Editing Beaufort County, South Carolina (section)

==History==
{{Main|Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site|New France|French Florida|Spanish assault on French Florida|Santa Elena (Spanish Florida)|Spanish Florida|Province of Carolina|Province of South Carolina|South Carolina in the American Civil War}}
{{See also|Economy of South Carolina}}
From the early days of plantations, African slaves outnumbered the European minority in the colony. The plantations on the [[Sea Islands]] had large concentrations of slaves that had infrequent and limited interaction with white people. The islands were sites of the development of the [[Gullah people|Gullah]] culture, which preserved elements from a variety of [[Slave Coast of West Africa|West African]] roots; the people also developed the [[Gullah language]], a [[creole language]]. The county was majority black until around the mid-20th century.

[[Union (American Civil War)|Union troops]] took control of Beaufort County and occupied the area beginning in 1861. Many slaves escaped and went to Union lines. In some cases, planters had moved inland for refuge, leaving their slaves on the Sea Islands. Slaves began to organize schools and other parts of their communities early in the war in this county, especially on the islands. The Army founded Mitchellville on [[Hilton Head]] by March 1863 as a village where black people could practice self-governance; by 1865, it had 1,500 residents. After the war, the [[Drayton Hall|Drayton]] family reclaimed this land for their own private use. In some cases, the Union Army allocated plots for blacks for housing and cultivating crops.<ref name="white2">{{Cite web |title=In Freedom's Shadow {{!}} National Archives |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/fall/greaves.html |access-date=2024-04-30 |website=www.archives.gov|date=August 15, 2016 }}</ref>

When [[freedmen]] were granted citizenship and the franchise after the American Civil War by constitutional amendments, most joined the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]. Although not the only majority black state, South Carolina was the only southern state during Reconstruction to elect a black majority of representatives to the state legislature.<ref name="white2" /> Beaufort County had many prominent black leaders, such as [[Robert Smalls]], [[Jonathan Jasper Wright]], [[William James Whipper]], [[Julius I. Washington]], and [[Thomas E. Miller]].<ref name="white2" />

Increasing violence during election campaigns in the state from 1868 on was used by white insurgents and paramilitary groups to suppress black voting; results were also dependent on fraud. In 1876, the Democrats regained control of the state legislature and governor's office, although results were disputed. While black Republicans continued to be elected to local office in Beaufort County and other areas through the next decades, in 1895 the Democrat-dominated state legislature passed a new constitution that effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchised most black citizens]] by making voter registration and voting more difficult. They were excluded from the political system and kept in second-class status for decades. In 1903, the county "was reported to have 3,434 literate black males to 927 whites", but due to the discriminatory practices, nearly all black citizens were barred from voting.<ref name="white2" />

From 1900 through 1950, Beaufort County's economy suffered from the decline in agriculture, which together with oppressive social conditions of [[Jim Crow]] contributed to many African Americans making a [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] out of the South. African Americans went to northern and midwestern industrial cities for jobs and became an urbanized population. The total county population of 35,495 in 1900 dropped by more than one third to 1930, and did not reach the 1900 population level again until well after 1950, when the population was 26,933. Southern Democrats in Congress helped gain the establishment of military installations in the county and state, which added more population and stimulated area jobs in the second half of the 20th century.

In addition, vacation and resort areas were developed that attracted increasing numbers of tourists through the winter season, and then others all year-round as retirees.