2023 Parked at Home | #4: Reconstruction Era National Park
On Thursday, March 23 at 7:00 p.m., I attended the fourth installment of the 2023 Parked at Home series hosted via Zoom by Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) and Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. During this Parked at Home talk, park rangers Allison Horrocks and Mark Mello of BRVNHP were joined by Richard Cordon of Reconstruction Era National Historical Park (RENHP) in the Sea Islands, including the city of Beaufort, South Carolina on Port Royal Island.
Horrocks began the presentation by noting the commonalities between BRVNHP and RENHP. Both parks are comprised of multiple historic sites connected by themes, with evolution of industry as the theme of BRVNHP. Horrocks reminded the audience about the different definitions of reconstruction. Lowercase r reconstruction refers to rebuilding, repairing, or restoring a physical structure, just as people in the Blackstone Valley have worked on historic mill buildings, while the uppercase r Reconstruction Era refers to a period in United States history. At RENHP, this period is defined between 1861 to 1900, from the beginning of the American Civil War to the beginning of the 20th century. This was the same period of time that immigrants came to the United States through Ellis Island, as discussed two weeks ago during Parked At Home. Horrocks used the analogy of a book to describe these events as “chapters spliced together, not just two separate topics”. Also during this time, the Industrial Revolution in the North heavily relied on the cotton economy in the South, while pioneers moved West. Even with these distinct regional differences, the Civil War and Reconstruction affected the entire nation. Most importantly for the North, social changes combined the evolution of industry, including factories made of brick instead of wood and running on stream power instead of water power, allowed mills to be built in any part of the country.
Cordon explained multiple perspectives on Reconstruction, with the idea of rebuilding the South and the nation as a whole as both literal and figurative. Reconstruction began in South Carolina and lasted the longest in the state as part of the Union’s political and military strategy. South Carolina had led the Secession Movement since the 1850s and was the first state to secede from the Union after the battle at Fort Sumter, now its own National Historical Park with nearby Fort Moultrie. Reconstruction in South Carolina began sixty miles southwest and seven months after the battle on November 7, 1861 when federal troops invaded the South Carolina Lowcountry between Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. Thirteen thousand Union soldiers arrived on seventy-seven ships via Port Royal Sound and the Broad River, notably the deepest natural harbor south of New York City. Most wealthy White residents had already abandoned the area, while ten thousand enslaved Black residents remained, accounting for about ninety percent of the population. The troops used the area as a fueling station, allowing the Union to blockade ports in the South and launch land attacks on southern cities. Additionally, the United States federal government established the Port Royal Experiment in the area, giving Black residence a chance to receive healthcare, education, the right to bear arms, paying jobs, and their own property for the first time. Because of the importance of this experiment, the site was named a National Monument in January 2017 at the end of the Obama Administration, then redesignated as a National Historical Park in 2019 through an act of Congress during the Trump Administration. The park currently comprises of sixty-seven acres across two islands, Port Royal Island and St. Helena Island.
The military and the federal government were not alone in promoting the experiment. The Freedmen’s Aid Society with chapters in Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia worked with other abolitionist organizations to encourage doctors, missionaries, and teachers to join the project. They established schools throughout the Sea Islands, including Penn School, now an official site within the park. Now called Penn Center, this was “the first school in the South for formerly enslaved West Africans” according to both Cordon and the website. Missionaries Laura Matilda Towne and Ellen Murray, both abolitionists from Philadelphia, PA, founded and taught at the school. Darrah Hall, constructed many years later in 1900 as a community center, is now the oldest standing building on the campus and served as a venue for weddings, funerals, temperance meetings, even basketball games. During the Civil War, classes were held in the Baptist church. Originally built by enslaved people in 1855 for the wealthy White plantation owners, the Black community took over the church by 1862 and created a polling station in the building by 1868.
Two other important sites in the park include the visitor center in downtown Beaufort and Camp Saxton four miles to the south. Cordon gave his presentation in the visitor center, which was built post-Reconstruction in 1911. During Reconstruction, the area was an open air market, where freed Blacks sold supplies like food and clothing. Camp Saxton was once 700-acre John Joyner Smith Plantation, taken over by the federal government and turned into a recruiting ground and training facility for Black soldiers. The Emancipation Proclamation was read publically for the first time to a group of about five thousand people. Today, the site has been reduced to 160 acres.
Back in 1862, at the beginning of the occupation, formerly enslaved Black residents were paid a mere $0.40 a day ($11.91 in 2023) to harvest cotton on abandoned plantations. They did receive land redistributed by the government once lots were assigned to hospitals and military bases. The government had published newspaper notices telling former owners that they had sixty days to pay delinquent property taxes in person and declare allegiance to the United States to receive their land, but only twelve out of two hundred and nine returned. In 1863, tax commissioners auctioned off mansions and land at $1.25 an acre. Many Black buyers retained this land for multiple generations and still live on the property today, unusual for Reconstruction Era purchases. Wealthier Black landowners could purchase the home of their former enslavers. Famous maritime pilot Robert Smalls purchased the mansion where he was born, located on 511 Prince Street in Beauport and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Even with the ability to own land and built wealth, Blacks faced serious disadvantages. In 1865, the establishment of the Freedman’s Savings Bank allowed Blacks to store their money in a supposedly secure financial institution for the first time, as White-owned banks did not allow their deposits. By 1873, the Freedman’s Savings Bank failed during economic collapse, and many Blacks lost all their wealth. At the same time, William Tecumseh Sherman gave Order Number 15, granting forty acres and a mule to White settlers in the West by stealing land from Blacks and Native Americans. More land was sold by the federal government to finance new colleges like the University of Rhode Island. While some Blacks, especially those living in areas like the Port Island Experiment managed to regain their wealth, many lost their homes, as they were unable to take out loans from White-owned banks or pay their taxes.
Horrocks continued by explaining a connection between the the Blackstone Valley and Reconstruction as related to suffrage. The Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island arose when non-land owning White men were not permitted to vote and led an attack in Providence. Black men had originally sided with the rebellion but left when the White leaders decided not to advocate for Black suffrage. Horrocks believed that people living in the Blackstone Valley could never have expected that “within the next generation, an upheaval of their life [was] coming”. The passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments greatly changed life in the United States as these rules banned enslavement except as criminal punishment, created birthright citizenship, and gave the vote to all men regardless of race or land-owning status. Despite these amendments, the end of national Reconstruction came quickly. President Rutherford B. Hayes created the Compromise of 1877, promising to withdraw federal troops from the South if White Democrats voted for him. White supremacists groups in the South like the KKK immediately began to intimidate Black voters, but the North was no longer interested in Reconstruction and believed the era to be over, even though the process had never finished.
The talk ended on a high note. Horrocks described the exhibit “Rediscovering an American Community of Color” hosted by the Worcester Art Museum, which featured portraits of African Americans and Native Americans taken by William Bullard. The pictures were meticulously labeled, allowing curators to reconnect with family members, who attended the grand opening of the exhibit. Similarly, Cordon related a story of how he met a family whose ancestors were enslaved on the Smith plantation. The family keeps in touch with the park, and their portrait is featured on a wayside interpretive sign.
Watch the full talk here: