The Lost Freedmen S Town Of Hamburg South Carolina

Hamburg is perhaps South Carolina's most famous ghost town. Founded in 1821, it grew to four thousand residents before transportation advances led to decline. During Reconstruction, recently freed slaves reshaped Hamburg into a freedmen's village, where residents held local, county and state offices. These gains were wiped away after the Hamburg Massacre in 1876, a watershed event that left seven African Americans dead, most of them executed in cold blood. Yet more than a century after Hamburg, the one white supremacist killed in the melee is canonized by the racially divisive Meriwether Monument in downtown North Augusta. Author Michael Smith details the amazing events that created this unique community with a lasting legacy.

Hamburg is perhaps South Carolina's most famous ghost town. Founded in 1821, it grew to four thousand residents before transportation advances led to decline. During Reconstruction, recently freed slaves reshaped Hamburg into a freedmen's village, where residents held local, county and state offices. These gains were wiped away after the Hamburg Massacre in 1876, a watershed event that left seven African Americans dead, most of them executed in cold blood. Yet more than a century after Hamburg, the one white supremacist killed in the melee is canonized by the racially divisive Meriwether Monument in downtown North Augusta. Author Michael Smith details the amazing events that created this unique community with a lasting legacy.

Every town has its lore, and Hamburg, South Carolina, was no exception. In its early days, upstate farmers brought their crops to ship or sell and shop for supplies in this bustling waterfront town situated along the Savannah River. Although many accomplishments of historic proportions were achieved in the town, at least part of what we thought we knew about Hamburg may not really be what happened there. In a well-researched historical presentation, Barbara Seaborn leads others through the fascinating past of the former nineteenth century trading town founded by Henry Shultz that existed for over one hundred years. After detailing the town's inception and early history, Seaborn reveals how, after the Civil War, the nearly empty Hamburg filled again when it became the new home for several hundred freed slaves, and then rose once more during the recovering postwar South, until events more than a decade later diminished the town that would eventually, despite its downfalls, create a lasting legacy. Monumental Legacy highlights the history of a former nineteenth century trading town that became a home for freed slaves, suffered racial and political violence during Reconstruction, and now inspires twenty-first century healing and correction. "Barbara Seaborn has done an accurate historical presentation of the town of Hamburg, South Carolina; its founder, Henry Shultz; and the important events that took place during the one hundred and eight years it existed as a town ..." -Milledge Murray, member and former president, Heritage Council of North Augusta

For each chapter, this book contains a wide selection of primary sources as well as two essays by historians.

With nearly 2,000 entries and 520 illustrations, this comprehensive reference surveys the history and culture of the Palmetto State from A to Z, mountains to coast, and prehistory to the present.