Mitchelville facts for kids
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Mitchelville was a special town built during the American Civil War. It was made for people who had been enslaved but were now free. The town was located on what is now Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was named after Ormsby M. Mitchel, one of the Union Army generals in the area. Mitchelville was an important part of a project called the Port Royal Experiment, which aimed to help formerly enslaved people start new lives.
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Hilton Head Island During the Civil War
In the first year of the Civil War, on November 7, 1861, Union forces attacked Confederate forts on Hilton Head Island. About 60 ships and 20,000 Union soldiers were involved. By the afternoon, the Confederate soldiers had left the forts. When Union troops landed, they found that the white residents of the island had already fled.
Hilton Head Island then became a main base for the Union army in the South. It was used as a place to store military supplies. The Union built forts, hospitals, and barracks there. At times, as many as 30,000 soldiers were on the island. The island was also a starting point for blocking important ports like Savannah and Charleston.
Formerly Enslaved People Seek Freedom
Within two days of the Union army taking the island, about 150 formerly enslaved people came to the Union camp. These were people left behind by the planters who had fled. By December 15, about 320 formerly enslaved people had found safety with the Union army. One soldier said that "Negro slaves came flocking into our camp by the hundreds." They were escaping their enslavers when they heard the "Linkum sojers" (Lincoln's soldiers) had arrived.
By February 1862, at least 600 formerly enslaved people were living in Union camps on Hilton Head Island. These people were called "contraband of war" or simply "contrabands." They were not yet officially "freedmen" (free people). The Union army wasn't sure what to do with them. General Thomas West Sherman often asked his leaders in Washington for advice and supplies for these "contrabands."
Helping the Freed People
On February 6, 1862, General Sherman asked for help for the contrabands from people in the North. Help came from groups like the American Missionary Association. Also, Salmon P. Chase, a government leader, sent Edward L. Pierce to Port Royal. Pierce was against slavery and was sent to check on and help manage the government's efforts for the freed people.
Pierce and the American Missionary Association quickly made a plan. This plan covered education, well-being, and jobs for the formerly enslaved people. In April 1862, a military order was given that freed all Black people on the Sea Islands. Later, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This important document declared all enslaved people in the Confederate states, including South Carolina, to be free.
Some Union officers felt that the formerly enslaved people were becoming a "burden." There were also problems with some Union troops stealing from them. General Mitchel noted that there was "prejudice against the blacks" among some soldiers. By February 1862, the formerly enslaved people were living in wooden barrack-like buildings inside the Union camps. But by October 1862, Union leaders realized this wasn't working well. Living conditions were poor, and soldiers and freed people needed to be separated.
Building Mitchelville
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Major General Ormsby M. Mitchel decided to create a proper town for the formerly enslaved people. He was the commander of the Department of the South, based at Hilton Head. The town was built on a cotton field that used to be part of the Drayton Plantation. It was close to the military camps. This new town became known as Mitchelville, named after General Mitchel.
Mitchelville was different from other camps for formerly enslaved people. It was planned like a real town. It had roads and plots of land for homes. It also had elected officials, though some were chosen by the Union military. There was a church and laws about community behavior and cleanliness. The town even collected taxes. Most importantly, Mitchelville had a law that made education required for children aged six to fifteen. This was likely the first such law in the South.
By late 1862, the town was set up. By November 1865, about 1,500 people lived there. The people of Mitchelville mostly earned money by working for the military. They made between four and twelve dollars a month, depending on their skills. Most of these jobs ended when the Union military left the island in 1868. After that, the residents started farming to support themselves. Many formed groups to rent large areas of land from the government. Records show that many freed people on Hilton Head Island had very little food after the military left.
The town continued to exist into the early 1870s. However, by the early 1880s, Mitchelville stopped being a true town. It became a smaller community based on family ties, which lasted until the 1920s. A map from 1920 shows a group of buildings around a church. Most of Mitchelville was abandoned by around 1890.
Community Life in Mitchelville
Churches and Religion
The First Baptist Church was started in 1862 with 120 members. The first minister was Abraham Murchison, who had been enslaved. By 1866, Mitchelville had three churches: the First Baptist Church, a Free Will Baptist church, and a Methodist church. Several missionary groups helped on Hilton Head Island during the war. After 1866, most left, except for the American Missionary Association.
Education in Mitchelville
In 1866, Hilton Head Island was divided into five school areas, and Mitchelville was one of them. The American Missionary Association provided most of the teachers for Mitchelville. They offered classes for primary, intermediate, and high school students in the churches. At one point, there were as many as 238 students in the district. Classes met for up to five hours a day. How many students attended varied based on their job needs and travel conditions. Most teachers were white people from the North. However, by 1869, there was at least one Black assistant teacher. Black teachers also taught Sunday school lessons around 1870. Years later, in 1937, descendants of Mitchelville residents built the Cherry Hill School.
Homes and Stores
The military provided free lumber from sawmills for the houses. The formerly enslaved people built their own homes. Each house was on a quarter-acre plot of land. A typical house was about 12x12 feet. They were made of wood, had wooden foundations, glass windows, and wood floors. They also had wood shingle roofs and chimneys made of brick or other materials.
Mitchelville had four stores. Several of these stores closed after the military left. This might have been because they had been charging very high prices to the residents. Supplies sold in Mitchelville were sometimes priced almost 600% higher than those sold by the American Missionary Association.
After the Civil War
After the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passed laws to return land that the government had taken to its former Southern owners. In April 1875, the Drayton Plantation lands were given back to the Drayton family. The U.S. government did not make plans to protect Mitchelville. However, the Drayton family was no longer interested in farming the land. They sold the land to anyone who wanted to buy it, including many freed people.
Much of the Mitchelville property was bought by an African-American carpenter named March Gardner. He could not read or write, but he was respected and successful in his businesses. Gardner put his son, Gabriel, in charge of his Mitchelville properties. These included a cotton gin, a grist mill, and a store. Gabriel later took control of the property deeds for himself.
In the early 1900s, March Gardner's family sued Gabriel Gardner's family. They claimed that Gabriel had taken the property unfairly. The legal documents from this court case give us a special look into what Mitchelville was like during that time.
Emmeline Washington, March Gardner's daughter, said that many families lived in Mitchelville. They farmed plots of land next to their houses. The money collected from rent was used to pay taxes on the property. March Gardner had built a cotton house, a cotton gin, a steam-powered grist mill, and a shop there. The court case also named several residents from the late 1800s and early 1900s. These included Scapio Drayton, Bob Washington, Jack Screven, and Hannah Williams. Hannah Williams stated that she had bought a house in Mitchelville for $5.00.
The court ordered a survey of the Mitchelville property. The land was then divided among the heirs of March and Gabriel Gardner involved in the case. The cost of the case was also divided among them.
Over time, many of these properties were sold, often due to unpaid taxes. For example, in 1930, Eugenia Heyward's property was sold for $31.00 to pay a $15.00 tax bill. It was bought by Roy A. Rainey from New York, who was buying land on Hilton Head Island for hunting.
In 1890, about 3,000 African-Americans lived on Hilton Head Island. By 1930, only about 300 lived there. However, by 2010, about 2,766 of the 37,099 year-round residents on Hilton Head were African American.
Images for kids
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"Refugee quarters" in Mitchelville, 1864
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Map of Mitchelville, around the 1860s
