The Gullah Geechee are descendants of enslaved Africans who lived in the Lowcountry region. The Gullah Geechee culture is rich in heritage particularly on the Hilton Head Island and Daufuskie Islands, stemming from the freedmen who stayed and made the area their home. Their culture arose from enslaved people brought to South Carolina and Georgia from countries like Sierra Leone and Angola to work the rice, cotton and indigo plantations in the region. The owners left their plantations in the capable hands of African overseers, a practice they kept up well into the American Civil War. Both of these circumstances provided opportunities for the Sea Island enslaved people to keep their African traditions more intact than inland cities and states had.
Gullah Geechee people continued to practice their traditional culture with little influence from the outside world well into the 20th century. Historians, linguists, and anthropologists have flocked to study their culture. The Gullah Geechee preserve their unique way of life and have developed local museums, exhibits, festivals and raised awareness of their culture. Just over the bridge on Hilton Head Island and across the waters to Daufuskie are homes, farms and churches built by freedmen and the Gullah Geechee still practicing their native trades of ship building, shrimping, basket weaving, and oyster harvesting.
Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park stands as a culturally significant site in Hilton Head Island, recognized locally, regionally, and nationally as the first freedmen community established during the Civil War. It is one of six sites in South Carolina included in the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network, a collection of 67 sites that provide education, historical interpretation, and research on the American Reconstruction era from 1861 to 1900.