Here's Where It Gets Interesting - South Carolina’s Islands of History, Mystery, and Monkeys with Sharon McMahon

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

In today’s solo episode, Sharon dives into some of the unique stories of South Carolina’s beautiful barrier islands. The Sea Islands in South Carolina populate the coastal Lowcountry region and are rich in history, natural beauty and… monkeys. Join in as Sharon takes us on a tour, telling tales of famous authors, big sea battles, a mid-century Coney Island of the South, the culture of the Gullah, and Morgan Island’s colony of four thousand Rhesus monkeys. (No, you’re not allowed to pet them, or even step foot on the shores of their South Carolina island home!) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Buy from dysoncanada.ca. With ANC on, performance may vary based on environmental conditions and usage. Accessories sold separately. Hello, friends. So happy to have you here. And we are exploring the beautiful state of South Carolina. One of my favorites. And there's so much to say.

Just the history of Charleston. I love it. I love it so much. But today I want to change gears a little bit. We're going to talk about the history, mystery, and the monkeys of South Carolina's barrier islands. So let's dive in. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. The South Atlantic coast of the United States has over 100 tidal and barrier islands. Many of them are inhabited, and South Carolina has roughly 35 of them. Many of them have absolutely fascinating histories, and today we're going to talk about just a handful of them. We certainly don't have time to go over the history of every single one of South Carolina's barrier islands, but I could not let the opportunity pass to share some brain tingle moments with you

about the title and barrier islands of South Carolina. So you've probably heard of some of the names of the barrier islands. You've probably heard of Hilton Head, right? There's a little corridor called the South Carolina Low Country, and a lot of the low country is located on these barrier islands. the epicenter of Southern wealth during the time of slave-based agriculture. We tend to think of the antebellum South as being like Mississippi plantations, and that is absolutely a thing. But the epicenter was this South Carolina low country, specifically the areas surrounding Charleston. When you visit them now, they are, I mean, they're stunning. They have amazing foliage and flowers and live oak trees and delicious food and just those kind of like quintessential Southern vibes. And they're known now for their cultural heritage, their natural environment. Now there's big tourist industries in these regions. But let's dive into talking a little bit about Sullivan's Island. First of all, it is a small island off the coast of South Carolina in

Charleston County. And it's kind of like a very affluent suburb of Charleston, like average home price is like $2.7 million. Okay, so like real affluent. But it was settled back in the 1600s, originally by somebody named Captain Florence O'Sullivan, who was really one of the first documented Irish immigrants to the Carolinas, eventually was originally called O'Sullivan's Island, and eventually that O got dropped. And it played an incredibly important role in the 18th century during the 1700s. It was a port of entry for 40% of the roughly 400,000 enslaved Africans that were transported to colonial America. Historians now estimate that almost all African Americans in the United States today have ancestors who passed through Sullivan's Island. And you've probably heard of author

Toni Morrison. She's a very, very decorated novelist. She wrote the book Beloved, for example, and one of the things that she has said is that there is just a complete lack of historical markers, historical places for enslaved Africans. We have many, many historic markers around the United States, and they are almost exclusively dedicated to European settlers. Things that were, this group of European settlers built this bridge over this beautiful overpass in 1823. Do you know what I'm talking about? Most of our markers in the United States don't have any relationship to the enslaved Africans who were transported here. And so one of the things that Toni Morrison has done is

she has begun a project of installing memorial benches at significant sites in the history of slavery, kind of like that idea of a bench by the road. And one of the first that she worked on to have installed was on Sullivan's Island. Sullivan's Island is also home to Fort Moultrie. It's no longer used as a military fort, but it was operational from the Revolutionary War all the way up to the 1940s. And in 1776, the fort kind of kept British troops at bay, preventing them from capturing the city of Charleston. That contribution by the people at Fort Moultrie is, you can see it still on South Carolina's flag. There's like a crescent moon that symbolizes liberty. It has a blue background, like the South Carolina flag is in part of representation of that battle between the British and the soldiers at Fort Moultrie in the

Revolutionary War. I have to tell you, though, one other fun fact about Sullivan's Island and Fort Moultrie. There was a young soldier who was not quite 19 years old, who was assigned to that fort in 1827. And he spent 13 months there before cutting short his five-year army enlistment and enrolling at the U.S. Military Academy instead. He never saw any action, spent most of his time indoors on the island as a clerk. And that person was a gentleman, maybe you've heard of him. His name was Edgar Allan Poe. Such a famous author in American literature today. Interestingly enough, he enrolled in the military under an assumed name, unassumed name, Edgar A. Perry. And he did not like to talk about his military involvement. In fact, he went so far as to invent an alternate biographical history for himself that involved him being like off traveling and seeing the world while he was actually enlisted in the military.

enlisted in the military. However, his history on Sullivan's Island does come back in one of his stories called The Gold Bug. The Gold Bug was set on Sullivan's Island. And here's how he described it in his story. He said, the island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the sea sand. It is separated from the mainland by a scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds and slime. No trees of any magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity where Fort Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, maybe found the bristly palm meadow, but the whole island is covered with the dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle. So he certainly drew on his own experience being stationed there, even though he didn't want you to know that it actually happened. All right, let's move on to the Isle of Palms. The Isle of

Palms is connected to Sullivan's Island by a bridge, and it's about four and a half square miles of land. It is thought to be 25,000 years old. It was widely used by the indigenous population to hunt and fish. They didn't inhabit it, but they used it as hunting and fishing grounds. And there were many rumors that pirates buried treasure, buried gold on Isle of Palms. That became a prevalent notion in the 1800s. Most people, though, just kind of left the island alone it did not become really inhabited until the 1880s when the people of Charleston began using it as a vacation spot to escape the heat and it became named the Isle of Palms by an investor J.S. Lawrence who kind of purchased most of the land in 1899 and he was, let's call it Isle of Palms

because he thought the like fancy sounding tropical name would attract visitors. Prior to him naming it Isle of Palms, it was known locally as Hunting Island or Long Island. Too easy to confuse with Long Island in New York, so he called it Isle of Palms. Because this island was mostly used for recreation and vacationing, by around the 1912 era, island residents began constructing pavilions near the beach, and they built an amusement park to amuse vacationers. And this gave the island this nickname of the Coney Island of the South and luxury resorts and hotels began being built. They built a steeplechase ride, a merry-go-round, horseless carriage races. So basically,

by the way, a horseless carriage is also known as a car. That's how they were marketed, horseless carriage races. In reality, it's just like car races down the beach. They imported this huge Ferris wheel that was said to be visible from downtown Charleston on a clear day. And that Ferris wheel actually began its life at the Chicago World's Fair in 1892 and then it was sent to Coney Island for a while before it landed on the Isle of Palms and for the next many decades the island thrived with tourism. There were theaters and bowling alleys and restaurants and shopping centers and like a thousand foot long fishing pier and a bandstand for nightly entertainment. And that began to change in the 1970s when most of the island was zoned residential.

So it is now mostly a place where people live. It no longer has like a massive ferris wheel and nobody has ever found any pirate treasure, but they have found Civil War era shipwrecks off the coast. One of the most famous of them is called the Georgiana, which was supposed to be the most powerful cruiser in the Confederate fleet and instead sunk on its maiden voyage after being hit by Navy ships owned by the Union. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends.

And together we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests, and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve! It is my girl in the studio! Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from The Office and our friendship with brand new guests, and we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Lady 6.0 episodes every Wednesday.

Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. The Gullah are descendants of West Africans who were enslaved on the sea islands. And most of the Gullah's early ancestors were brought to the southern United States through the ports of Charleston and Savannah, and they were enslaved to work on rice plantations. This sort of semi-tropical climate of these islands made the Low Country an ideal place for rice production, but it also made it incredibly vulnerable to the spread of disease, like yellow fever, like malaria.

And so consequently, many rice plantation owners and overseers left the low country sea islands during the rainy spring and summer when disease peaked. And they left their quote unquote rice drivers, that's what they were called, in charge. And their rice drivers were also of African descent. And so working together on these large plantations with hundreds of laborers who came from the same West African region, the Galas developed a very unique culture. They had language and community life that was well preserved and practiced, which was quite a different experience from some other enslaved Africans that went to states like Virginia and North Carolina. The Gullah people had an opportunity for community that other enslaved groups did not have. During the Civil War, these sea islands were quickly occupied by the Union because their goal was to blockade the area from Confederate shipping.

They were like, you get nothing in and out of here. They were like, you get nothing in and out of here. So the enslaved people on the rice plantations of this region were some of the first people in the South to be freed because those barrier islands were occupied by Union soldiers. And as the war was ending, Quaker missionaries from Pennsylvania traveled to the area. They set up schools. There's still a Penn Center there that is like a community organization. And one of the things that is interesting to note is that after the Civil War, the Gullah's isolation from the outside world actually increased. Rice plantation owners sort of gradually abandoned their plantations, and the Gullah were left alone in remote rural areas in the Low Country and the Sea Islands, and they continued to practice their

traditional culture with very little influence from the outside world well into the 20th century. Today, many members of this community speak an English-based Creole language that contains many African loanwords. And this tradition of storytelling and cuisine and music and folk beliefs and crafts and farming and fishing still very strongly influenced by their ancestors' West African cultures. And then we have to move on because I told you we're going to talk about monkeys. And I got to tell you about Morgan Island, which does not have any people on it, but it has a colony of thousands of wild rhesus monkeys. When I say uninhabited, I mean humans are actually not allowed to go there. You cannot go visit.

Don't start planning your trip. You're not allowed to visit. And how did Morgan Island become inhabited by thousands of monkeys? Great question. government had about 1,400 monkeys shipped to Morgan Island from their original home at a primate research center in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, the monkeys were overpopulating the area and they were passing on viral outbreaks to the local population. And Puerto Rico was like, this is not working out. This is not working for us. This is too much. It's too much. Do something to fix it. And South Carolina stepped in and was

like, hey, we have an island they can hang out on. And so it was kind of a win-win situation. Puerto Rico got to get rid of the 1,400 monkeys it no longer wanted. And South Carolina got research animals. In the 1970s, animal research was really booming. And our supply of rhesus monkeys was dwindling. And that was in part because India had put a ban on the export of research specimens to the United States. And the U.S. government wanted to create a self-sufficient breeding program within the nation's borders. And creating a colony on Morgan's Island fit the bill. And so today, Morgan Island is owned and managed by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

is owned and managed by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Charles River Laboratories leases 400 acres on Morgan Island where the monkey colony lives. And the monkeys themselves are owned by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. So one other important thing to note is that there's not actually any animal research conducted on Morgan Island, but the U.S. government believes that it is important to develop life-saving medical treatments. And one of the ways that they do that is they make sure that treatments are safe in animal populations before they are introduced to human populations. And this is something that is very controversial. There are many people, there's even a member of Congress, Nancy Mace from South Carolina, who really wants to eliminate the monkey colony on

Morgan Island. She feels like it is no longer needed. We have enough advanced technology that we don't need to do the animal trials anymore. And that is something that is a bit controversial with many people who do medical research saying it's necessary to make sure that it's safe for humans and other people feeling like it's not necessary. We have other ways that we can go about making sure things are safe for humans. You can take a boat around the island and see the monkeys, but you're not allowed to step foot on the island. Did you know that there is an island off the coast of the United States that has thousands of monkeys on it? Well, now you do. Now you do.

I find the unique cultural history of South Carolina Lowcountry. Absolutely fascinating. Someday I will do another episode just on Charleston. It's one of my favorite places. If you ever have the occasion to go, absolutely do it. But I hope you enjoyed this. I hope you learned something about the Gullah people, about the monkeys on an island, about Edgar Allan Poe's stay on an island off the coast of Charleston. Thank you so much for being here today. I'll see you again soon. Thank you so much for listening

to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or review? or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. This podcast was written and researched by Sharon McMahon and Heather Jackson. It was produced by Heather Jackson, edited and mixed by our audio producer, Jenny Snyder, and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. I'll see you next time.