Preemption

By November 1962 the U.S. Tax Commissioners were ready to begin the sale of confiscated property in Beaufort County.  Notices were published in local papers and the 60-day grace period began for the payment of taxes. On January 17 1863 notices of foreclosure were published and the announcement was made that the first auction would take place on January 17, 1863.

There was, however, considerable difference of opinion among the major authorities on the sale of property, particularly as it applied to freedmen.  Commissioners Brisbane and Wording were opposed to sales that might be illegal or unworkable, while Smith favored the use of preemption to secure land for freedmen.  Smith’s opinions were shared by Gen. Rufus Saxton and many of the missionaries,

Preemption was a device “to give the freedmen exclusive rights to bid on any available property before the tax sales opened…..By preemption, freedmen could petition the tax commissioners for specific lots, which for a down payment would be stricken from the sales list and held for the preemptor.  In this fashion the freedmen could select individual plots that allowed them to retain the land where as slaves they had lived and worked for generations. “   (Wise, p. 254)

The dispute worked its way to Washington. The planned sale was cancelled and the question was settled by Washington’s decision to hold back nearly 60,000 acres from sales, including all of Hilton Head, Parris Island and much of Port Royal, Lady’s and St. Helena Islands.  The hope among those concerned about the freedmen was that their interests would be more favorably treated in the next sale.  

The instructions of September 16, 1863, were intended to compromise between those favoring the right of preemption for freedmen on all property and those wanting open sales with no restriction on the size of the parcel or the persons to whom it was sold. Tracts were to be set aside for sales to heads of families of the African race; some 16,000 acres were to be surveyed and divided into 20 acre lots for the freedmen.   Those lots were reserved for freedmen, but were not necessarily on those tracts where they were currently living and farming and which were possibly now available for open auction.

 On Dec. 30, 1863, instructions from Washington allowed full preemption.  Brisbane and Wording, however, declined to accept any preemption claims.  On Feb 6, 1864 Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase suspended the new preemption rules and in March replaced Commissioner Smith with Judge Dennis N. Cooley.

Parts of the preemption program actually were implemented.  Some 40 petitions, filed before the sales, were accepted.  In March 1865 Congress passed a law directing the acceptance of preemption claims and some one thousand applications were approved.  (Wise, pp. 182-183, 254-273) 

Index to Preemption Records for Hilton Head Island