Sad State of Education in 18th & 19th Century South Carolina

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

Virginia B. Bartels summarizes the history of education in South Carolina very well. “Much of the 300-year history of our public schools is a tragic tale of fits and starts, marked at times by inspired leaders, but too often mired by problems of class, race, war, poverty, and geography.”

I believe receiving a good education is a primary reason so many Sams could rebuild their lives after the Civil War’s devastation. However, they received this education because they were lucky enough to be born into a family that could afford to pay for a good education in a time and in a place where this was not common. The sad state of childhood education in Beaufort in the antebellum era was not just about money. You may be surprised to learn that British tradition also played a vital, negative role.

19th Amendment – Rights of Suffrage for Women

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

This article is in honor of our 19th Amendment, which changed our country dramatically.

The Amendment’s journey from Seneca, New York, to our U.S. Constitution was long and torturous. Dataw Island has four people connected to the Women’s Suffrage Movement: Sarah Barnwell Elliott, Kate Gleason, Fanny Sams Bell, and Conway Whittle Sams. Sarah was a women’s suffrage movement leader at the state and national levels. Kate was the great industrialist who purchased Dataw Island in 1927. Fanny was one of the millions of women across the nation who proactively worked for women’s rights. Conway, a lawyer in Virginia, was vehemently against giving women the right to vote!

Declaration of Independence in America Led to Riches in Beaufort

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

William Sams fled with his family to the Beaufort area from Charleston in 1783. He left Charleston because of the Confiscation Acts of early 1782. They likely picked Beaufort due to family connections. As our past DHF president John Colgan might say, it was the second time the Sams were on the wrong side of history. But similar to the first time, this move was a blessing in disguise. The following 80 years would bring great wealth to Beaufort, South Carolina, and the Sams. This short article is about how we won our independence from Great Britain, seen through the lens of local South Carolina’s concerns and consequences.

The Sams & Our Presidents

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

Sometimes taking a long view of history provides an insightful perspective on the lives of others. A few years ago, I compiled a timeline of U.S. Presidents who were in office during the antebellum era of the Sams of South Carolina. I focused on William Sams and two particular sons, Lewis Reeve Sams and Dr. Berners Barnwell Sams, M.D. The timeline starts in 1783, when William Sams, at 42, left Wadmalaw Island and moved his family to Beaufort and Datha Island. It ends with the Great Gun Shoot / Big Skedaddle of 1861. The graphic integrates the lives of William, Elizabeth, Lewis Reeve Sams, and his brother Dr. Berners Barnwell Sams, M.D. — with — the terms of our first 16 presidents

Closure

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

We have often told you how the events of Nov 7, 1861, led to the immediate evacuation of all plantation owners from Beaufort District. And you’ve heard most lost everything as a result. The Federal government, of course, fully intended to shut the door on the old South. A war was going on, and both sides needed to fund their war efforts. For the Federal government, the legal steps started with the Direct Tax Act of August 1861, which levied taxes on all states and was amended in June 1862 to include the rebellious states as well. This led to Federally appointed tax commissioners arriving in Beaufort later that year. Foreclosures on South Carolina homes and land followed. This included all of the Sams real estate in the Beaufort District. However, there is more to the story. Thirty years later, the Federal Government compensated the Sams heirs and others for their confiscated real estate.

Lower Coast American Indians

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

Like all of the United States, the Lowcountry was inhabited by indigenous peoples when Bonum Sams II (1663 ~ 1743) and John Barnwell (1771 – 1724) immigrated here in 1681 and 1701, respectively.  Long before William Sams (1747 – 1798) bought Datha Island in 1783, the conflicts between Europeans and American Indians had played out here in the Lowcountry. The American Indians were gone from this corner of South Carolina. It may surprise you to know that nineteen American Indian tribes lived in our area at one time. We are reminded of the American Indians by the river/estuary names even today.

Sams Family Cemetery – Datha Island, South Carolina

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

I told you recently about the tripartite plantation house of BB Sams and his wife Elizabeth (Fripp) Sams. These ruins are always the highlight of the DHF docents’ tours to residents and visitors. The other site of interest is the Sams Family Cemetery, a short distance from the ruins. I wrote about this 200-year-old cemetery on Datha Island just two years ago, and there has been an exciting development. Synthesizing the research Teresa (Winters) Bridges (Sams descendant) has done in the last two years with the results of the ground-penetrating radar survey performed in 2005, I can say with confidence that her ancestor John Sams (1769-1798) is buried here on Datha.

Robert Oswald Sams (1841 – 1930)

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

April holds a special place in the history of the United States. From where I sit today, in the heart of the South, its significance cannot be overlooked. On Friday, April 12, 1861, the Battle of Fort Sumter began the Civil War. In addition, April events bookend the American Civil War. On April 9, 1865, “the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia in the McLean House in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia signaled the end of the nation’s largest war.” We are fortunate to have some first-person insights into both ends of the war. They come from Robert Oswald Sams, the grandson of “our” Lewis Reeve Sams.

Dataw Island on Datha Island

52 Sams in 52 Weeks

In response to an article about Northern Datha Island, a resident who has lived here thirty years (!) commented, “I have always questioned why ALCOA did not call the Island by its real name: Datha?”
Researching this question took me on a fascinating journey from a Muskogean Indian Chief to the King of Spain to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. In the end, I can provide this answer; Dataw Island is the name of our development on a sea island in South Carolina called Datha Island. 

What’s left for this journey is to explain why our sea island is called Datha Island and why our development is called Dataw Island.

Sea Island Cotton of South Carolina

Dataw Island History

Presentation by Bill Riski, of the Dataw Historic Society, on the history of sea island cotton. He explains why plantations came to the sea islands, why this crop was unique to the sea islands, why it was so desirable, and why it disappeared. This presentation adds to the body of knowledge of the Sams of South Carolina. Though sea island cotton generated enormous wealth for a few, it required great suffering by many.