Daufuskie Island, a 5 miles by 2.7 miles sea island in Calibogue Sound off the coast of South Carolina, has a long history.
Native Americans visited the island at least seasonally beginning approximately 9000 years ago. In the 16th century, Spaniards left behind horses that were the forebears of today’s rare breed called Carolina marsh tackies. It was the site of several military engagements during colonial times. At the time of the Civil War, there were about a dozen sea island cotton plantations on the island upon which 200 to 300 enslaved people labored for their masters and mistresses. After the war, the freedmen set up small farms for themselves or labored as tenant farmers for other land-owners.
The Haig Point Lighthouse was a beacon for mariners who had to navigate the shifting sands in Calibogue Sound from 1873 until 1924 when it was decommissioned. The period between 1890 – 1930 was prosperous with the population swelling to almost 1000 people who earned their livelihoods from the oyster industry, logging, and truck farming. (Sources disagree about the precise number of people. Some say 700 was the peak number; Others give 2000 people as the island’s peak population.) Most of the folk housing seen today was built during this period.
Labor problems after World War II and Savannah River pollution shuttered harvesting from the oyster beds in 1959. Greater competition from the mainland areas helped curtail truck farming on the island which led to the Gullah people leaving the island in order to find work. By the time that Pat Conroy arrived to teach at Mary Fields School in 1969, the population had dwindled down to less than 100. His second book, The Water is Wide, recounts his experience there though he calls the place Yamacraw Island.
In 1982 Daufuskie Island was designated a National Register Historic District. The nomination form gave the population as 59 people. In the mid-1980s International Paper Company purchased Haig’s Point and developed it into into a gated community. Melrose Company followed suit with its own golf resorts, Melrose Club and Bloody Point Club. Given the island’s isolation, most of the planned developments have struggled to reach and maintain solvency. An eco-tourism and cultural tourism industry began to emerge about 2010. By 2018, concern is growing about negative impacts of attracting more tourists to Daufuskie.
List compiled by Grace Morris Cordial, MLS, SL, CA, Beaufort District Collection Manager, Beaufort County Library. The Beaufort District Collection is the special local history collection and archives unit of the Beaufort County Library (SC).
Latest update: 10 July 2023; Creation date: July 18, 2018.
Online Resources:
Archaeological Investigations at Haig Point, Webb, and Oak Ridge, Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Michael Trinkley, ed.; contributors, Colin Brooker [and others] (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, [1989]).
“‘D’ is for Daufuskie Island” by Walter Edgar, South Carolina A to Z, South Carolina Public Radio, 6 July 2017.
Daufuskie Island is on the National Register of Historic Places: Nomination Form; Photographs of specific sites index page
Daufuskie Island ([Washington, DC: National Public Radio, [1983]) Note: cassette audiobook approximately 30 minutes. Please note: This 22 minute recording is embedded in “Remembering Culinary Griot and NPR Commentator Vertamae-Smart-Grosvenor” by Jackie Lyden, The Salt: What’s on your plate?, National Public Radio, 4 September 2016.
“Daufuskie Island” Wikipedia. This page was last edited on 6 July 2023, at 07:48 (UTC).
“Daufuskie Island: An Idyllic Spot with a Stormy History” by Nancy Keates, Wall Street Journal, 13 July 2017
Daufuskie Island: The Paradise Beyond website sponsored by the Hilton Head Island & Bluffton Chamber of Commerce &Visitor and Convention Bureau, 2018.
Daufuskie Island Council Daufuskie Plan Review Process and Documents
Daufuskie Island Ferry website
Daufuskie Island Historical Foundation website
Daufuskie Island Report ([Columbia, SC]: South Carolina Office of Economic Opportunity, [1966?])
Documenting the Culture of Slave Descendants is a CBS News piece about Bank of America’s donation of the 61 photographs of Daufuskie Island and its residents taken by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe from 1977 to 1981 that now are the property of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Haig Point Plantation Choose the “Daufuskie Island” tab to get a drop-down menu: Daufuskie Island; History of Haig Point; Strachan Mansion & Historic Lighthouse; Getting Here
Check out these Materials from one of the SCLENDS Consortium Libraries:
Archaeological Investigations at Haig Point, Webb, and Oak Ridge, Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Michael Trinkley, ed.; contributors, Colin Brooker [and others] (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, [1989]).
An Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey of the Haig Point, Webb, and Oak Ridge Tracts, Daufuskie Island, South Carolina by James L. Michie (Columbia, SC: Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, 1983).
Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon, and Night by Sallie Ann Robinson with Gloria J. Underwood; foreword by Jessica B. Harris (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, [2007]).
Daufuskie Daze: Living, Learning, and Teaching on a South Carolina Sea Island by Jim Alberto (Hilton Head Island, SC: Lydia Inglett, Ltd. Publishing, [2019]).
Daufuskie Gatherings: A Collection of Recipes from People who Live, Work and Play on the Bridgeless Island in South Carolina by the Women of Daufuskie Island (Kearney, NE: Morris Press Cookbooks, [2010]).
Daufuskie Island by Jenny Hersch and Sallie Ann Robinson (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2018).
Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe; original foreword by Alex Haley; new preface by Deborah Willis; new epilogue by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2007)
Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe; foreword by Alex Haley (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1982)
The Daufuskie Island Plan: An Element of the Beaufort County Comprehensive Plan: Finale Draft by the Beaufort County Joint Planning Commission ([Beaufort, SC]: Beaufort County Joint Planning Commission, [1984])
Dawn at Daufuskie and Other Poems by Robert Woodward Barnwell, Sr. ([Florence, SC]: [Press of Florence Printing Company], [1936]).
Golf in the Lowcountry: An Extraordinary Journey through Hilton Head Island & Savannah [by] Joel Zuckerman with a forward by Rees Jones (Hilton Head Island, SC: Saron Press, [2003]).
Gullah Animal Tales from Daufuskie Island, South Carolina as told by Albert H. Stoddard; illustrated by Christina Bates; translated and edited by Will Killhour (Hilton Head Island, SC: Push Button Publishing, 1995).
Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin’ Joe Butter Beans, ol’ ‘fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-bush Blackberry dumpling, and other Sea Island Favorites by Sallie Ann Robinson (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
An Island Named Daufuskie by Billie Burn (Spartanburg, SC: Published in association with Billie Burn Books by the Reprint Co., 1991).
Life on Daufuskie is More than a Touch of Hallelujah!: Poems and Thoughts by Lory Anderson (Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Company, 1995).
‘The Old Ones Die and the Young Ones Leaving:’ The Effects of Modernization on the Community of Daufuskie Island, South Carolina by Sabra Conway Slaughter (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1998, 1995).
Remembering the Way It was at Hilton Head, Bluffton & Daufuskie by Fran Heyward Marscher (Charleston, SC: History Press, [2005]).
The Right Side of the River: Romance, Rage, and Wonder by Roger Pinckney (Orangeburg, SC: Sandlapper Publishing, 2008)
Sallie Ann Robinson’s Kitchen: Food and Family Lore from the Lowcountry by Sallie Ann Robinson (Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, [2019]).
Signs and Wonders by Roger Pinckney (Charleston, SC: Wyrick & Co., [2004]).
Stirrin’ the Pots on Daufuskie: A Collection of Original and Favorite Recipes of Those Who Live or Once Lived on Daufuskie Island compiled by Billie Burn ([Daufuskie Island, SC]: B. Burn, [1985])
The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy is available in multiple formats by various publishers and editions.
Come to the Beaufort District Collection Research Room to see these items:
The Daufuskie Disadvantaged Project (1972) [Archives] contains photographs, correspondence, evaluation summaries, newspaper clippings, and field trip reports of the Beaufort County Library’s effort to provide a reading program to complement the recreational activities led by interns from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Other agencies involved were the Beaufort County School District and Beaufort Jasper Comprehensive Health.
SC 303.44 SLA ‘The Old Ones Die and the Young Ones Leaving:’ The Effects of Modernization on the Community of Daufuskie Island, South Carolina by Sabra Conway Slaughter (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1998, 1995).
SC 307.12 DAU 1984 The Daufuskie Island Plan: An Element of the Beaufort County Comprehensive Plan: Finale Draft by the Beaufort County Joint Planning Commission ([Beaufort, SC]: Beaufort County Joint Planning Commission, [1984]).
SC 372.1 CON The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy in multiple formats by various publishers and editions.
SC 372.1 MAN Mounting Insecurities in the Changing South: An Elementary School for Daufuskie Island, S.C. by Ansley Hester Manuel (No location: No publisher, No date).
SC 372.9757 EPP Pat Conroy and the Daufuskie Island School by Edwin Carlyle Epps (MI: University Microfilms International, 1993).
SC 398.2 GUL Gullah Animal Tales from Daufuskie Island, South Carolina as told by Albert H. Stoddard; illustrated by Christina Bates; translated and edited by Will Killhour (Hilton Head Island, SC: Push Button Publishing, 1995).
SC 641.5 BUR Stirrin’ the Pots on Daufuskie: A Collection of Original and Favorite Recipes of Those Who Live or Once Lived on Daufuskie Island compiled by Billie Burn ([Daufuskie Island, SC]: B. Burn, [1985]).
SC B Alberto Daufuskie Daze: Living, Learning and Teaching on a South Carolina Sea Island by Jim Alberto (Hilton Head Island, SC: Lydia Inglett Ltd. Publishing, [2019]).
SC 641.59757 DAU Daufuskie Gatherings: A Collection of Recipes from People who Live, Work and Play on the Bridgeless Island in South Carolina by the Women of Daufuskie Island (Kearney, NE: Morris Press Cookbooks, [2010]).
SC 641.59757 ROB Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon, and Night by Sallie Ann Robinson with Gloria J. Underwood; foreword by Jessica B. Harris (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, [2007]).
SC 641.5975 ROB Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin’ Joe Butter Beans, ol’ ‘fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-bush Blackberry dumpling, and other Sea Island Favorites by Sallie Ann Robinson (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 2003).
SC 641.59757 ROB 2019 Sallie Ann Robinson’s Kitchen: Food & Family Lore from the Lowcountry (Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, [2019]).
SC 796.352 ZUC Golf in the Lowcountry: An Extraordinary Journey through Hilton Head Island & Savannah [by] Joel Zuckerman with a forward by Rees Jones (Hilton Head Island, SC: Saron Press, [2003]).
SC 811.5 BAR 1936 Dawn at Daufuskie and Other Poems by Robert Woodward Barnwell, Sr. ([Florence, SC]: [Press of Florence Printing Company], [1936]).
SC 811.54 AND Life on Daufuskie is More than a Touch of Hallelujah!: Poems and Thoughts by Lory Anderson (Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Company, 1995).
SC 975.7 ADA Management Summary of Archaeological Data Recovery at Freeport Plantation (38BU584) Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Natalie Adams (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, 1995).
SC 975.7 TRI Additional Archaeological Testing at 38BU153 and 38BU591, Haig Point, Daufuskie Island by Michael Trinkley (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, 1989).
SC 975.7 TRI Management Summary of Archaeological Data Recovery at 38BU153, 38BU591, and 38BU961, Haig Point, Daufuskie Island, South Carolina by Michael Trinkley (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, 1989).
SC 975.7 TRI Management Summary of Archaeological Mitigation at 38BU591, Haig Point, Daufuskie Island by Michael Trinkley (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, 1989).
SC 975.7 TRI Management Summary of Archaeological Mitigation at 38BU634 South, Haig Point, Daufuskie Island by Michael Trinkley (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, 1988).
SC 975.7 TRI Management Summary of Archaeological Site Boundary Determinations and Additional Survey on Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Michael Trinkley (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, 1988).
SC 975.799 BUR 1991 An Island Named Daufuskie by Billie Burn (Spartanburg, SC: Published in association with Billie Burn Books by the Reprint Co., 1991).
SC 975.799 CHI Archaeological Investigations at Haig Point, Webb, and Oak Ridge, Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Michael Trinkley, ed.; contributors, Colin Brooker [and others] (Columbia, SC: Chicora Foundation, [1989]).
SC 975.799 COR Exploring Daufuskie Island text by Janet Cornelia; photographs by William Cornelia (Hilton Head Island, SC: SouthArt, Inc., [1989])
SC 975.799 DAU 1981 Daufuskie Kids’ Magazine: A Priceless Collection of Writing, Artwork and History by the Students at Mary Fields Elementary School on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina (Daufuskie Island, SC: Mary Fields Elementary, [1981])
SC 975.799 DAU 1993 Daufuskie Kids’ Magazine: A Priceless Collection of Writing, Artwork and History by the Students at Mary Fields Elementary School on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina (Daufuskie Island, SC: Mary Fields Elementary, [1993])
SC 975.799 DAV Preserving the Past, Forging the Future: Cultural Survival and Commodification of the Gullah, an Island People by Carol McCray Davies (Trinity College: [Publisher not identified], 1997).
SC 975.799 GRE Archeological Investigation of a 22-acre tract on Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina: Final report submitted to William Scott, Hilton Head Island, SC by TRC Garrow Associates, Inc. submitted by William Green (M.S./RPA), Principal Investigator; M. Virginia Markham and Jennifer S. Revels, authors (Columbia, SC: TRC Garrow Associates, 2001).
SC 975.799 GRE 2001 Archeological Investigation of a 22-acre tract on Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina: Final report, Project #31370 [Phase I]: July 2001 submitted to Mr. William Scott, submitted by TRC Garrow Associates, Inc. [by] William Green, Principal Investigator; authored by M. Virginia Markham, Jennifer S. Revels, and William Green (Columbia, SC: TRC Garrow Associates, 2001).
SC 975.799 HER Daufuskie Island by Jenny Hersch and Sallie Ann Robinson (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2018).
SC 975.799 LEP 1986 Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey of the Melrose Tract, Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina submitted by The Melrose Company by Larry Lepionka, Archaeologist (Columbia, SC: SC Department of Archives and History, 1986).
SC 975.799 MAR Remembering the Way It was at Hilton Head, Bluffton & Daufuskie by Fran Heyward Marscher (Charleston, SC: History Press, [2005]).
SC 975.799 MAR Remembering the Way It Was, volume 2: More Stories from Hilton Head, Bluffton and Daufuskie by Fran Heyward Marscher (Charleston, SC: History Press, [2007]). [e-book on Hoopla]
SC 975.799 MIC 1983 An Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey of the Haig Point, Webb, and Oak Ridge Tracts, Daufuskie Island, South Carolina by James L. Michie (Columbia, SC: Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, 1983).
SC 975.799 MOU Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe; foreword by Alex Haley (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1982).
SC 975.799 MOU Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe; original foreword by Alex Haley; new preface by Deborah Willis; new epilogue by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2007)
SC 975.799 PIN 2004 Signs and Wonders by Roger Pinckney (Charleston, SC: Wyrick & Co., [2004]).
SC 975.799 PIN 2008 The Right Side of the River: Romance, Rage, and Wonder by Roger Pinckney (Orangeburg, SC: Sandlapper Publishing, 2008).
SC 975.799 POP 2005 Archaeological Sites in the Webb Tract: Daufuskie Island, South Carolina: Treatment Plan: October 2005 prepared for Plantation Land Properties by Eric C. Poplin, Principal Investigator, and Patrick Morgan, Archaeologist (Atlanta, GA: Brockington and Associates, 2005)
SC 975.799 SEY Daufuskie Island: A Blending of Architecture and Tradition in the South Carolina Lowcountry: A thesis statement submitted to the faculty of the Historic Preservation Department in partial fulfillment … by Kathy K. Seyalioglu (Savannah, GA: Savannah College of Art and Design, 2006).
SC 975.799 STA Phase II Cultural Resource Investigations at Sites 38BU1904, 38BU1905, and 38BU1906 on Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina; Final Report, submitted to Mr. William Scott, Hilton Head Island, SC, by TRC Garrow Associates Inc., submitted by William F. Stanyard (M.S./RPA), Principal Investigator; Ramona Grunden, Jennifer Revels, and William Green, authors. (Columbia, SC: TRC Garrow Associates, Inc., 2001).
SC 975.799 STA 2001 Phase II Cultural Resource Investigations at Sites 38BU1904, 38BU1905, and 38BU1906 on Daufuskie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina; Final Report, Project #33062: October 2001 submitted to Mr. William Scott, submitted by TRC Garrow Associates Inc [by] William F. Stanyard, Principal Investigator; authored by William F. Stanyard, Ramona Grunden, Jennifer Revels, and William Green.
SC 975.7997 SCU 2015 Wick’s & Jake’s Daufuskie Island by Wick Scurry ([Daufuskie Island, SC]: The Author, 2015).
SC B PINCKNEY Writer’s Circle: Roger Pinckney (Columbia, SC: SCETV, [2000]). Note: DVD
SC B PINCKNEY Crying in the Wilderness: A Juke Box Poet, A Patriot of Pines, A Partisan of Palmettos, A Prince of Porpoises by Roger Pinckney (Little Rock, AK: River’s Edge Media, 2017).
SC Map #217 A Plan of the River and Sound of D’Awfoskee in South Carolina surveyed by Captain John Gascoigne (Beaufort, SC: Den of Antiquity, 1982, 1776). Note: Ours is a reproduction.
SC Map #408 A Plan of the River and Sound of D’Awfoskee in South Carolina survey’d by Captain John Gascoigne ([London]: [Jefferys and Faden], [1776]). Note: Ours is a reproduction.
SC Map #484 Daufuskie Island, SC Map 4 – 1 Former Plantation Boundaries (Pre-Civil War) [1860] by Rebecca Starr, Historian. (Beaufort, SC: Beaufort County Joint Planning Commission, 1984)
Telephone Directories: 1986-1980, 1991, 1999 – 2000, 2006, 2007, 2008, June 2009, 2010, 2011-2012.
Vertical Files:
CHURCHES – FIRST UNION AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCH: DAUFUSKIE ISLAND, SC
CONROY, PAT (1945-2016) — THE WATER IS WIDE
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND COUNCIL
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND FRONT PORCH (NEWSLETTERS)
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND: HILTON HEAD
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND MAPS: HILTON HEAD
SCHOOLS – DAUFUSKIE ISLAND ELEMENTARY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Note: The Beaufort District Collection (BDC) exists to acquire, preserve, maintain and make accessible a research collection of permanent value which records the history, culture, and environment of the South Carolina lowcountry wedged between the Combahee (pronounced “Kum’ bee”) and Savannah Rivers. BDC staff and docents are stewards who collect, protect and share unique historical materials about local history, Gullah culture, natural southeastern coastal environment, family history and archaeology of the area now covered by Beaufort County, Hampton County and Jasper County in South Carolina.
Contact the Beaufort District Collection at 843-255-6468 or e-mail bdc@bcgov.net for additional information about local history and archives relating to the people, places, and themes of the history, culture, and natural environment of Beaufort County, Jasper County and Hampton County, South Carolina.
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