Hogg Hummock – Sapelo Island 1_ Credit Brian Brown-Vanishing Georgia
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, the Hogg Hummock community on Sapelo Island faces a renewed threat to its historically significant design and cultural heritage. Home to one of the last remaining Gullah Geechee communities in the United States, Hogg Hummock was established by direct descendants of West Africans who were enslaved on the plantations of coastal Georgia. Following the Civil War, these formerly enslaved peoples settled on Sapelo Island and purchased over 400 acres of land. As with other Gullah Geechee communities, Hogg Hummock developed a distinct, interconnected culture of subsistence and cooperative living, due in part to the relative isolation from communities on the mainland. Now, like many areas in the Gullah Geechee corridor, Hogg Hummock faces persistent pressures that threaten the historic fabric of their community. Recent rezoning will allow homes to be constructed that double the size of the current limits. This change in policy was enacted with limited public input and can contribute to land value increases that could further force the removal of the indigenous population.
Be the first to comment