Descendants of Slaves Are Being Pushed Off America's Last Island Villages

On the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, Gullah Geechee families have held the same land since emancipation, speaking a language and keeping traditions that trace directly back to West and Central Africa. Now bridges, resorts, and a legal loophole called heirs property are forcing them off it, as developers buy fractional ownership stakes and courts order land sold out from under the families who live there. Rising property taxes finish the job for those who survive the courts. This film traces how the pattern started on Hilton Head in 1956 and has repeated across the island chain for seventy years, and what is actually disappearing when a community is displaced: a language, a craft, a burial ground, a way of life. It also follows the lawyers, heirs-property centers, and families fighting to clear titles and hold on before the last connection is lost for good. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 1:43 Who the Gullah Geechee Are 4:20 The Bridges Arrive 6:04 Heirs Property Explained 6:54 Developers Exploit the Loophole 8:38 Rising Property Taxes 10:29 What Gets Lost 12:48 Fighting to Stay TAGS gullah geechee, heirs property, sea islands south carolina, hilton head history, land loss black families, heirs property preservation, gullah language, sweetgrass baskets, descendants of slaves land, african american land loss, partition sale land, south carolina lowcountry history, gullah geechee cultural heritage corridor, black land ownership history, johns island south carolina, daufuskie island, clementa pinckney heirs property act, american documentary