Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 77 of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich.

I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Thanks for tuning into the podcast. Last week we looked at the

Battle of Port Royal Sound, which took place on November 7th, 1861. We mentioned how

within a few days after the battle the Victoria's Federales had occupied the towns of Port Royal

and Beaufort. To their surprise they found that most of the local white population had hastily

fled inland. The flight of the areas whites, besides turning Port Royal and Beaufort into

ghost towns, also meant that some of South Carolina's most prosperous plantations, which

were located along the sound on a number of the areas so-called sea islands, had been abandoned.

Well, abandoned by the whites, that is. Eight out of ten sea island inhabitants were black,

and when their owners fled, about 10,000 slaves were left behind on the sea island plantations.

According to the official records, the naval version, as the Union sailors and soldiers

probed the nearby rivers and inlets in the days after the Battle of Port Royal Sound, they found

that, quote, the whole surrounding country was seized with a perfect panic, end quote.

Not surprisingly, since their owners had fled, the newly liberated slaves were taking advantage of

the situation, gleefully vandalizing their masters abandoned mansions and celebrating what they

believed was their ultimate deliverance from bondage. According to James Oaks, in his book Freedom

National, the destruction of slavery in the United States, 1861 to 1865, quote, the sea island south

of Charleston were home to some of the wealthiest and most impressive plantations in the south.

They produced an especially fine and valuable fiber from the long staple cotton plants that could

not be grown on the farms of the southern interior. The islands around Port Royal were also home to

11,000 slaves, who had developed over the centuries a subculture of their own, different not merely

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