Regiment: 21st USCT
Company: B
Rank: Private
Mustered-in Date and Place: 27 April 1863 at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, United States
Mustered-out Date and Place: 3 June1864 at Morris Island, South Carolina, United States
Regiment: 104th USCT
Company: G
Rank: Private
Mustered-in date and place: 24 April 1865
Mustered-out date and place: 1866 in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States
Regiment: 34th USCT
Company: D
Rank: Private
Mustered-in Date and Place: March 1863
Mustered-out Date and Place: May 1863 at Beaufort, South Carolina, United States [Pigeon Point]
Regiment: 97th United States Colored Troop
Company: B
Rank: Private
Enrollment date and place: 10 April 1863 at New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States
Mustered-in date:
Mustered-out date and place: 6 April 1866
Regiment: 77th United States Colored Troops; 10th United States Colored Heavy Artillery
Company: H; B
Rank: Private
Mustered-in date and place: 1 September 1864 at New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Mustered-out date and place: 2 February 1867 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
Regiment: 33rd USCT
Company: D
Rank: Private
Mustered-in date and place: 6 March 1863 in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States
Mustered-out date and place: 31 January 1866 in Morris Island, South Carolina, United States
Mollie was raised by John Sharp and his 3 daughters. The Sharps were a white family who lived near Burke County, Georgia. She was given away when she was born in 1871 because she was of mixed ethnicity. She was the wife of the former slave Tasso Hopkins.
Regiment: 33rd USCT
Company: D
Rank: Private
Mustered-in date and place: 1 November 1862 in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States
Mustered-out date and place: 31 January 1866
Regiment: 21st USCT
Company: I
Rank: Private
Mustered-in Date and Place: 24 October 1864
Mustered-out Date and Place: 25 April 1866 at Charleston, South Carolina, United States
In this interview, the 109-year-old Mrs. Ercelle Chillis of James Island, Charleston County, South Carolina shared stories about her family's history and her life. Her interview opens with the story of her birth during a horrific South Carolina hurricane. She also shared the story of how her paternal grandfather walked with his family from Alabama to Charleston in the 1870s in a bid to hire a boat that would take him and his family to Africa!
Other story snippets included how she left James Island for New Jersey during the Great Migration and what life was like in the North -and what it was like to return to the Charleston area later in life.
96-year-old educator and Civil Rights worker Mrs. Jennie Mae Jefferson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised in Berkeley County, South Carolina.
Mrs. Jefferson spoke about growing up in the coastal part of eastern South Carolina in the 1930s and 40s. She shared her memories about how her community cared for one another and shared resources despite not having financial wealth.
Mrs. Jefferson went on to talk about burial practices in places that did not have an undertaker:
- Preparing bodies in the home
- How community carpenters would arrive to make the coffins
- The practice of sitting with the deceased and their family in the home
- Coffins were transported by a mule and wagon
- Leaving the deceased person's personal items on top of their grave
- The practice of leaving money at the gravesite
She shared her memories of her education. She tells the story of how her mother sacrificed to ensure that Mrs. Jefferson could attend Morris College (Sumter County, South Carolina) where she studied elementary education.
Mrs. Jefferson spoke about how she started her teaching career teaching in segregated Black schools. She would later teach at a white school. She shared her experience of going from an all-Black educational setting to a white educational setting.
The later part of her interview covered her approaches to teaching, her faith life, and her work in the South Carolina Civil Rights movement.
92-year-old trailblazer Ruby (Williams) Jones joined us in CFH to talk about the highlights in her life story.
Ruby was born on Pinckney Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina when it was still owned by the Pinckney family. She shared the story of her birth and the midwife who delivered her.
She spoke about what it was like to grow up with a real sense of community when neighbors came together and supported one another. One of the highlights in the early part of the interview was listening to her talk about how the islanders would use rowboats to go from island to island. She also spoke about the little family farms, what they grew and produced, fishing, and how her community provided for one another in lean times. Her family moved to Hilton Head after the island's owner failed to pay taxes.
Mrs. Jones spoke about her early education when she was taught in a one-room schoolhouse on Hilton Head. She talked about a typical school day.
Another highlight in her interview is when she spoke about how her father helped her enlist in the U.S. Air Force when she graduated from high school. She was the first African American woman to enlist in the Air Force from Beaufort County, South Carolina. She shared what it was like being a young Black woman in the U.S. Air Force during Jim Crow. While she and other African Americans were treated as equals on the base, their lives were segregated off the base.
Mrs. Jones became a cosmologist, opening her own beauty salon. She also helped and empowered young Black women in her community.
Regiment: USS New Hampshire
Company: Not listed
Rank: Landsman
Mustered-in date: August 1864
Mustered-out date and place: March 1865 at Port Royal, South Carolina, United States
Regiment: 104th USCT
Company: A
Rank: Private
Mustered-in Date and Place: 1 April 1865 at Beaufort, South Carolina, United States
Mustered-out Date and Place: 5 February 1866 at Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, South Carolina
