IMAGE SOURCE: Photo by Jess Turner in “Perspective: Saving Sapelo Island's Legacy from Sinking.” The XYLOM. 16 July 2022.
The coastline of Georgia spans 100 miles with a string of 14 barrier islands standing guard between the Atlantic and the mainland. At the center of the string lies the fourth largest island, Sapelo. Sapelo is not unlike her sister islands sharing with them a history of Spanish explorers, marauders, and wealthy industrialists. But, Sapelo is also distinct. She is home to one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems and oldest African cultures, the Geechee. To tell the story of one is to tell the story of both.
Land and People
Sapelo’s rich natural resources have always been at the center of island history. In the Plantation era, planter and agricultural innovator Thomas Spalding used the land to cultivate traditional crops such as corn and cotton but he also envisioned introducing rice to Georgia using Sapelo’s natural fresh water tides to flood the fields. The only thing missing from Spalding’s vision was sufficient labor and expertise in tidal irrigation. He would find both in the tribes living on the Windward Coast of West Africa.
In bringing enslaved Africans to Sapelo, Spalding made no tribal distinctions leaving the different groups to live and work together as one. This context produced a set of fused cultural practices among the slaves that impacted their fishing and farming, cooking and hairstyles, basket weaving and music, language and religion. This cultural fusion repeated itself across coastal plantations throughout the southeast and the names given to the enslaved africans of these blended cultures was “Gullah” for those in North and South Carolina and “Geechee” in Georgia and Florida.
In 1934, tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds, Jr. purchased Sapelo Island using the island’s natural resources to support his interests in yachting and philanthropy. He built a 13-room mansion for his family and friends and leveraged the island’s diverse ecosystem to partner with the University of Georgia for the development of a Marine Institute which focused on marshland ecology. However, it was Reynold’s desire to reconfigure Sapelo’s land use overall that led him to consolidate the multiple Geechee communities that had settled on Sapelo following the Civil War. That one community would be relocated to a 434-acre tract known as Hogg Hammock and it would mark the beginning of the Geechee’s race against cultural extinction.
Today, the Hogg Hammock community numbers 30 residents and their future is now threatened by shifting demographics, escalating property taxes, and rising tides. These may be new challenges but it is an old fight. And, always at the center of that fight was one Geechee woman, Cornelia Walker Bailey.
IMAGE SOURCE: Photo by Ben Gray in Sheila M. Poole’s article,“Sapelo Island historian, community leader Cornelia Walker Bailey dies.” Atlanta Journal Constitution. 18. Oct 2017.
Cornelia Walker Bailey
Bailey, born on Sapelo Island on June 12, 1945, was a direct descendent of one of Sapelo’s first and most famous slaves, Bilali Mohammet, who worked as the manager of other slaves on the plantation of Thomas Spalding. Cornelia Bailey would leave Sapelo at an early age only to return in 1966 to serve as the Geechee community’s “griot” or tribal historian. In this role, she spent her days providing tours of the island and speaking to groups about the Geechee’s rich history and traditions on Sapelo. However, her powerful presence, deep knowledge, and storytelling abilities soon propelled Bailey beyond the role of tribal historian to that of cultural advocate. To fulfill this expanded role, Bailey traveled to Sierra Leone in 1989 to learn more about the cultural practices of her African ancestors. What she saw was a clear link between her ancestral homeland and what she had always known and experienced on Sapelo Island. It was a through line running from Africa to Georgia and grounded largely in agriculture. That through line became the foundation for Bailey’s advocacy and conservation work.
“We don’t want to lose the meaning of what a lot of gnats mean, how fresh-dug sweet potatoes taste cooked in hot ashes. I am Sapelo and all the hundreds of others who are descendants; we who remain here is Sapelo. We are one, bound by the spirit of an island and Bulallah the slave. Bound by high tide, fields, gossips, smoke mullet, and our faith.”
Cornelia Walker Bailey in “I am Sapelo”
Between her trip to Sierra Leone in 1989 and her death in 2017, Cornelia Walker Bailey worked diligently to implement her agriculturally-based plan for saving the Geechee culture and preserving Sapelo Island. She coordinated the reintroduction of legacy crops such as red peas and Purple Ribbon sugarcane to Sapelo with both now providing steady jobs and revenues for some Geechee residents. But, ultimately it was always about holding onto the land. To hold on means to sustain Geechee families. To hold on means to keep out wealthy investors who build million-dollar vacation homes and bring increased property taxes.
Rising Tides
Cornelia’s son, Maurice, is carrying out her legacy today and his greatest work may be in saving her agricultural initiatives from the rising tides that threaten Hogg Hammock. At four feet above sea level, the Hammock and fresh water tidal creeks are vulnerable to salt water intrusion, and indeed, it is already happening. But, once again, Sapelo residents are turning to ancient practices for a response. Instead of using hard surface structures such as concrete, oyster shells are being transported in from as far away as Athens, Georgia to create a “living shoreline” that blocks salt water intrusion, reduces soil erosion, and promotes habitat growth.
The story of saving the wild spaces of Sapelo Island from development and climate change is inseparable from the story of the Geechee people and their attempt to preserve a culture grounded in the african continent but rapidly disappearing on the Georgia coast. They are one and the same.
Sapelo remains one of Georgia's last "untouched" islands. Are there similar islands in the area where you live? How are they being protected?