Last updated: February 21, 2025
Article
The Underground Railroad and Fort Moultrie
https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1205/index.htm
Beginning in the 17th century and continuing through the mid-19th century in the United States, enslaved African Americans resisted bondage to gain their freedom through acts of self-emancipation. The individuals who sought this freedom from enslavement, known as freedom seekers, and those who assisted along the way, united together to become what is known as the Underground Railroad. The National Park Service tells these stories of escape to demonstrate the significance of the Underground Railroad in the eradication of slavery as a cornerstone of the national civil rights movement. Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historic Park is proud to be designated as part of the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The park actively seeks to tell these stories of bravery.
Fort Moultrie
Fort Moultrie, located in South Carolina on the western end of Sullivan’s Island, is a 18th – 20th century fortification. Records of the Confederate States of America document that 248 enslaved people escaped from fortifications on Sullivan’s Island, including Fort Moultrie, in 1863 and 1864. Escaping past numerous Confederate military posts on a 1,600-acre island was a considerable challenge.
The port of Charleston serves as an important space to study the history of the Middle Passage and chattel slavery. Prior to 1808, newly arrived enslaved people would be “quarantined” on Sullivan’s Island prior to being sold at markets downtown. Throughout much of South Carolina’s early history, enslaved workers made up more than half of the state’s population.
The site also played a direct role in the beginning of the Civil War. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina delegates in Charleston issued the first declaration of secession, formally announcing a separation from the United States. Charleston served as a major city for secessionist planning and the formation of the Confederate States of America in the spring of 1861. On April 12, 1861, the Civil War officially began when Confederate forces, including troops at Fort Moultrie, opened fire on the US troops that occupied nearby Fort Sumter.
Enslavement at Fort Moultrie
The Confederacy occupied Fort Moultrie and the other Charleston defenses until February 1865. Throughout the war, the Confederates utilized impressed slave labor for military operations throughout their territory for various tasks, such as building earthwork fortifications, making ordnance, and mining potassium nitrate. General Order 138, issued by the Adjunct and Inspector-Generals Office in Richmond, VA, the Confederacy’s capitol, on October 24, 1863, states:
“The following instructions are published for carrying into effect the 9th Section of the Act of 26th March, 1863. To regulate impressments in respect to labor on fortifications and other public works States in which provisions have not been made on this subject: 1. The Commanding-General, or the officer of Engineers in charge of the work, shall have power to decide upon the necessity for making impressments of slaves for this purpose, after making suitable efforts to secure the necessary labor by contract.”
Through GO 138, the Confederacy could forcibly require enslavers to lease their enslaved human property to the government. To track and compensate enslavers, the Confederate Quartermaster Department created payrolls to record labor on Confederate military defenses. This data was important for the government’s records as they tracked expenses and established a history of their military defenses. After the Civil War ended, the Federal War Records Office arranged, indexed, and numbered the documents. Nearly 6,000 of these documents have been digitized by the National Archives and Records Administration.
The rolls show varied information, including the period worked, the “owner” of the slaves working for the Confederacy, the location, the occupation of the enslaved person, time employed, rate of wages, amount paid, and the signature of the person receiving the money (usually the enslaver or an attorney). In addition to the labor of enslaved people, the rolls list freedom seekers (listed as “runaway”), deaths, and other relevant details. They also include some names and occupations of free people of color and white laborers. Not every record includes each piece of information stated above, some are more detailed than others. Through analysis of these records, much information can be determined about the enslavers and their benefits from this system.
Many of the enslavers’ names listed are names commonly associated with the Charleston plantation-owning upper class of the mid-19th century: Ball, McCants, Ravenel, Snowden, and Gaillard, among others. While some enslavers leased 1-2 people, likely to meet the Confederacy’s legal requirements, others leased dozens, which provided considerable passive income. The government requirement was 30 days of service, as stated in GO 138, but many enslavers passed this requirement to increase the funds they were receiving. For example, Captain Theodore Louis (T.L.) Gourdin leased 31 enslaved people (names unknown) to work for various lengths of time at Fort Moultrie from July 20 – September 24, 1863. In the payroll documented that he received $640.68 for their forced labor. In 21st century currency, this is equivalent to approximately $15,425.29. The Gourdin family owned numerous plantations since 1707 along the Santee and Black Rivers. By marrying families such as the Gaillards and Holbrooks, other upper-class plantation owning families, in the 19th century, the Gourdin empire expanded. According to the 1860 Census, T.L. Gourdin reported 100 enslaved people in his possession, ranging in age from 1 – 70 years.
Of these people, 45 are listed as male and 55 are female. Due to the family’s upper-class status and the amount of enslaved people at their disposal, Captain Gourdin had the ability to lease labor as a means of additional income. Due to the lucrative aspect of this leasing system, some enslavers chose to extend the work of their enslaved laborers. On August 17, 1863, the Charleston Courier published the names of 19 enslaved people who extended the service of their enslaved property to the Charleston-area fortifications by an additional 30 days. Captain Gourdin leased his enslaved laborers for a longer period than required. By publishing their names in the newspaper, it seemingly comes across congratulatory or celebratory that these enslavers are leasing their human property to serve the government.
Escapes from Sullivan’s Island
Between 1863 and 1864, the payrolls list 248 enslaved people as “runaways” from Sullivan’s Island, which includes Fort Moultrie, Battery Bee, Battery Beauregard, and Battery Marshall. Fort Moultrie is the only site remaining today.
The details of where and how these freedom-seekers fled is not included in the Confederate records. Jacob Stroyer, an enslaved laborer who was forced to work on various gun positions in Charleston Harbor, later published an autobiography titled My Life in the South. In this firsthand account, he recalls the working conditions, treatment, and daily life as a person forcibly working for the Confederacy. This primary resource can be used to understand the conditions and work expected of the enslaved people on the island. He writes:
“Our work was to repair forts, build batteries, mount guns, and arrange them. While the men were engaged at such work, the boys of my age, namely, thirteen, and some older, waited on officers and carried water for the men at work, and in general acted as messengers between different points on the island.”
Stroyer’s account can provide insight on how these freedom seekers may have fled from Fort Moultrie. He writes in a section of the book titled “Negroes Escaped”:
“The way the Confederates came to the knowledge that Union soldiers were on Long Island was that the group of negroes who preceded us on Sullivan's Island had found out that Union soldiers were camping on the upper end of Long Island. So, one night quite a number of them escaped by swimming across the inlet that divides Sullivan's Island and Long Island and succeeded in reaching the U line."
Stroyer’s reference to “Long Island” would today refer to Isle of Palms, located to the northeast of Sullivan’s Island.
On occasion, enslavers posted “wanted” ads in the newspaper for their escaped human property. These often offered monetary reward for the escapee’s return. One of these ads was posted in October 1863, advertising for the return of an individual, described as “man PINO,” who escaped from Sullivan’s Island, back to where his enslaver was in St. John’s Berkely. It is listed that his work position was a “driver,” and it is asked that he be returned to the Charleston Workhouse, where other enslaved people labored as a form of punishment or until their enslavers could travel to Charleston to reclaim their human property.
What if the Escape Succeeded?
Events happening from 1863-64 certainly would have impacted the Charleston Harbor defenses and their enslaved work crews. Soon after Fort Sumter fell to the Confederacy on April 14, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called for the US Navy to establish blockades of Southern port cities, including Charleston, which continued throughout the war. In April 1863, US forces focused their attention on Charleston, eventually bombarding the harbor fortifactions until the Confederacy evacuated in February 1865.
It can be inferred that because of the close proximity of US forces, freedom seekers were more likely to flee their Confederate enslavers. Additionally, the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, on January 1, 1863, was a significant encouragement to potential freedom seekers. The proclamation stated:
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof sha then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free;”
The Emancipation of enslaved persons in areas of rebellion (Confederate states) was designed to both weaken the Confederacy’s power and provide incentive for enslaved people to escape. With the announcement, Black men were allowed to enlist in the US Army and fight directly for their freedom. It is estimated upwards of 198,000 Black men served in both the US Army and Navy during the war. This affected the entire country and the direction of the war.
The closest United States Colored Troops (USCT) enlistment site to Charleston would have been approximately 60 miles south in Port Royal, South Carolina. Camp Saxton, established in the fall of 1862 and named for General Rufus Saxton, was home to the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (later renamed the 33rd USCT) and the 2nd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (later renamed the 34th USCT). Unlike many USCT troops in the North, which were often composed of free Black men, these South Carolina infantry units were primarily composed of formerly enslaved people who escaped their bondage. Men from Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia sought safety and freedom in Port Royal.
While the USCT records list where they were born (if known), they do not list where the formerly enslaved person escaped from. It is possible that freedom seekers were able to escape from bondage at the Sullivan’s Island fortifications and enlist in Port Royal.
What if the Escape Failed?
The risks these freedom seekers assumed were severe. The most recent version of the Fugitive Slave Act, passed in 1850, enforced the return of escaped human property to enslavers. The act states:
“That when a person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the United States, has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States, the person or persons to whom such service or labor may be due . . . may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person...”
Through this legislation, the human property of enslavers was protected. Even if an escapee made it to a “free state”, they could be legally forced back into slavery and returned to their enslaver. They could be punished with jailtime or hard physical labor. The Charleston Workhouse, also called the Sugar House, was originally established for this purpose. In the early 19th century, the majority of those subjected to time at the Workhouse were enslaved people who were accused of escape or inciting rebellion. The victims often faced whipping and torture during their confinement.
James Matthews, a formerly enslaved man who published Recollections of Slavery by a Runaway Slave in 1838, served time at the Workhouse and recounted his experience. He wrote:
“I was kept in the cell till next day, when they put me on the tread mill, and kept me there three days, and then back in the cell for three days... My back, when they went to whip me, would be full of scabs, and they whipped them off till I bled so that my clothes were all wet. Many a night I have laid up there in the Sugar House and scratched them off by the handful.”
A Meaningful Legacy
While most freedom seekers’ stories are unknown, the stories of Stroyer and Matthews provide examples of what these brave individuals faced. The names of those who fled Sullivan’s Island are unknown, but their work is preserved. They provide an example to us of the dangers Black people in the United States faced, and what it took to gain their Constitutionally-promised freedoms.
Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park continually researches these underrepresented stories, and seeks to share them with the public to provide a more accurate and authentic history.
Sullivan's Island Laborers as Indicated in the Payroll Files (Includes Fort Moultrie, Battery Bee, Battery Marshall)
| Number of white laborers | Number of enslaved laborers | Cost of labor paid for by Confederacy | Listed number of slaves killed in service | Listed number of runaway slaves | |
| 1861 | 0 | 211 | $768.68 | 0 | 0 |
| 1862 | 25 | 552 | $3,365.70 | 0 | 0 |
| 1863 | 242 | 2,141 | $24,184.35 | 36 | 238 |
| 1864 | 1 | 168 | $328.41 | 1 | 10 |
| Total | 268 | 3,072 | $28,647.14 | 37 | 248 |