 Map of the Sea islands | |
  Sea Islands | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Atlantic Ocean |
| Total islands | Over 100 |
| Administration | |
United States | |
TheSea Islands are a chain of over a hundredtidal andbarrier islands on theAtlantic Ocean coast of theSoutheastern United States, between the mouths of theSantee andSt. Johns rivers alongSouth Carolina,Georgia andFlorida. The largest isJohns Island, South Carolina.Sapelo Island is home to theGullah people. All of the islands are acutely threatened bysea level rise due toclimate change.[1]
Settled byindigenous cultures thousands of years ago, the islands were selected bySpanish colonists as sites for founding ofcolonialmissions. Historically the Spanish influenced theGuale andMocamachiefdoms by establishing Christian missions in their major settlements, fromSt. Catherine's Island south toFort George Island (at present-dayJacksonville, Florida).[2]
Both chiefdoms extended to the coastal areas on the mainland. The Mocama Province included territory to theSt. Johns River in present-day Florida.[3] The mission system ended under pressure of repeated raids by English South Carolina colonists and Indian allies.[4] Spain ceded its territory of Florida to Great Britain in 1763.[5]
After 18th-century European-American settlement of Georgia and Florida,planters purchased andenslavedAfricans for labor. Many were used to work the labor-intensive cotton, rice, andindigoplantations on the Sea Islands, which generated much of the wealth of the colony and state. The Sea Islands were known historically for the production ofSea Island cotton.[6] The enslaved workers developed the notable and distinctGullah culture and language which has survived to contemporary times.[7]
During theAmerican Civil War, theUnion 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 slaves largely ran their own lives during this period, supported by Northernmissionaries andabolitionists in thePort Royal Experiment . They had already created cohesive communities, because planter families often stayed on the mainland to avoidmalaria and the isolation of the islands. Large numbers of slaves worked on the rice and indigo plantations, and had limited interaction with whites, which enabled them to develop their own distinct culture. During the war, the Union Army managed the plantations and assigned plots of land to slaves for farming.[8]
After PresidentAbraham Lincoln'sEmancipation Proclamation became effective on January 1, 1863, more than 5,000 slaves on Union-occupied islands obtained their freedom.[9] After the war, although thefreedmen hoped to be given land as compensation for having worked it for so many years in slavery, the federal government generally returned properties to the planters returning from their refuges or exile. Many of the freedmen stayed in the area, working on their former plantations assharecroppers,tenant farmers or laborers as the system changed to free labor.[8]
The area was home to multipleplantations; in 1863Fanny Kemble publishedJournal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839 about her experience on her husband's plantations in St. Simon's Island andButler Island.[10]
In 1893, a deadly majorhurricane struck the Sea Islands.[6]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)TheLowcountry of South Carolina | ||
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