the Union forces landed to take over the island. Thomas fled to the mainland. The North is going to land about twelve thousand soldiers at Fort Walker. They immediately in the next few days will be dispersed and some of the other islands to be sent over the bay point will go to St. Helena eventually some will go up and occupied Buford. They are very concerned about a confederate counter-attack. They do not believe how few rebels are in the area. So they began to construct a line of fortifications behind Fort Walker and just in case the Confederates do come back on the Hilton Head and tried to recapture the area they're going to construct some uncalled for chairman. This is named for Thomas Sherman who was always called the other for a man who was the army commander of the expedition. And then these entrenchments were and circled Fort Walker and the growing

base that's being built on either side of it. The battle of Port Royal had not only made Hilton Head a famous place it made it a popular place. The town of Port Royal had two newspapers a post office several establishment that sold alcohol and numerous mercantile selling everything the soldiers desired but weren't issued. But the prices charged by the storekeeper's were so high. The street became known as robbers rogue. There are also four hotels. One of these hotels the Port Royal House was four stories high and was the largest hotel in the state of South Carolina at the time. The military installation itself had a dock that reached nearly a quarter of a mile into the Port Royal sound. It had a bakery large enough to support over thirty thousand men and one of the largest hospitals on the East Coast which served not only Hilton Head but casualties from the Lasky and the siege of

Savannah as well as the battles around Charleston. There was also a jail for prisoners of war along with a huge tent encampment. It actually had its own railroad during the war. It ran from the Seabrook landing calling station to the main military encampment and dot the average soldiers stationed here were little more than boys from Massachusetts New Hampshire and other states. And first they were enchanted by the Allens climate. But around Jeannie the reality of where they were sent in. Letters written home often referred to heat mosquitoes gnats and flea. Just imagine wearing a wool uniform on Hilton Head Island throughout the summer. An officer's life was a different story altogether. The lower grade officers slept in a large cans with plank floors led a less demanding schedule and when they wanted and even were allowed to have families come and

visit. The field grade officers lived in headquarters buildings. The pope planned pension House served as a headquarters and a signal tower that could communicate with ships in the Port Royal sound. The pope plantation. It was out of town and the huge military complex. So in November late November 1864 the command of this area John great Foster is going to organize with Rupert who is the co-host of the evening and it's going to be sent out to try to break the roll around for present day Ridgeland South Carolina is located. They're going to land they're going to march in one. They're going to run into Confederate fortifications and Confederate troops at a place called Honey Hill place that the northerners say is so sweetly named Honey Hill and they'll leave nearly a thousand casualties at this battlefield when the Confederates drive them away from honey kill the north is not going to stop though they will continue to try to strike at the railroad in different places like two of the NE in Pocatello adult constantly bringing in reinforcements from Hilton Head in Buford to try to get it there were

about the same time Sherman's complaining has marked you arrive off of Vanna in December in December 1864 and he'll link up with general Foster and they will make plans to try to isolate Savannah. The battle of Port Royal Mint disaster to the island's plantation owners. They fled and lost their holdings. But to the slaves that made the plantation system work. It had different meanings. As word spread from plantation to plantation hundreds of slaves tried to reach the OEM's where they thought they would be freed. But they were not free. Instead they were treated just confiscated personal property of the plantation owners and were called contraband of war. When Hunter takes command at Hilton Head. Either he is under a directive from the Secretary of War or he at least understands what is expected of him

and he immediately begins to take steps to not only raise a black writing that in this area but also to issue an emancipation proclamation for slaves under his command and says in the first the first Emancipation Proclamation was attempted by John C. Fremont when he was in command in Missouri. That will be quickly overturned by Sherman. So Will Hunter's honor will issue his proclamation on May 9 and within 10 days. LINCOLN Well because of problems within the border states will revoke this proclamation. The slave rights movement that Hunter brings together will last a little longer. This writing that will be made up of slaves former slaves contrabands taken from the islands around Hilton Head in Port Royal will be brought to Hilton Head they'll be given scarlet pantaloons Blue Jackets and muskets and trained to actually serve as a regular writing that you'll never be recognized by the administration but it will cause the Bates and

Congress will help push forward the movement to eventually raise an army of former slaves to fight against the Confederacy. The right to mend itself honor is right and it will be broken up on August 6. One company will be kept under arms and it eventually will be resurrected in the first South Carolina which will be authorized by the large number of refugees now living on whom he had caused a problem for the Army. At first the military dealt with them by giving them food clothing and tent shelters in which to live. But in the ensuing weeks with more and more people arriving in the army house them in barracks. At the time the barracks were described as hemp brothel and hospital. It was becoming apparent to the me that is more permanent solution was needed and the solution turned out to be the first Freedom Village in the United States. Located near Drayton plantation.

The village was called. Will Bill in honor of general arms be Mitchell. He died on the island just four months after he arrived in 1986. A tract of land that was slated for development attracted the attention of local historic preservationist because the track into a large prehistoric site. It was then on the same tract of land but this unique experiment in freedom was rediscovered. Mitchellville pushed off site is a perfect example of what frequently happens in archaeological research. When we originally began the work we assumed we had basically eggs fallings component site site dating to about 2000 B.C. as we did more research now both in the field and after the field work was over doing archival research. We began to realize that in fact this was a much more complex site than than we originally anticipated. Not only did it include the 2000 B.C. stylings component but it also included an African-American Freedman's village dating to the 1860s.

In the town of Mitchell It was probably to be considered our first urban area because in that there are streets alley lanes. There were city officials that govern the laws that govern that as well as the fact that it had a well defined economic system in which the men worked as carpenters blacksmith and other types of trades to earn money from the Union Army which in turn they used to spend in the stores that were located right at Mitchell and then operated by the residents. Education for African-Americans began at the image of Bill. It was the site of the first compulsory education law

inside the state of South Carolina. And it applied only to African-Americans. The freedman of that. Period I am well into the 20th century. But his breakdown began when it's an economic base. The Union army withdrew in 1868. Those who chose to remain in the area were able to purchase their own property with wages that they had from the Army. Many of the families who live in the Mitchell built area today are direct descendants of those who participated in this unique experiment in freedom today. The only buildings left standing from the Civil War portion of the honey horn plantation. And the Queen's Chapel and church which had been a Methodist church on the pope's plantation and was moved to its present location in 1860 Diane.

Well what happened everything else. For the coral House Hotel robbers and all the homes in Mitchellville. What happened is fairly clear storms took their toll. Erosion took Walker. But most of the buildings were recycled into homes for Friedman and others who had to live out the harsh days of reconstruction ahead. To purchase a copy of the entire four part series. Hilton Head Island television

history. Please call 1 800 5 5 3 7 7 5 2. Or write S. S. E. TV marketing Box eleven thousand Columbia South Carolina 2 9 2 1 1. Major credit cards accepted.