THE EXPERIMENT  Groups and individuals from the North were anxious to come to South Carolina to help avert a humanitarian crisis. In general, the idea was to develop a comprehensive program to help former slaves work the land that had been abandoned by white plantation owners while providing them with an education to prepare them for their new status as freed men and women. The report submitted to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase showed that 200 plantations on the Sea Islands had been abandoned. This included 65 on the island of Port Royal, 50 on St. Helena, 16 on Hilton Head, and five on Daufuskie Island. 10,000 slaves had been left behind with no resources and no direction. Frederick Law Olmsted, the executive secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, said it was necessary for the U.S. to “train or educated them in a few simple, essential and fundament social duties of free men in civilized life.” His proposal became the federal Port Royal Experiment: a plan to offer the newly freed slaves an education and the chance to work the land and live independently of white control.
On Feb. 6, 1862, Sherman initiated General Order No. 9, which outlined a plan for the abandoned plantations and opened the door for Northern societies to send volunteers and workers south to aid the freedmen. Although the military was in charge, with help from the charity organizations, skilled workers came to the South to help the former slaves — who represented a fusion of various African languages and cultures that were collectively known as Gullah or Geechee — become self-sufficient. THE PENN CENTER Though what is now known as Penn Center began as a school, through the years it also became a community center, continuing its role as an important resource for the Gullah community by providing training for midwives, a health care clinic, and the state’s first day care center for black children. SHAPING THE FUTURE The Port Royal Experiment — under the direction of the government-sponsored Freedman’s Bureau and also known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands — wasn’t the only initiative meant to assist the newly freed slaves. But it was one of the biggest and most influential. However, after 1868, the Freedmen's Bureau was completely dismantled. History shows that most of the programs that that had been created to benefit the former slaves died along with President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. A great number of freedmen who invested their hard-earned money in the Freedman’s Bank lost everything they had upon its collapse. The Port Royal Experiment was successful but short-lived. We can only speculate on how its continuance could have impacted Reconstruction and shaped the future direction of the South and the U.S. In August 1861, at Fortress Monroe in Virginia, Union General Benjamin Butler declared that the slaves who escaped and came into his lines for protection were contraband of war, a term commonly used thereafter to describe this new status of slaves, which meant that the Army would not return escaped slaves to their masters. This would set the stage for a much larger undertaking at Port Royal a few months later. Image: The Sea Islands during the Civil War The Military The U.S. Army then landed a ground force under General Thomas Sherman and occupied the Sea Islands. Plantation owners and other whites fled, leaving behind all of their major possessions, including large amounts of cotton from a record crop then in the process of being harvested and about 10,000 slaves, who would provide the Northerners their first view of slavery. Those who would come to the Sea Islands to help these slaves in the coming years included Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Robert Gould Shaw, Robert Smalls, Harriet Tubman and Clara Barton. Working with them was Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Senator Charles Sumner and the American Missionary Society, among other social reform groups. Late in November the Adjutant General ordered the seizure of all cotton and any other property that could be used for the U. S. Army. Paid labor would pick, collect and pack the cotton to be shipped in transports to the Quartermaster in New York, where it was sold. Edward Pierce, personal secretary of Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase in President Lincoln’s cabinet, had worked with the slaves at Fortress Monroe. He wrote in great detail of his experiences in an article for the Atlantic Monthly, telling of the transformation from slavery to a free labor work force. The mission at Fortress Monroe set the stage for a much larger mission at Port Royal. Brigadier General Rufus Saxton said, upon the arrival of Edward Pierce, the agent of the Treasury Department, “he will have little to do but take the credit of collecting a couple of million dollars’ worth of cotton.” The cotton which had already been picked and stored before the arrival of Du Pont’s fleet, Pierce thought there were 2,500,000 pounds, an estimate which indicates that the crop was unusually large. The Slaves Many anti-slavery activists in the North recognized that Port Royal could provide the war’s first great opportunity to prove that free labor was superior to slave labor. Frederick Law Olmsted, the executive secretary of the United States Sanitary Commission, drafted a bill that would establish a framework for productively managing the plantations and ex-slaves, which was submitted to Congress. In a letter to President Lincoln on March 8, 1862, Olmsted argued that the federal government had a duty to “save the lives of the negroes” and to “train or educate them in a few simple, essential and fundamental social duties of free men in civilized life.” Congress did not pass Olmsted’s bill, and the federal government never implemented a comprehensive plan. The reality was that there were too many competing interests in Port Royal. Still, the ex-slaves and the Union officers helped turn Port Royal into a profitable source of cotton. The African Americans soon demonstrated their ability to work the land efficiently and live independently of white control by assigning themselves daily tasks for cotton growing. However, many of the ex-slaves had no desire to continue raising cotton. Families who were given or bought their own land preferred to grow food crops – like corn and potatoes – that could help them and their families survive the following winter. By selling their surplus crops, thousands of former slaves acquired land parcels that would help sustain their families for generations. Before the occupation, slaves in South Carolina could not carry guns, could not own land, and were forbidden to read and write. By 1863, African Americans were allowed to serve in the Union Army, and many of Port Royal’s best workers chose to fight. Nevertheless, many successful plantations developed, and the ex-slaves created a tightly knit community that endured into the 20th century. Sea Island Cotton During the first year of occupation African American field hands harvested approximately 90,000 pounds of Sea Island Cotton. The workers were paid $1 for every 400 pounds harvested and thus were the first former slaves freed by Union forces to earn wages for their labor. However, between boll weevil infestations and the devastation of the Civil War, the Sea Island Cotton industry was wiped out in almost a single season, never to return. The Experiment The salary of female teachers from the New England Freedmen’s Aid Society was $20 per month, besides shelter and ration; of male teachers $30 per month, besides shelter and ration. They were paid by the Treasurer of the Freedmen’s Aid Society. By 1865 they would employ fifty-four teachers: nine men and forty-five women. They would later teach the U.S. Colored Troops, including the Fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry and the 86th Infantry Regiment from the District of West Florida. In February 1862, a report to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase indicated that the territory held in the Port Royal Experiment included 14 islands and almost 200 plantations; 65 on the island of Port Royal, and 50 on St. Helena. On February 6, 1862, General Thomas Sherman wrote General Order No. 9, calling on Northern societies to help the freedmen and outlining the general plan for plantation labor and teachers. In response to the obvious need for help, the government launched the Port Royal Experiment, an effort to assist freed blacks in making the difficult transition from slavery to freedom. Northern antislavery philanthropists saw the region as a field for missionary work, and they founded societies for the relief and education of the newly free islanders. On March 9, 1862, Secretary Chase appointed Edward Pierce as a special agent of the Treasury Department to run schools, hospitals and plantations on the Sea Islands. A few days later Congress adopted an act forbidding U.S. military officers from returning fugitive slaves to their masters, and the states of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida were designated as the Department of the South under General David Hunter. Treasury agent Edward Pierce arrived in April 1862, and began organizing programs to help the Sea Islanders become self-sufficient citizens. That same month the steamship Atlantic left New York City bound for Port Royal. On board were 53 missionaries including skilled teachers, ministers and doctors who had volunteered to help promote the experiment. The Teachers Penn School In September 1862, the Towne and Murray founded the Penn School, named in honor of Pennsylvania Quaker William Penn, and relocated to the Brick Church. This was the first and would become one of the largest of the schools created for the Sea Islanders during the Port Royal Experiment. Murray, an experienced teacher, took over its day-to-day operation and served as its principal. In October 1862, Charlotte Forten arrived at St. Helena. Her wealthy Philadelphia family had been free for generations and were always active in liberation causes. As a girl, she was sent to Salem, Massachusetts, where she was educated in interracial schools attended by children of radical abolitionists. Forten was the first northern African American schoolteacher to go south to teach former slaves. Below, Towne with three students: Dick, Maria and Amoretta While many Northerners returned to the North after the end of Reconstruction, Towne spent the next forty years teaching and living among the people of the South Carolina Low Country, while living at Frogmore, a restored plantation on St. Helena Island. She developed their trust, provided them with medical care and fought for their land rights. Towne also adopted several African American children and raised them as her own. Towne wrote: “I see every day why I came and what I am to stay for.” Towne kept a detailed diary – Letters and diary of Laura M. Towne; written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, 1862-1884 (1912) – describing the tumultuous times and the many challenges she faced at St. Helena. She was also a temperance supporter and a fierce fighter for women’s rights, especially the right to vote. Known for never backing down from threats to the well-being of African Americans, Towne remained true to her convictions throughout her life. Laura Towne died of influenza on February 22, 1901, at the age of 75. Several hundred of her Sea Island neighbors followed the simple mule cart that carried her body to the Port Royal ferry, singing her favorite spirituals. She was buried at the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, and a memorial marker in her honor was erected at the Brick Church cemetery. The End of the Dream Most of the Sea Island plantations had been seized by the government for nonpayment of taxes under the authority of the U.S. Direct Tax Act of 1862. Concerned that the ex-slaves would not be allowed to keep their land, Saxton wrote a letter to Secretary Stanton dated December 7, 1862:
As the Union moved closer to victory in the Civil War, however, enthusiasm for the Port Royal Experiment began to wane. Many Northern whites, initially concerned about compensating African Americans for the injustices they had endured during slavery, now saw voting rights rather than land ownership as the key component to black progress. More conservative Northerners were increasingly uneasy about the precedent set by large scale land confiscation. The death of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 ended momentum for the programs that were helping the former slaves. New President Andrew Johnson ended the Port Royal Experiment by ordering General Rufus Saxton to return all lands in the area to their previous white owners, dashing the hopes of many Sea Islanders for land ownership and independent lives. SOURCES |
The Port Royal Experiment was a plan to send freed slaves back to africa
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