USCBe Informed: News & Happenings

Mapping Reconstructed History

Dr. James Shinn introducing students Samantha Mischke, Grace Farish and unnamed classmate
 Dr. James Shinn at the 2023 ISRE Spring Symposium on 08 Apr 2023 introducing student research authors Samantha Mischke, Grace Farish and classmate.

In the Spring of 2023 USCB – University of South Carolina Beaufort undergraduate students Samantha Mischke and Grace Farish, overseen by USC Beaufort History Professor Dr. James Shinn undertook an ambitious project to document land ownership by soldiers of the 1st SC Volunteers of African Descent, also known as the1st SCVAD. Their findings were presented at the Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era (ISRE) first annual spring symposium on April 08, 2023. 

This research was made possible by funding through the McCausland grant from USC College of Arts and Sciences though the financial support provided.

“When identifying the 1st SC properties, it was a bit of a lengthy process.” says Same Mischke.  

Research conducted by the two identified twelve properties owned by nine different soldiers during the Reconstruction Era, most of them located in Beaufort's Point, Old Commons and Northwest Quadrant historic districts. 

Explaining the process of their research Mischke remarked, “To break it down, we would look at enlistment files and [compare] the information on those files to local tax sales in Beaufort, if the information matched then we knew that it was most likely the same person purchasing the property. We compared the tax sales to a Beaufort Tax map that sectioned downtown Beaufort into small bits of land/quadrants. With the tax map, we were able to compare it to a present-day map or look for other records pertaining to the soldier and if anything with the property.”   

List of Direct Tax Sales in Beaufort printed in “The Free South” newspaper on 30 Jan 1864
List of Direct Tax Sales in Beaufort printed in “The Free South” newspaper on 30 Jan 1864 that was used by the students in their research.

Mischke & Farish’s research indicates that 1st SCVAD Color Sergeant and future SC State Representative and Co-Founder of Aiken County, Prince Rivers, purchased four different properties through direct tax sales held by US Tax Commissioners in Union-held Beaufort during the Civil War. 

Providing photographs of the properties they discovered that were subsequently mapped helped identify which locations still had historic buildings. Thus, providing the foundation for future land ownership research by ISRE staff as well as providing a starting point for research by other students in the University of South Carolina system.  

- USCB -

LM 9/16/2024