Freedom, as Defined by the Formerly Enslaved

The Story of Mitchelville, South Carolina

In 1862, on the north end of Hilton Head Island, formerly enslaved people founded Mitchelville—the first self-governing town created by freed people in the United States. While the Civil War was still unfolding, residents built homes, established schools, elected leaders, and began practicing democracy in real time.

Mitchelville was more than a wartime experiment. It was a powerful example of Black ingenuity and political imagination at the very moment freedom was being defined.

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