Celebrating the Gullah/Geechee Nation

It's official: “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week” is July 27 - August 4th in Beaufort County. 

Read the text of the July 22, 2013 proclamation on the County Council's Proclamations list. (Select "2013/37" to see the PDF document).
 
Check out all the plans and programs in the Gullah/Geechee National International Music & Movement Festival being held at the Hunting Island Nature Center & St. Helena Branch Library Friday, August 2, 2013 at 12:00 PM - Sunday, August 4, 2013 at 7:00 PM (EDT). Fee. Details: http://gullahgeecheemusic-efbevent.eventbrite.com/

For a summary of the breadth and scope of the Gullah related materials that the BDC has and shares, read the May 22, 2013 Connections "Gullah Culture" entry. There are a host of materials in our holdings and links to online resources for you to explore this fascinating and enduring African-based contribution to American culture.  We think that you'll be surprised by what you learn and experience. 

Please remember that we're here to help you explore our deep and wide historical heritage!

Research Room Schedule Adjustment

Heads up:  The BDC Research Room will be closed at lunchtime Thurs., July 25th and Fri., July 26th.  Visit us from 10 am until Noon, grab a bite to eat, and return for an afternoon of research fun, 1 pm until 5 pm on those two dates.  Regular hours resume Mon., July 29th.

Go ahead and mark your calendars:  We'll be closed Sept. 2nd, Labor Day, too. 

The Big One

On a single terrifying night of August 1893 a devastating hurricane ripped through the islands and lowlands of South Carolina and Georgia drowning thousands and leaving tens of thousands more destitute.  

Grace Cordial, Beaufort District Collection Manager, will share photographs, diary accounts, and other materials relating to the “Great Sea Island Hurricane” during the presentation.   


This free BDC@ STH local history program will be held in the Meeting Room at St. Helena Branch Library, 6355 Jonathan Francis Sr. Road. Site contact: acox@bcgov.net, 255-6559.

Free Civil War Lecture - Drs. Wise and Rowland

 

Event Name:  "The Campaign for Charleston" with Dr. Stephen Wise and Dr. Larry Rowland

Short Description of Event:  Learn why Beaufort, Hilton Head Island, and Port Royal were the staging ground for the assault on Battery Wagner, the hospital base of the Union wounded, and the final resting place for many of the Union dead.   

Time and Date of Event:  Thursday, July 18^th, 2013 at 7 PM

Location of Event:  USC-B Arts Center, 801 Carteret Street, Beaufort, SC 29902

Price of Event: Free; Open to the general public.

Contact info: Mary Lou Brewton, BCHS President, 912-604-3634

Website: http://beaufortcountyhistoricalsociety.org/newsandevents.html

Treaty of Beaufort, 1787

Q: Have you ever wondered why South Carolina is shaped the way it is?

As is the case for most of the United States, boundary disputes sometimes create odd juts of land in current state borders. When rivers are used as dividing lines, they sometimes shift as water levels increase or recede, islands appear and disappear, as erosion occurs, etc.  South Carolina has quarreled with its neighbors about property lines for centuries – and the Treaty of Beaufort (AKA "Beaufort Convention")  has been in the thick of the discussions about the southern boundary with Georgia and where exactly the state line falls in the Savannah River.  

On June 9, 1732, King George II chartered the Colony of Georgia setting the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina as "the most northern part of a stream or river there, commonly called the Savannah." The precise location of segments of the boundary, however, proved to be a matter of continuing dispute between South Carolina and Georgia. Much of the controversy originally concerned navigation rights on the river. The colonies squabbled – and when the colonies became states they squabbled -- about the precise boundary.  Commissioners appointed by each of the States met at Beaufort, S.C., and produced a Convention known as the Treaty of Beaufort signed on April 28, 1787 that was meant to settle the matter.  But alas, it did not.   

The United States Supreme Court has decided three cases about the SC/GA border dispute which are shared by the Legal Information Institute, an organization dedicated “to ensure that the law remains free and open to everyone:”  

• The first case was South Carolina v. Georgia, 93 U.S. 4, 23 L.Ed. 782 (1876).
• The second case was Georgia v. South Carolina, 257 U.S. 516, 42 S.Ct. 173, 66 L.Ed. 347, decided in 1922.
• The third case was Georgia v. South Carolina. 497 U.S. 376 (110 S.Ct. 2903, 111 L.Ed.2d 309), decided in 1990.

To learn more about South Carolina/Georgia/North Carolina boundary disputes, drop by the BDC Research Room to read “Troublesome Boundaries: Royal Proclamations, Indian Treaties, Lawsuits, Political Deals, and Other Errors Defining Our Strange State Lines” by Robert D. Temple in Carologue, (Summer 2011), pp. 12 – 19. A summary of the article is available as a PDF download at http://www.southcarolinahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Troublesome-Boundaries-Hike.pdf  but the full article is far more visually interesting and the content far more informative and entertaining.

150th Anniversary of the Attack on Battery Wagner

As has been noted earlier this month, there were three pivotal Civil War battles in July 1863: Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and the Campaign for Charleston. 

The Civil War Trust has a website dedicated to exploration of the Attack on Battery Wagner of Morris Island, a key component of the Campaign for Charleston.  Learn about the 54th Massachusetts and other Federal troops who charged Battery Wagner on July 18, 1863.  View the battle maps.  Look at period photographs of the engagement and its aftermath.  Take a quiz on your knowledge of the United States Colored Troops. Read an excerpt from Gate of Hell by Beaufort's own, Dr. Stephen Wise about the Swamp Angel, a rifled artillery piece that bombarded the City of Charleston.

Under the auspices of the Beaufort County Historical Society, Dr. Wise and Dr. Larry Rowland are presenting a free lecture on "The Campaign for Charleston" - and the role that Beaufort District played in that campaign - on Thurs., July 18th - the actual 150th Anniversary of the Assault on Battery Wagner - at the USC-B Performing Arts Center at 7 pm. Do make plans to attend.  (We'll be there - with some of our historical Civil War treasures - and to share plans of our "One County Reads the Civil War" project coming in September!) 

Please note: The Library System has plenty of copies of Gate of Hell to share!  Check out a copy from our branch local history sections today.  Of course, if you want your own personal copy, it is my understanding that Dr. Wise will be autographing his work that evening. 

Heritage Tourism

Beaufort County is visited by millions of people each year and those visits have considerable impact in our government and business pocketbooks, on the environment, and on our infrastructure needs and use.

According to The Economic Impact of Travel on South Carolina Counties 2011: A Study Prepared for the South Carolina  Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism by the U.S. Travel Association Washington, D.C., August 2012, Beaufort County ranks third in South Carolina, earning $1.0 billion in domestic travel expenditures. These expenditures generated $197.5 million in payroll as well as 11,900 jobs within the county. See http://www.scprt.com/our-partners/tourismstatistics/researchreports.aspx to download this - and other tourism related - reports. 

Some of those tourist dollars derive from heritage tourists. The National Trust’s definition of cultural heritage tourism is “traveling to experience the places and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present. It includes historic, cultural and natural resources."

We are blessed in Beaufort County to have museums, architectural treasures, historic sites, library collections and archives that share Beaufort's past with interested visitors.  Too often we do not experience the full range of the depth, breadth, and scope of the places in which we live.  I am as guilty as everyone else about neglecting to read the Historic Markers along the roads.  Do you take advantage of the cultural heritage resources available here? Do you take folks to the Parris Island, Coastal Discovery, Heyward or John Mark Verdier museums?  Do you ride out to Old Sheldon Church to look at the ruins of the Prince William's Parish church and cemetery?  Have you gone to Fort Howell?  Have you stopped by the restored old schoolhouse near Sun City?  If you have done any of these activities, then you have behaved like a heritage tourist. 

To see what the average "heritage tourist" looks like demographically speaking, visit http://www.culturalheritagetourism.org/resources/visitorProfile.htm.

Of course, one can be a "heritage tourist" and not "fit" the demographics.  I most certainly am a heritage tourist, and I don't "fit" all the criteria uncovered in the demographics.