This event series will be outside and socially distanced. Each individual performance is dependent on weather conditions. This years festivities are limited to the stage series. 

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. constitution was ratified in December 1865, officially ending slavery throughout the United States. The 14th Amendment was ratified in July of 1868, granting citizenship to African Americans. Upon gaining citizenship, African Americans were eligible to claim land under the Homestead Act of 1862, and under the Southern Homestead Act of 1866. To learn more about Black Homesteading in America, and our ongoing Black Homesteader Project, check out this link: https://www.nps.gov/home/black-homesteading-in-america.htm

My column this month departs from directly talking about homesteaders or homestead laws in the United States, but it is still relevant to both. It is the story of Neptune Robinson, Sr. and his son Neptune Robinson, Jr., formerly enslaved in South Carolina, and how they obtained land in South Carolina under federal authority in 1867. Their story ties into the larger federal effort in the 19^th century to make more land available to benefit individual Americans.

On January 25, 1867, Neptune Robinson, Jr., bought 10 acres on “Parry’s Island,” now called Parris Island, South Carolina for $15. Around that same time, his father, Neptune Robinson, Sr. paid $20 for two similar 10-acre lots which were near or bordered his son’s purchased land. All three lots were described as in the “District of Beaufort,” (Beaufort County), South Carolina, and were near Hilton Head, South Carolina. Today, part of Parris Island is the site of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, an 8,095-acre military installation established in 1915.

The deeds for Neptune Robinson Sr.’s and Jr.’s lots were issued as sales to them under federal authority resulting from a series of laws passed by Congress starting in 1862. These acts were designed to aid former slaves who would be freed if the North won the Civil War. More laws for this purpose continued into 1866 for helping the “Freedmen.” The deeds for the Robinsons’ land on Parris Island included lengthy listings of the various laws and actions that made it possible. (More to be said on that later.)

It is significant to note that this occurred in January of 1867, which was also the first month that former slaves were given limited preference rights to file for homesteads under the Southern Homestead Act of 1866.  However, their homestead claims were restricted to just federal Public Lands (those owned by the federal government) that existed in only five of the former Confederate States: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. No homesteading was possible in other former Confederate states, including South Carolina. (Earlier, I wrote a column about the Southern Homestead Act of 1866, which was a post-Civil War way that Congress tried to help newly freed slaves obtain land, but the results were mixed and largely disappointing.)

Yet the land that Neptune Robinson, Sr. and Jr. received under federal sale authority in 1867 was in South Carolina, where no Public Lands existed and where the Southern Homestead Act did not apply. So, how was this possible? To best explain this situation, we need to go back to the start of the Civil War.

After the Civil War began following the attack on Fort Sumter, parts of South Carolina were captured by Union forces beginning as early as 1862. Some of those captured lands including large plantations on the sea islands along the southern coast of South Carolina. Those had been owned for generations by wealthy landowners who used enslaved persons for their labor force. However, once an enslaver's lands fell under Union control, slavery was abolished.

Further, landowners were subject to special taxes levied by the federal government for all lands classified as being in “Insurrectionary Districts.” Subsequently, many landowners fell behind in paying taxes with their land confiscated and placed under control of the federal government. In later years, this resulted in protracted litigation from some who attempted to regain their former land holdings. None apparently succeeded in regaining seized plantation lands on Parris Island.

When enslaved African Americans along coastal South Carolina were liberated as plantation lands came under Union control, their new economic circumstances remained dire. Although free, they owned no land and had no way to make a living on their own. Some became indebted to unscrupulous former enslavers seeking to continue exploiting them.

Congress enacted legislation as early as June 7, 1862 intended to aid freedpersons in a post-war world of freedom. More laws followed including a key one passed in 1866 soon after the Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865.

“Special Field Order No. 15” (January 16, 1865) was issued by General William Tecumseh Sherman and limited the sales of all sea-island lands in South Carolina to Blacks. The Order also reserved a strip of land 30 miles wide along the mainland from Charleston, South Carolina to St. John’s River in Florida for Blacks.

Weeks later, as the end of the Civil War was drawing closer, on March 3, 1865, the “Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands” was established in the War Department. This Bureau assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, Border States, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory.

On July 16, 1866, an additional federal law was enacted that directly led to the 1867 land purchases by Neptune Robinson, Sr. and Jr. It was a law authorizing the sale by the “U. S. Direct Tax Commissioners for the District of South Carolina” of former plantation lands on the sea-islands of South Carolina. That is what is represented by the “Head of Family Land Certificates” (as they were officially titled) issued to Neptune Robinson, Sr. and Jr. in January of 1867 for their land purchases on Parris Island.

The result of those laws and the 1863 Presidential “direction and instructions” led not only to the sale of land to Neptune Robinson, Sr. and Jr. in 1867, but also to similar sales made to thousands of other former slaves in the region. While some of their similarly purchased lots were also on Parris Island, most were in other coastal areas in the region.

Neptune Robinson, Jr. was born in the 1840s in Beaufort County, South Carolina, per his death certificate found in Ancestry.com. This certificate reported his birth year as 1840, though various federal census records suggest various other years for his birth (all agree that it was in the 1840s). Subsequently, he died January 17, 1915 on Parris Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina.

The same death certificate reported that Neptune’s parents were Neptune Robinson, Sr. and his wife Mollie. They were listed by the 1870 census as farming with their family in a separate household beside their son, Neptune Robinson, Jr. and his family. Neptune Robinson, Sr. was recorded in 1870 as “age 50” and his wife Mollie P. Robinson as “age 45.” They had three other Robinsons in their household: Chloe, age 3, Joshua age 7, and Adam age 19 (listed in that order). They all may have been children of Neptune and Mollie, or some could have been their grandchildren.

Their son, Neptune Robinson, Jr., who lived very close to his parents in 1870, was reported as age 23, with a wife Delia age 18, and 2 small children named William (age 3) and Susan (age 2).

When the Neptune Robinson, Sr. family was listed in the 1880 census, only his wife and “Chloe, age 15” lived in the family household. Subsequently, Neptune Robinson, Sr.’s death date was listed as occurring in January of 1900, a few months before the 1900 census was taken. Neither Neptune Robinson, Sr. nor his wife were listed in that census suggesting that both had died before it was made.

Returning to their son, Neptune Robinson, Jr., when the 1880 census was taken, it listed him as still farming in Beaufort County, South Carolina. He and his family were recorded as: Neptune age 39, wife Delia age 24(?), son William age 12, crippled daughter Nancy age 5, niece Susan Davis age 22, and daughter Betsy age 2.

Subsequently, the 1900 census of the same county reported Neptune Robinson, Jr. as farming in the same area. He was listed as born in February 1842 and a widower who was the head of household. Living with him was a daughter Lavenia Robinson, born October 1886, and a lodger Robert Jenksis(?), born March 1847. Both were listed as farm laborers.

In 1910, Neptune Robinson, Jr. was again reported as farming in Beaufort County, South Carolina, but was living alone. However, living nearby was a Lavinia Jones, age 33, wife of a Doctor Jones, with 3 children. In terms of her name and age, one might wonder if she were Neptune’s daughter. Yet, the death certificate of Lavenia Singleton (wife of Henry Singleton), who died March 18, 1950 at Port Royal in Beaufort County, South Carolina, listed that she was the daughter of Neptune and Delia Robinson, though “born August 27, 1898, age 52.” (Her parentage is most likely correct, but her birth year and age seem inaccurate and illustrate that even official records need to be weighed against other records found during research.)

In any case, today there may be living descendants of Neptune Robinson, Jr. from this daughter as well as from his son Harry Robinson. As to Harry, he was born August 20, 1880 (per Social Security records) just shortly after the 1880 census was taken.

One of the sons of Harry Robinson (and thus a grandson of Neptune Robinson, Jr.), was William Robinson (1915-1997) also listed in census records of 1920, 1930, and 1940 as living in Beaufort County, South Carolina. The 1940 census reported that William Robinson headed a household that included his wife, a son, and two daughters. Likely, some of them have children and grandchildren alive today.

Indeed, Family Tree postings in Ancestry.com suggest that there are not only living descendants of the Neptune Robinson family, but some are likely still living in Beaufort County, South Carolina now.

But to take this story one step further for genealogical interest, there is suggestive evidence of the origin of the name “Robinson” for the Neptune Robinson family. The 1850 census for St. Luke’s Parrish in “Beaufort District,” South Carolina lists James T. Robinson, a 53-year-old white farmer with a wife and seven children, farming there with real estate worth $2,300. His household also included Ingram Jones, age 22, a Black laborer (apparently a free man), and Henry Dopson, age 24, a bricklayer.

However, the 1850 federal Slave census for St. Luke’s Parrish in “Beaufort District,” South Carolina reveals more about James T. Robinson. He was the owner of 7 enslaved persons. While only their ages were reported and not their names, their ages “fit” reasonably close to what would have been the approximate ages known for at least Neptune Robinson, Sr. and two of his sons, Neptune Robinson, Jr. and Adam Robinson, in 1850.

While this is not proof, it suggests the possibility that both the Neptune Robinsons (father and son) and their families could have been enslaved byf James T. Robinson and then went by the name “Robinson” when freed. Perhaps court records in Beaufort County, South Carolina involving James T. Robinson could be found that would include the names of some of his enslaved people. If so, more might be learned about this matter. (For those of you who watch the fascinating PBS show “Finding Your Roots,” created and hosted by renowned historian Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., this type of research was done for a few of his African American guests that allowed them to gain some knowledge about their enslaved ancestors before the Civil War.)

Further, five other ex-slaves named Robinson (Cilla Robinson, Bob Dessausseu Robinson, Stacey Robinson, Charles Robinson, and Bobe Robinson) also bought lots on Parris Island, South Carolina where Neptune Robinson. Sr. and Jr. acquired land in 1867. Their five purchases were done under the same federal land sales program in the former Confederate state of South Carolina, though in different locations on Parris Island and at different times. Presently, it is unknown if any of the other Robinsons might be related to the Neptune Robinsons or if they also might have been former slaves of James T. Robinson.

To conclude, while there are many more stories yet to be told of what happened during this turbulent period in American history after the Civil War, this one about two freedpersons, Neptune Robinson, Sr. and Jr., and how they obtained federally controlled former plantation land in coastal South Carolina in 1867 is both little known and intriguing. It stands as an example of how at least a few thousands of former slaves got land under federal authority in the South without homesteading after the Civil War. And it also illustrates yet another way that land was made available by the federal government in the 19^th century to benefit Americans.

By Kayla Walbridge, Eastern National Site Manager at Homestead NHP