Tag Archives: Gullah Geechee

United States Colored Troops

There are many articles who do a much better job explaining the importance of the United States Colored Infantry and who made up the troops. The troops were made up freed men from the North and South. For Southern ones, many volunteered to fight after a Southern city was under control of Union troops. They played an important role in defeating the Confederacy.

Suggested articles:

BlackPast

Henry Ford Foundation

Atlanta History Center

Drayton Cemetery, Hilton Head Island
Ansel Drayton, 1825-1898
James Drayton
Samuel Sancho Christopher, 1843-1914
Adam Jankins, 1842-1910
Talbird Cemetery, Hilton Head Island
Corporal Wooding “Worden” White, 1836-1912
Edward Seabrook or Ladson, at some point there was a name change. Both Ladson and Seabrook are the last names of enslavers in the coastal area of South Carolina
David Williams
Jeremiah Holmes
Edward Lawyer, 1841-1911
San Sebastian Cemetery, Saint Augustine
William Sanders
Sampson Sanders

Joe Pope Cemetery-Hilton Head, South Carolina

Beaufort County

Founded in the mid to late 1800s, Joe Pope Cemetery is one of several Gullah cemeteries on Hilton Head Island. The Queen’s Chapel AME Church owns the land, but it is maintained by the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.

Benjamin Singleton, 1906-1947
Ben Singleton, 1857-1928. Notice the three linked chains which commonly represents the Odd Fellows and for fidelity, love, and truth. He was likely an Odd Fellow.
Viola Mitchel, 1905-1958

Braddock’s Point Cemetery-Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Beaufort County

Flanked by condos and one of the many golf courses on Hilton Island is an historic cemetery called Braddock’s Point Cemetery. While the earliest death date on a marker is during the Civil War, it is believed this also served as a burial ground for the people held in bondage at the nearby Braddock Point Plantation.

One of the burial practices with the Gullah Geechee people is to bury their loved ones with personal items. Sometimes it is the last dish they used, or another object of importance. Braddock’s Point Cemetery illustrates older and more modern interpretations of this practice.

My assumption is that there was a plate in this grave marker that was lost over time.
This marker is one that I’ve seen repeated in several coastal cemeteries.
One of the few markers with a corresponding footstone.
A more modern take of using plates and seashells