User:Ryan Vesey/Port Royal Experiment

The Port Royal Experiment was an experiment in Democracy in Port Royal, South Carolina.

Background
Port Royal, and other islands in South Carolina were occupied by Union soldiers on November 7, 1861. Soldiers of the Confederate Army and white plantation owners fled the island, leaving behind roughly 8,000 slaves. The possibilities offered by the island were seen by abolitionists and Treasury officials. The treasury officials were interested in the Sea Island Cotton grown on the island and abolitionists could "demonstrate the capacity of freed African Americans".

The Secretary of the Treasury at the time, Salmon Chase, sent an abolitionist friend, Edward Pierce, to investigate the "contraband" at Port Royal in 1862. He would persuade Chase to allow Northern societies to supervise and educate the freed popuplation. Pierce would publish an essay on the subject in the Atlantic Monthly entitled "The Freedmen at Port Royal" in 1863.