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Mitchelville was a town built during the American Civil War for escaped slaves, located on what is now Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was named for one of the local Union Army generals, Ormsby M. Mitchel. The town was a population center for the enterprise known as the Port Royal Experiment. ==History== During the first year of the Civil War, on November 7, 1861, Union forces consisting of approximately 60 ships and 20,000 men under the command of Union Navy Captain Samuel F. DuPont and Army General Thomas W. Sherman attacked Confederate forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Drayton (a local plantation owner) defending Hilton Head Island at Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard. By 3:00 p.m., the Confederate forces had retreated from the forts; when Union troops landed on Hilton Head Island, they encountered no resistance and discovered that the white inhabitants of the island had already fled to the mainland.〔Trinkley/CRC-20 n.d.; CFI 1995; Styer 2003〕 Hilton Head Island became the Union’s southern headquarters for the war and a military supply depot. Fortifications (such as Fort Howell), a hospital, barracks, and other utilitarian structures were built for the military, which at times numbered 30,000 men.〔Styer 2003〕 The island was used as a staging ground for the blockading of Savannah and Charleston.〔Trinkley 1986〕 Within two days of the Union capture of the island, approximately 150 escaped slaves (or those left behind by the Hilton Head Island planters when they fled the island) came to the Union army’s encampment; by December 15, approximately 320 escaped slaves had sought refuge at the Union army’s encampment.〔Trinkley/CRC-20 n.d.〕 One Union soldier stationed on Hilton Head at the time recounted: :::Negro slaves came flocking into our camp by the hundreds, escaping their masters when they knew of the landing of "Linkum sojers" (sic), as they called us - many of them with no other clothing than gunnysacks (Trinkley 1986). In February 1862, there were at least 600 contrabands living in Union encampments on Hilton Head Island.〔CFI 1995〕 These escaped slaves were regarded as "contraband of war" or as simply "contrabands;" they were not yet technically "freedmen", and the Union army was unsure of what to do with them. General Thomas West Sherman repeatedly wrote his superiors in Washington asking for guidance regarding, and supplies for, the "contrabands". Official policy regarding "contrabands" varied between Union-occupied areas, a problem which persisted throughout the war.〔 On February 6, 1862, General Sherman issued General Order 9, which requested assistance for the contrabands from the "highly favored and philanthropic people" in the north. Help came from two sources: from the philanthropic northerners whom Sherman requested assistance from (such as that given by the American Missionary Association); and from Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who sent his colleague and outspoken opponent of slavery Edward L. Pierce to Port Royal to examine and eventually oversee the government effort regarding the freed slaves. Pierce and representatives from the American Missionary Association quickly devised a plan for the education, welfare, and employment of the former slaves.〔 In April 1862, a military order was issued freeing the blacks on the Sea Islands. On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the rebellious/Confederate states, which included South Carolina: :::The Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom … and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages (NARA 2005). Many Union officers complained that the ex-slaves "were becoming a burden and a nuisance."〔 Some Union troops stole from the ex-slaves, and it is apparent from primary resources that the racial attitudes of some of the Union troops towards the blacks were negative; General Mitchel remarked that he found "a feeling prevailing among the officers and soldiers of prejudice against the blacks."〔 By February 1862, the ex-slaves were living inside the Union camps, in whitewashed, wooden barrack-like structures built specifically for them and under the control of the Quartermaster’s Department; similar camps were also built in nearby Beaufort, Bay Point, and Otter Island,〔Trinkley 1986, Trinkley and Hacker 1987〕 By October 1862, however, this approach was seen as a failure, with living conditions being considered substandard and the obvious need to separate the soldiers from the ex-slaves and vice versa: :::"Some wholesome changes are contemplated by the new regime, not the least of which is the removal of the negro quarters beyond the stockade, where they can at once have more comfort and freedom for improvement...Accordingly, a spot has been selected near the Drayton Plantation for a Negro village. They are able to build their own houses, and will probably be encouraged to establish their own police." (CFI 1995) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mitchelville」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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