Mitchelville, South Carolina, was the first town in the United States to be run by African American former slaves. It stood on Hilton Head Island, near the entrance of the Port Royal Sound, off the coast of southern South Carolina. The community was established in 1862, during the American Civil War, by Union General Ormsby M. Mitchel. Most of the town was abandoned during the late 1800’s.
Background.
Union troops captured Hilton Head Island during the Battle of Port Royal in November 1861, in the early months of the Civil War. African American slaves on the island were soon joined by hundreds of escaped slaves from surrounding areas. At first, the Union Army housed the newcomers in makeshift camps. Conditions at these camps soon became crowded.
The Union Army established the Department of the South, with headquarters on Hilton Head Island, in March 1862. The department directed operations in the coastal regions of South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida. In July 1862, Congress passed a law freeing all Confederate slaves who came into Union lines. General Mitchel became the commander of the Department of the South in September 1862. Mitchel soon designated land from a Hilton Head Island plantation to become a town for freedmen (black former slaves). Mitchel’s plan for the town became known as the Port Royal Experiment.
Mitchel’s actions came roughly at the time President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The document announced that all slaves in rebelling states would be freed as of Jan. 1, 1863.
The town.
Mitchel allotted each former slave a small plot of land. Under the leadership of Abraham Murchison, a preacher and escaped former slave, the freedmen established the town they called Mitchelville. Residents laid out streets, set up farms, and built homes, businesses, and churches. They elected representatives and passed South Carolina’s first compulsory (mandatory) education law for children. The town’s population numbered about 1,500.
Mitchel died soon after the community was established. The Army left Hilton Head Island in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War. The military’s exit dealt a heavy blow to Mitchelville’s economy. During the 1870’s, many of the plantation owners from the island reclaimed the land they had held at the start of the war. Many of Mitchelville’s black residents also bought land on the island.
Later years.
A poor economy and shifting land ownership led Mitchelville’s population to dwindle during the late 1800’s. However, the community’s legacy endured. Hilton Head and other nearby islands became known as a center for Gullah culture. The Gullah are African Americans who inhabit the coastal regions and sea islands of South Carolina and northern Georgia. They are descended from people taken from Africa during the slave trade.
Hilton Head Island became a popular tourist resort during the mid-1900’s. In 2005, island residents established the Mitchelville Preservation Project to preserve the town’s heritage. In 2012, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing the 150th anniversary of Mitchelville’s founding.
See also American Civil War ; Emancipation Proclamation ; Gullah .
