This transformation, Barnwell, Grant, and Campbell explain, was a kind of whiplash. In the decades after the bridge was built, Black sea islanders were subject to increasingly high property taxes, the dilution of their political influence, and the irredeemable gating of their homescape.
They were also legally stripped of their land through forced property-partition sales. The practice was widespread; its history has been told before. They are internally governed by strict land covenants. Black areas were already in violation of the proposed restrictions.
A white population that utterly transformed the island began to claim control of Black land in the name of preservation. To increase public control, the island was incorporated into a town in Meanwhile, Black property taxes soared.
Outparcel titles are often complicated. Many federal land sales and surveys were destroyed after the Civil War. After several generations, property heirs could be numerous and geographically widespread. For a predatory developer, the trick was to seek out one of these heirs and buy their share in the land. Anyone with a share could force a partition sale.
The developer would sue to clear title, force an auction, and then easily outbid heirs living on the property. They would acquire prime real estate for pennies on the dollar. Heirs were forced off. But the checks came way too late, he said. The damage is done. Some outparcels are still not serviced with sewage disposal or running water. Black islanders have worked to sustain the history of their place. Fraser inherited a legacy of European colonization. Retirees fit into a lineage of white settlers at a leisure subtended by brown and Black labor.
This is an imaginary lineage. The harsh climate and threat of mosquito-borne illnesses brought over on African slave ships kept most of the first plantation masters and their families far away from the island.
Some even owned property. Before the Civil War, and certainly after, we can imagine an island almost entirely inhabited by Black people. He invited bagpipe players and Arnold Palmer. These communities consisted of farmers, fishermen, basket weavers and fishnet makers. Island navigators piloted boats between Savannah and the island. This rich culture, developed over the years of slavery, survives to this day.
Slaves made up old spirituals and songs and used them as codes for meeting times and places and as messages for freedom. The songs and stories also spoke of storms and other events in the lives of the slaves. As interest in the history of African-Americans on Hilton Head grows so does its preservation. The Gullah culture continues as community leaders encourage its preservation. Money was scarce and the Islanders bartered for goods and services.
In , private entities bought more land for hunting purposes, including those remaining lands owned by the Federal Government. By now, the black population was around Access to the island was by water only. Gun emplacements for target practice out over the Atlantic are still visible south of the Marriott Hotel as the sands shift with the tides.
These join Indian relics and landmarks of the Revolution and Civil War that are found throughout the island. Electricity arrived in As did the first telephone in These farsighted men ended the use of Land for timbering and hunting, and began selling the Land to developers. They brought a system of land use that became the prototype of many other successful developments by focusing on preserving the natural environment. Dirt roads gave way to paved ones. Beautiful bridges replaced Ferry boats accessing the Island.
Residential Plantations developed often around original Plantation boundaries. In , The Island Packet, our present daily Newspaper, was first published as a 12 page tabloid. The Island Hospital was built in , and the Town population was then 6, This beautiful sea island continues to offer Visitor and Resident alike a beautiful oasis featuring miles of pristine Atlantic Ocean beaches, world-class golf, tennis recreation and a renewal of spirit as one finds himself surrounded, and enriched by, the peaceful beauty of nature.
She has been an Island Resident since It was first published in Many visitors to Hilton Head Island have questions about the Island. Show your friends and…. Island Events provides a comprehensive view of what Hilton Head Island has to offer in the way of shopping, dining, activities, and events. If you would like to preview Island Events before your arrival, you can view Island Events online. The rack card distribution center is chock full of businesses that offer activities, shopping, dining and more.
The island was isolated from the rest of the state. There was no bridge or ferry service, no electricity, and no telephones. Led by Joseph B. Fraser and Fred C. Hack, the Georgians created the Hilton Head Company, purchased the Loomis-Thorne holdings, and harvested millions of feet of lumber between and The Hilton Head Company then turned to selling lots along the beach for vacation cottages.
State backing was secured for a ferry, and then for the creation of an agency to build a toll bridge, which opened in Differences over how the Hilton Head Company should develop its land caused Fraser to withdraw from the firm in return for a sizable parcel on the southern end of the island. Charles E. The result was Sea Pines Plantation, an oasis of taste and beauty amidst the hodgepodge of seashore development that characterized much of the Atlantic coast in the s. Sea Pines attracted affluent retirees, second-home buyers, and vacationers; its golf and tennis facilities and their televised tournaments drew national attention; and its architectural controls, gated entry, and mingling of residences and golf courses became prototypes for other developments on Hilton Head, then elsewhere in the state, the South, and into the Caribbean.
With the blossoming of Sea Pines came rapid growth. Resort hotels sprang up along the beachfront outside Sea Pines, along with restaurants, stores, banks, and movie theaters. With retirees and vacationers came developers, realtors, architects, lawyers, shopkeepers, doctors, and others who made their livelihood on the booming island.
Population grew rapidly, from 2, in , to 11, in , to 23, in , and another fifty percent during the s. Growth reduced the proportion of African Americans, from more than ninety percent in to less than nine percent half a century later.
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