Mitchelville

Mitchelville was a town built during the American Civil War for formerly enslaved people, located on what is now Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.[4] One Union soldier stationed on Hilton Head at the time recounted: Negro slaves came flocking into our camp by the hundreds, escaping their masters when they knew of the landing of "Linkum sojers" [sic], as they called us - many of them with no other clothing than gunnysacksIn February 1862, there were at least 600 contrabands living in Union encampments on Hilton Head Island.General Thomas West Sherman repeatedly wrote his superiors in Washington asking for guidance regarding, and supplies for, the "contrabands".Help came from two sources: from the philanthropic northerners whom Sherman requested assistance from (such as that given by the American Missionary Association); and from Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who sent his colleague and outspoken opponent of slavery Edward L. Pierce to Port Royal to examine and eventually oversee the government effort regarding the freed slaves.On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the rebellious/Confederate states, which included South Carolina: The Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom ... and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wagesMany Union officers complained that the former slaves "were becoming a burden and a nuisance.[6] But by October 1862, however, Union leaders believed this approach was a failure, as living conditions for the freedmen were substandard and there was a need to separate the soldiers from the former slaves, and vice versa: Some wholesome changes are contemplated by the new regime, not the least of which is the removal of the negro quarters beyond the stockade, where they can at once have more comfort and freedom for improvement ...Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel, Commander of the Department of the South and headquartered at Hilton Head, decided to develop a town for the former slaves.Unlike other contraband camps, Mitchelville was developed as a regular town, with roads, one-quarter-acre lots, elected officials (some officials were appointed by the Union military, however), a church, various laws addressing such issues as community behavior and sanitation, collection of taxes, and a compulsory education law for children between the ages of six and fifteen.The residents switched to a subsistence farming-based economy, with many forming farming collectives, joining together to rent large tracts of land from the government.In Mitchelville District, the American Missionary Association supplied most of the teachers, and offered primary, intermediate, and high school classes at the various churches.Gardner placed his son, Gabriel, in charge of his Mitchelville properties, which at that time included a cotton gin, grist mill, and store.[5] The daughter of March Gardner, Emmeline Washington, testified that there were a number of families living at Mitchelville and farming three or 4-acre (16,000 m2) plots of land adjacent to their houses.