Hog Hammock

Hog Hammock is the last intact Geechee/Gullah community in the Sea Islands of Georgia and comprises direct descendants of slaves brought to Sapelo Island in 1802. The community consists of approximately 434' acres of land located in the south-central area of Sapelo Island. Most of its residents are descendants of free blacks who purchased property after the Civil War and of slaves who lived and worked on the island when it was largely owned by the Thomas Spaulding family. The community originated in 1834 as one of several early African American settlements located throughout Sapelo Island.

Today the community consists of several commercial land uses. There are several public areas, including a playground, and several public buildings - The Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society Inc. Multipurpose Center/Computer Lab, the Senior Citizens Center, the Hog Hammock Community Foundation, Inc building, the Farmers Alliance Hall Building, and many historical homes. There are also two churches in the community — the First African Baptist and the St. Luke Baptist Churches. The roads are unpaved packed sandy soil. Mature trees are dominated by live oaks, loblolly pines, and red cedars. The people still maintain many elements of the unique West African culture, language, and traditions brought over from the "Rice Coast" of Africa by their ancestors and continued on the isolated Sea Island.

Black Settlements
Local history of the location of slave settlements on the island and records of the plantation owners themselves, indicate several settlements located apart from the main antebellum plantation slave quarters before the civil war. Communities such as Behavior, Hanging Bull, and Bourbon Field were established by slaves. Later settlements included Raccoon Bluff, Belle Marsh, Shell Hammock, Lumber Landing, Chocolate, Hog Hammock, Long Tabby and Drink Water.

The first black-owned land on the Island was recorded in 1871 at Raccoon Bluff. The heirs of George Street sold a 1000 acre tract to William Hillery and Company, William Hillery a freed-slave, had formed a company with two other freedmen. John Grovner and Bilali Bell. The company sold land to families in Raccoon Bluff and other settlements. Over time freed slaves were able to purchase property in most of the other settlements. By 1965 Sapelo Island's largest landowner, Richard J. Reynolds, Jr., had consolidated the remaining communities located throughout the island into the area known as Hog Hammock.