The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission, my former employer, has a long and proud history of telling the truth about African American history. With the strategic purchase of The Caw Caw Interpretive Center and then McLeod Plantation, a deliberate plan was put in place to interpret the contributions of the African American people of our area.
In October 2010, the commission acquired management control over Laurel Hill Plantation in Mount Pleasant. This 742-acre parcel has allowed the commission to expand the interpretation of the enslaved people who worked Laurel Hill Plantation.
When it comes to addressing rising traffic on S.C. Highway 41, Charleston County Council members find themselves in an almost no-win situation. With almost each proposed route there has been loud opposition. Doing nothing is also not an option.
Council members have shown a great desire to take into consideration the impacts of the people who live along the Highway 41 corridor, especially the residents of the Phillips Community. With their desire to take into consideration all affected parties, I think they are overlooking the impacts to Laurel Hill County Park’s history.
Tom O’Rourke, Mount Pleasant Town Councilman and former director of the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission. Provided
A new route was proposed Thursday at council’s Finance Committee meeting. In my opinion, it has a tremendous negative impact on the cultural history of the site, including that of the enslaved people who lived, worked and are buried there.
Between 1856 and 1862, agricultural goods such as cotton and livestock were produced at Laurel Hill. The 1860 census shows that J. Thomas Hamlin White, who owned Laurel Hill, had 120 enslaved people there. It is well documented that a significant freedmen community was established on part of Laurel Hill and shaped post-bellum life there. That community is the Phillips Community. It was established in the 1870s, as lands were deeded to former slaves from the surrounding plantations of Laurel Hill, Boone Hall and Snee Farm, among others.
Phillips Community is one of the oldest African American coastal communities in Mount Pleasant. Others nearby include Snowden, Seven-Mile, Green Hill and Hamlin Beach. These African American settlement communities need to be protected and their cultural history preserved.
The Phillips-Laurel Hill Community was carved out of a northwestern section of Laurel Hill. Land was deeded or sold to ex-slaves according to family size, resulting in parcels that were between 2 and 12 acres. Prices ranged from $63 to $100. Phillips remained solely an African American community until the 1940s, when a white-owned grocery store opened in Phillips.
Many Phillips residents can trace their lineage to the slaves of Laurel Hill Plantation.
As a part of the Highway 41 project, the African American history within Laurel Hill Plantation must be protected. Like in business, politics should solve differences with compromise. And compromise is not about winning and losing: It’s about deciding that everyone affected has value and should be listened to.
I hope that those forced to make a very difficult decision can compromise. If the road has to go through Laurel Hill, the project should pay to create a Charleston County African American Settlement Community Cultural Center, with the interpretation administered by the county’s Park and Recreation Commission.
At this location, the essential story of the contribution of the African Americans in our community can be highlighted and told forever.
Tom O’Rourke is a Mount Pleasant Town Council member.
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