Sea Islands - Later 19th Century History

Later 19th Century History

During the American Civil War, the Union Navy and the Union Army soon occupied the islands. The white planter families had fled to other locations on the mainland, sometimes leaving behind their slaves. The blacks largely ran their own lives during this period. They had already created cohesive communities, because planter families often stayed on the mainland to avoid malaria and isolation. Many slaves worked on the rice and indigo plantations, and they had limited interaction with whites, enabling them to develop their own distinct culture. The Union Army managed the plantations and allowed plots to slaves for farming.

After President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was effective on January 1, 1863, more than 5,000 slaves on Union-occupied islands obtained their freedom. Although they hoped to get land as compensation for having been held in slavery, the planter families soon reclaimed their properties. Many of the freedmen worked on their former plantations as sharecroppers, tenant farmers or laborers.

The islands were damaged by the Sea Islands Hurricane in 1893.