The 2nd Floor at The Westin Hotel on Hilton Island houses a wonderful display to learn about the history of the island. There's information about the environment, history connected to both The Civil War and The Revolutionary War. Information regarding Mitchelville and the large Gullah Geechee Corridor. It was hard to try and take pictures without getting the reflections from the lights. If you click on these pictures, you'll see them enlarge. I hope you can see the information about the 2 brothers, Thomas Drayton and Percival Drayton. We all know from our school days about families being divided during the Civil War. He's an example. Thomas was a Confederate in charge of Ft. Walker and Ft Beauregard, while his brother Percival stayed in the Union and was the Commander of The USS Pocahontas, which was the ship that fired on Ft. Walker and Ft. Beauregard.
Mitchellville was a self governing Black Community that was located at the North end of the Island. It was far more than a refugee camp. At the north end of the Island you see lots of signs stating it's part of the Gullah Geechee Corridor. The Gullah Geechee are descendants of slaves. The Corridor was established as a Federal National Heritage Area that runs from just north of Wilmington to as far south as St. Johns County, Florida on the cost.
The exhibit is free and well worth the time. There is much to learn, and more to do on the island then just enjoying beach time. Add this stop to your vacation itinerary.
There are guided tours of The Gullah area's as well.
PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.
It must be fun to say Gullah Geechee. Looks like an interesting place to visit.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I heard it pronounced correctly and realized I wasn't saying it correctly, I decided it was. A very interesting exhibit.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting piece of history, highly relevant today, given the course of race relations. I am glad you took the time to visit and share the experience with us. As you so rightly state, there is more to life than crisping up on the beach.
ReplyDeleteMuch more than crisping up on the beach, indeed. My crisping days are long long over. We all did far too much of that in younger years when we didn't know any better. Thanks for the visit. Always nice to see you.
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