Land Sales

Hilton Head Island is an island of plantations.

First Confiscation Act authorizes Union seizure of rebel property in insurrectionary States.

Invasion of Hilton Head by the Federal amphibious forces secures the island for the Union.

Passage by Congress of the second Confiscation Act, freeing slaves and allowing the confiscation of property owned by persons in rebellion unless the direct tax was paid.

US Direct Tax Commissioners Rev. Dr. William Henry Brisbane, Judge Abram D. Smith and Judge William E. Wording, arrive.

Disputes over terms of sales, especially to blacks and the use of preemption, settled by Washington decision to hold back nearly 60,000 acres from sales, including all of Hilton Head.

Lincoln orders survey of certain properties to be sold, proposes sales to members of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps for a quarter down, and instructs that lots be set aside for sale to “heads of families of the African race.” Hilton Head is not included in this directive nor are other parcels needed by the military. Land is also to be set aside for educational purposes.

Sales open on Hilton Head. Purchasers are listed in Hilton Head Island Tax Sales, 1863-1875. Sales continue sporadically.

Land sales are recorded in the Land Records Office in Beaufort, SC. An index to Hilton Head Island deeds is available here. Original images are available on the Beaufort County, SC website

One-year leases, called indentures, were made between individuals and the Direct Tax Commissioners or the Internal Revenue Collection Agents

Special Field Order No. 15 issued by Gen William Tecumseh Sherman limits sales of all sea-island land to blacks only and reserves a strip of land 30 miles wide along the mainland from Charlestown to St. John’s River in Florida to blacks.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands is established in the War Department. The Bureau assumes custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, Border States, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction by President Andrew Johnson authorizes the redemption of property by the original owners, subject to exclusion of prior authorized sales of confiscated property. The Act also excluded certain classes of individuals.

Over 2100 sales to “Heads of Families of African American Descent” are made during this period in Beaufort District, none on Hilton Head Island.

In preparation for their departure, the U. S. Army surveyed Hilton Head Island and sectioned it off for sale.

President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law, restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers. The Act also allows redemption of property by pre-war owners for payment of back taxes and interest. Much of sea island land is still in the hands of the Federal Government. Nine plantations were redeemed on Hilton Head Island.

Legislation provided compensation to descendants of antebellum owners for losses incurred in the sea islands as a result of the Direct Tax Act.

On June 7, 1862, the U. S. congress passed legislation placing all occupied land under a direct tax. If the tax was not paid, that land and property on it was to be confiscated by the Federal government. Only two owners paid the tax; therefore, most of the land continued to be held by the Union and was eventually sold at auction by the Direct Tax Commission.

A formula was devised to determine the amount of tax due; most of the property was, however, sold for an amount larger than the appropriate tax amount without regard for the approved formula.

A number of claims were filed by the owners or heirs of those plantations which were not redeemed for the difference between the sale prices and the correct tax amounts. Those claims are listed here.