The spirit of independence

In Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Annabel Grossman visits one of the most significant, but often overlooked, cultural sites in the history of America

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We leave the woodland with the morning sunlight filtering through the trees.

Soft pine needles carpet the earth beneath our feet. Following a wooden walkway that crosses the marshland, we reach a small gazebo and look out towards the Atlantic Ocean. It was in this spot 160 years ago that formerly enslaved African American men and women would have watched to see the boats come in with the news of the passage of the 13th amendment; a change to the US constitution that formally and completely abolished slavery throughout the United States.

This is just one of the stories that Lola Campbell relays to me as we explore Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park on Hilton Head Island in America's Deep South.

“A lot of people don't know this place exists,” she says. “But it's literally where freedom began.”

With long sandy beaches flanked by lush greenery and a pleasantly mild climate year-round, the pretty island of Hilton Head on the coast of South Carolina is perhaps best known as a vacation getaway for America's well-heeled.

But beyond the meticulously well-kept golf courses (there are a rather impressive 23 on the island) and beautifully designed beach houses, Hilton Head has a rich cultural history that is integral to the story of America.

Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park is a place that tells it well. Founded in 1862 during the American Civil War, Mitchelville was the first self-governed town in the United States of formerly enslaved people, established under Union Army protection before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.