Post Civil War Freedom as a Fragile Commons:
Has real estate and recreational development on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina destroyed promising commoning practices of Gullah/Geechee people
After the Civil War, the Gullah/Geechee transformed plantations into the commons. Those commons have been threatened and destroyed since the mid-20th century in an attempt to create a tourist's paradise on Hilton Head Island
Author's Statement
My name is Alana Hutka and I am an Environmental Justice and Urban Planning student at the University of Michigan. I have lived in Michigan for most of my life. As a child, I traveled to Hilton Head Island frequently. My grandmother moved there from Buffalo, New York in the 1980s. In September 2022 she passed away and my father inherited her house, located in a gated community.
As an undergraduate, I became interested in Environmental Justice and learned about the Gullah/Geechee. I had been going to the island for years and had never learned about what happened on that island or any of the Sea Islands. Around that time, I had took a class taught by Queen Quet, Head of State of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and a researcher who works closely with her. I was able to travel to St. Helena Island to go to the Coastal Cultures Conference in March 2023. This experience gave me a new perspective on an area that I had spent so much time in but hardly knew.
Inheriting this legacy is troubling. Like many people in this country, I have inherited a violent, white supremacist legacy, not through my choice. I decided to write this case because I wanted to continue learning about this land. I did not want my learning to end when I completed that undergraduate course.
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The story arc of this case is told through the perspective of the commons and their enclosure. The commons are a fascinating area of study and have been maligned through the perpetuation of imperialist and capitalist ideologies. Young environmentalists are taught to fear the commons and to favor privatization or state control. The enclosure of the commons on Hilton Head is a form of cultural genocide. The commons are an integral component of Gullah/Geechee life and taking that away in favor of private property is a form of cultural genocide.
I hope that learners who visit this case have a better understanding of the commons, how dominant systems enclose the commons, and how they can work to promote commons in the work that they do—whether that is in South Carolina or elsewhere.
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