The Top Choice for Semaglutide in Saint Helena Island, SC

Last summer’s peach shortage due to a spring frost is leading many grocery buyers to wonder what this weekend’s unusually low temperatures will do to local produce supplies and prices. According to one local, often barefoot farmer who has seen a few decades of planting and harvesting cycles, his crops will be fine.

It’s a frigid January day as Jacky Frazier looks over thousands of strawberry plants at his vegetable farm on St. Helena Island. A stocking cap covers his head but it’s unusual to see Frazier wearing shoes, even in the winter.

The cold weather has nothing to do with it. Frazier, who prefers going shoeless even when he’s driving a tractor, lifting produce or chatting with his customers, recently underwent hernia surgery and decided to slip into some crocs as a precaution until he fully recovers.

The barefoot Frazier, one of St. Helena’s most recognizable vegetable farmers, owns the appropriately-named Barefoot Farms on Sea Island Parkway. Seen daily by thousands of commuters, it’s part of the natural scenery during the drive between Beaufort and Fripp Island, just like marsh grass and water. For decades, residents have been stopping here to pick their own sweet tasting strawberries, honeydew melons and collard greens, the official vegetable of South Carolina.

Even the sign in front of the business is iconic. It features distinctive red letters with the name of Frazier’s business — Barefoot Farms — along with the outline of two big feet. Some call it the “bigfoot sign.”

“I don’t wear shoes,” says Frazier simply, explaining how he came up with the name when he began the business 30 years ago. “I just like being barefooted.”

Frazier, a former cotton and soybean farmer who is originally from Allendale County, began selling what he was growing directly to his customers out of necessity. He was growing produce but couldn’t find buyers. He opened his fields and let people pick their own strawberries. He included a roadside stand to sell other fruits and vegetables. The location was Sea Island Parkway, which today is teeming with traffic and commuters. Frazier named it Barefoot Farms.

Compared to larger farms on St. Helena Island, Frazier says, “I’m a gardener.”

But in the four decades since he began working the land on St. Helena, his 50-acre plus farm has developed a reputation for the quality and freshness of its products, even drawing customers from as far away as Savannah and Atlanta. Customers, Frazier says, “especially like our strawberries.”

“We have a saying, ‘know your farmer and know your food,” Frazier said. “We don’t sell nothing we wouldn’t eat.”

Almost 20% of the farm’s 50 acres is devoted to strawberries, making it a major crop at the farms, which are spread across multiple plots in the vicinity. One strawberry plant alone can produce 1.5 to 2 pounds of berries, Frazier says. Some 90 percent of the strawberries are picked by customers.

In November, each plant — there’s 12,000 per acre — was carefully inserted — by hand — 3 inches into the soil, 12 inches apart.

This time of year, Barefoot Farms is closed to the public but plants are in the ground and there’s still work to do. Wearing his temporary footwear, Frazier walks as he surveys row-upon-row of strawberry plants, which are currently dormant. Their green leaves are striking against the black covering that protects them. It’s around 40 degrees and Frazier jokes that even the Lowcountry’s notorious biting bugs are looking for places to stay warm.

But it’s not the below-normal winter temperatures with lows that have dipped well below freezing that are making the blood run cold for the 74-year-old farmer with a beard that has long since turned as white as snow. Strawberries actually need chilly weather this time of year so they do not bloom early, Frazier notes. The cold now will also help control the insects.

As for his collard greens and onions, they are hardy enough to survive the freeze. The threat that keeps Frazier up at night is lurking in the trees and marshes that surround his farm.

“Our biggest problem is not the weather,” Frazier says. “It’s the deer.”

The hungry ungulates have been ravaging Frazier’s fruit and vegetables, gobbling up his profits. He’s been forced recently to invest thousands of dollars in new fencing to keep the deer at bay. Last year, a frustrated Frazier says, they took 75 percent of his crops including every strawberry. “Deer ate ‘em all,” says Frazier.

When the farm went to drip irrigation, that solved many of the weather-related issues, such as drought, Frazier said. Then the deer came along. “We can’t afford not to fence it,” he says of his crops.

Frazier has a theory about what’s causing the deer to invade. With new houses going up across the area, he suspects more deer are finding refuge on what open land remains — like his farm fields.

Onions, tomatoes, cantaloupe, sweet corn, cucumbers, watermelons, honeydew melons and other vegetables are for sale too at Barefoot Farms, not just strawberries.

“You name it,” says Frazier, “we plant it.”

He stoops down to feel the broad floppy leaf of a collard green planted in September. Harvesting has been continuous since November, with Frazier cutting the collards to fill orders.

“The cold don’t do any damage,” he says. “Collards is a cold weather crop. It can burn the leaves but they’ll grow through the winter. It don’t kill ‘em.”

Frazier raises honey bees to pollinate his vegetable crops.

Watermelons and honeydews will go in the ground in march. Onions were planted a few weeks ago. They will be ready by April 1. The onions, Frazier says, are called Barefoot sweets.

Frazier doesn’t sugarcoat his opinions.

He wouldn’t recommend farming to a younger person, for example.

“Like my Daddy told me,” Frazier says, ‘You can make a living a lot easier than farming.’”

He works seven days a week — and seven days and nights during some parts of the year.

“You have to fight with the deer at night,” Frazier says with a laugh. “Fight with the bugs during the day.”

And being a Black farmer, he adds, carries added burdens, like lower prices and higher costs for inputs.

“Same ol’ status quo,” Frazier says.

When asked if farming has provided a good living, Frazier says, “It’s a way of life. That’s the way I’d put it.”

A sign along the highway in front of Barefoot Farms advertises “Gyeens.” While the farm is closed to the public at this time of year, by the end of February or early March, customers will be pulling off of Sea Island Parkway in droves to pick the the luscious strawberries that Frazier grows.

“Barefoot Farms,” says Frazier, who does not own the land that he farms, “ends when I quit.”

He doesn’t know when that will be.

This story was originally published January 22, 2024, 5:00 AM.

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Karl Puckett covers the city of Beaufort, town of Port Royal and other communities north of the Broad River for The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet. The Minnesota native also has worked at newspapers in his home state, Alaska, Wisconsin and Montana.

Could a Performing Arts Center be coming to St. Helena Island? That’s what Beaufort County says in its invitation to local residents to participate in a survey and feasibility study that could end up with a Center on The Island that would serve local residents and attract others from across the region to help them discover the rich Gullah-Geechee culture, history and legacy of St. Helena.

According to Beaufort County, Johnson Consulting has been retained to conduct a market analysis and feasibility study for a performing arts center on Saint Helena Island. The intent is to explore a range of fiscally sustainable options that will serve residents as well as attract visitors from across the region. As part of this study, all residents and stakeholders are invited to share their insights through a comprehensive survey.

The survey by County administration aims to gather opinions, preferences, and ideas from the community to better understand the feasibility and potential for a performing arts facility.

Everyone is aware of the rich Gullah-Geechee culture and history on St. Helena Island, and it would be a big plus to have a central spot to show it off to everyone.

Whether you’re a lover of the arts, a local business owner, or a community member interested in the cultural development of St. Helena, your input is invaluable.

To participate, simply visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/23LHHXP and take a few moments to complete the survey. Printed copies will be available to the public at the St. Helena branch library. The public’s responses will play a crucial role in shaping the vision for a potential performing arts space that reflects the unique spirit and heritage of St. Helena Island.

The survey will be open until January 15, 2024. Everyone is encouraged to share their thoughts and contribute to the cultural enrichment of our unique community.

Earlier this year, we urged Beaufort County's leaders to protect their rural zoning overlay for St. Helena Island, where a developer sought to build a golf course development on a 500-acre tract commonly known as Pine Island Plantation. Many saw the proposed development as a threat to the island's unique African American history, which recognizes the island's expansive role in educating formerly enslaved people and preparing them for a new life of freedom after the Civil War and promotes the island's Gullah-Geechee culture.

Fortunately, county leaders heeded this advice and similar calls from a variety of sources. Unfortunately, the threat is not over, so they must remain vigilant in defending their vision for this special corner of South Carolina's coast.

Community groups on the island joined with environmentalists and others to ask the county to uphold the St. Helena Island Cultural Protection Overlay, which was created in 1999 and prohibits golf courses with nine or more holes, gated communities and most resort developments. Even Gov. Henry McMaster spoke out, saying the development's benefits would not offset its the damage to the “pristine, historic and culturally significant land” and that its approval would likely set off similar development proposals on St. Helena Island and beyond.

After the county upheld the overlay, the developer undertook a legal appeal and sought mediation. Several groups, including the Coastal Conservation League, Penn Center, Gullah-Geechee Sea Island Coalition and a few nearby landowners, successfully intervened in the appeal. With their seat at the table, they should work to ensure any mediation or appeal outcome upholds the Cultural Protection Overlay and Beaufort County's 2040 Comprehensive Plan. It certainly should reduce the chance of any dubious backroom deal.

The developer has indicated he may pivot to a residential development that's allowable under the current zoning, and that's certainly his right. And the county already has given him a long to-do list regarding the proposed site plan of such a development and its potential issues with septic tank permits, archaeological resources, drainage and lots that are too narrow.

But in a new twist and a sure sign that the golf course idea is far from dead, a residents' group in favor of the golf course plan and represented by state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews is also seeking to intervene in the mediation as a counter to the environmental and cultural groups. They argue that a golf course project is preferable to developing the tract for homes. A judge is expected to hear their petition Friday. Ultimately, the county's decision whether to allow a golf course is a political one, not a legal one, and both sides seem to be mustering their forces.

Beaufort County Council needs to hold its ground, uphold the decision of its Planning Commission that a golf course would violate the existing zoning, and ultimately protect the Cultural Protection Overlay that in turn protects the rural future of St. Helena Island as long envisioned in county plans.

As they consider what happens next, it's important to note that this is primarily a choice between a luxury golf resort or a residential development; it's a choice of whether to reverse a zoning decision and allow a golf resort, a decision that would set an ominous precedent for sites with similar zoning protection.

The county must remain firm, and the developer should come up with a new, better plan, ideally one that could include land protection, public access and other elements that complement the island's rural character.

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Tax-burdened property owned by the descendants of formerly enslaved people in South Carolina is being sold to hedge funds and developers

On 2 October, in a gymnasium in Beaufort, South Carolina, an auctioneer announced real estate properties that were up for bid. At different points throughout the proceedings, several people rose from their seats and yelled: “Heirs’ property!” The auctioneer would then clarify for the hundreds of others in attendance – those who had come hoping to buy land – that the property up for bid belonged to descendants of enslaved people, a group known as the Gullah-Geechee. The owners had failed to pay taxes; therefore, their homes and land had been seized by Beaufort county and were up for public sale.

The custom at these delinquent tax sales in Beaufort is to abstain from bidding on Gullah land, the aforementioned “heirs’ property”. Across the low country, land once owned by formerly enslaved people and their descendants is being lost rapidly to development. With that land loss comes the degradation of Gullah culture, which once flourished in places like Beaufort, Hilton Head and other islands off the eastern coast of the US. As a means to help preserve Gullah land from this tide of coastal development, officials in Beaufort county allow heirs, as the descendants are called, to claim their land when it comes up for bid at auction. The hope, in explaining to attendees that the county’s practice is deference to the owners, is that would-be bidders will respect the custom and not make offers on the historic land.

Of the more than 250 properties featured in the October auction, at least 10 belonged to heirs. When a Gullah heir kept their land, promising to pay the delinquent taxes, the crowd in the gym clapped. Some non-heirs bid anyway, effectively taking the properties out of Gullah hands. “The land loss we are dealing with now is due to predatory development and greed,” said Luana Graves Sellars, a director at the non-profit Lowcountry Gullah Foundation, which helps Gullah families hold on to their land by raising money to pay the outstanding taxes on their behalf.

The struggle over Gullah land is not just playing out in Beaufort county; developers are targeting warm weather coastlines in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Just north of Beaufort county on St Helena Island, Gullah residents are fighting developers’ plans for golf courses and gated communities. Two hours south of St Helena Island in Harris Neck, Georgia, Gullah people are engaged in a legal battle over land taken from them by the US government during the second world war. Nearby on Sapelo Island, Georgia, descendants of people who bought or were granted the land on which they were enslaved are fighting zoning changes that could alter the rural pace of an island that has only two paved roads.

Zoning changes that favor developers over residents with low incomes, and rising property values brought on by wealthy land buyers, are two of the root causes of Gullah land dispossession. But the rising property values in particular tend to have a more insidious effect: they result in higher taxes that many Gullah owners struggle to pay. Developers know this, and often target Gullah land for its real estate value, ignoring its historic significance. Under South Carolina law, counties are allowed to put properties that are tax delinquent up for auction. Anyone who registers with the county by submitting a copy of their photo ID ahead of a sale can bid on the properties, which can go for thousands, tens or hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars above the cost of the taxes owed. Once a bidder buys a property at auction, the owner has a year to pay their outstanding taxes – in many cases less than $1,000 – to the county, plus a 12% fee on those taxes to the bidder. This process is called “redeeming” the property.

In the case of heirs’ properties, some bidders might view the chances of redemption as higher because of the sentimental value of the land to descendants, according to Teagan Grant of the Beaufort county treasurer’s office, which conducts the auctions and seeks unpaid property taxes. “To look at it from an investor’s standpoint, the chances that [the owners are] going to redeem their property are pretty good,” Grant said, noting that property owners are warned that their land and homes could come up for auction if they don’t pay their taxes. “As much as it’s not the way we want it to be, there’s a higher chance of it being redeemed and [bidders] getting a return on their investment.”

Even if a home isn’t redeemed by the owner, winning bidders assume that the property will be worth far more than the taxes owed. At the Beaufort auction, a property on Hilton Head with $63,000 in unpaid taxes went for more than $2m, bid on by a representative of an international hedge fund who had flown in from Chicago for the event. One heirs’ property in Hilton Head, which had just $965 in unpaid taxes, was won by a man whose final bid was $29,000. The heirs’ representative, an elderly Black woman, looked on in tears and disbelief as the man kept bidding higher and higher amounts. The man, who refused to identify himself to the Guardian, argued that if the properties were of such historical importance the county should not have put them up for auction. “All I did was bid on property, which is my right,” he said. Records obtained by the Guardian show that his bid was placed on behalf of Pegasus Property Management LLC. (A business registered under that name in South Carolina has no online presence or phone number associated with it and could not be reached for comment.)

Last year, Rahein Singleton briefly lost the property his grandfather and uncle had passed to him and his cousin 20 years ago. Singleton said his home, situated on the western edge of Hilton Head, was bought by a developer at last year’s auction. With the help of Graves Sellars and others, Singleton was able to pay back the county and redeem his property. A truck driver, Singleton said he struggled last year to make his property tax payment of $1,700 for his 1.95 acres of land and the trailer in which he lives. While Singleton’s property taxes haven’t gone up as significantly as some of the other heirs’ properties that went up for auction last month – one property showed an increase of $700 in taxes since 2013 – he wonders whether property tax appraisals are part of a systematic plan to remove working-class Gullah people from their land. “In my eyes it’s a scheme to raise property taxes so people can’t afford it, then other people come in and buy the land to develop it,” Singleton said. “It’s sad.”

Though Beaufort county doesn’t give special consideration to heirs’ land at delinquent tax auctions, it does give them a rare opportunity to claim their properties at the sales. Some counties don’t provide that option for heirs at all. Still, Beaufort county officials don’t keep track of how many heirs’ properties come up for auction each year, leaving that task to advocates like Graves Sellars, who hopes that state or federal officials will see the importance of preserving Gullah land and step in to help. Last year, Graves Sellars and other members of the newly created Heirs’ Property Study Committee submitted a study to the South Carolina legislature detailing their plans to preserve Gullah land. Among their recommendations are the creation of a statewide database of heirs’ properties, the ability to redeem property without interest penalties, and exemptions, freezes and limits on property taxes for heirs’ land. The study noted that as many as 40,000 acres of heirs’ property existed in 2011. Much of that land – owned by hundreds of families and potentially thousands of individual heirs – is likely now out of Gullah hands.

“If an enslaved person bought the land, the family shouldn’t have to pay taxes on it,” Graves Sellars said. “Call it reparations if you want, but this land needs to be protected.”

By Delayna Earley

The Island News

Tuesday, Nov. 7, is Election Day, and it is approaching fast. Here’s what you need to know.

Polling places in Beaufort open at 7 a.m. and will remain open until 7 p.m.

Depending on where you live within Beaufort County, your ballot at the polling place may look different, but here are a few important items that are being voted on during Tuesday’s election:

Early voting

Early voting in Beaufort County runs through Friday, Nov. 3. The polls are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Any registered voter can visit an early-voting location in Beaufort County and vote like they would at their polling place on Election Day.

Early Voting Centers include:

– Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Beaufort County (Main office), 15 John Galt Road, Beaufort, S.C. 29906

– Bluffton Recreation Center Gymnasium, 61A Ulmer Road, Bluffton, S.C. 29910

– Hilton Head Government Complex, 539 William Hilton Parkway, Hilton Head Island, S.C. 29928

– St. Helena Branch Library, 6355 Jonathan Francis Sr. Road, St. Helena Island, S.C. 29920

Polling places

Polling places on Election Day are subject to change under certain conditions, so voters are encouraged to check their polling place at scVOTES.gov before heading out on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, Oct. 31, the polling places in northern Beaufort County are as follows:

– Beaufort 1, 2 and 3 – Charles L. Brown Activity Center – 1001 Hamar Street

– Burton 1A – Burton Wells Recreation Center – 1 Middleton Recreation Drive

– Burton 1B and 3 – Robert Smalls Leadership Academy – 43 W.K. Alston Road

– Burton 1C and 1D – Joseph S. Shanklin Elementary School – 121 Morrall Drive

– Burton 2A and 2B – Community Bible Church – 638 Parris Island Gateway

– Burton 2C – Love House Ministries – 423 Parris Island Gateway

– Lady’s Island 1A – Lady’s Island Middle School – 30 Cougar Drive

– Lady’s Island 1B – Lady’s Island Elementary School – 73 Chowan Creek Bluff Road

– Lady’s Island 2A – Coosa Elementary School – 45 Middle Road

– Lady’s Island 2B and 2C – David Smith Community Center – 140 Coosaw River Drive

– Lady’s Island 3A and 3C – Tidal Creek Fellowship – 290 Brickyard Point Road

– Lady’s Island 3B – Lady’s Island Elementary School – 73 Chowan Creek Bluff Road

– Mossy Oaks 1A – Cornerstone Christian Church – 2301 First Blvd.

– Mossy Oaks 1B – Beaufort Middle School – 2501 Mossy Oaks Road

– Mossy Oaks 2 – Mossy Oaks Elementary School – 2510 Mossy Oaks Road

– Port Royal 1 and 2 – Port Royal Town Hall – 700 Paris Avenue

– Dale/Lobeco – James J. Davis Early Childhood Center – 364 Keans Neck Road

– Seabrook 1 – Beaufort County Public Works – 120 Shanklin Road

– Seabrook 2 – Whale Branch Middle School – 2009 Trask Pkwy.

– Seabrook 3 – Grays Hill Fire Department Station 82 – 14 Bruce K Smalls Drive

– Sheldon 1 – Elijah Washington Medical Center – 211 Paige Point Road

– Sheldon 2 – Booker T. Washington Community Center – 182 Booker T. Washington Circle

– Saint Helena 1A – Saint Helena Branch Library – 6355 Jonathan Francis, Sr. Road

– Saint Helena 1B – Scott Community Center – 242 Scott Hill Road

– Saint Helena 1C – Dataw Community Center – 43 Marina Drive

– Saint Helena 2A – Saint Helena Elementary School – 1025 Sea Island Pkwy.

– Saint Helena 2B – Gloria Potts Community Center – 130 Seaside Road

– Saint Helena 2C – Fripp Island Community Center – 205 Tarpon Blvd.

What you need to vote

You must have a valid Photo ID to vote (or voter registration card if you do not have a Photo ID).

The following are acceptable type of photo IDs:

– S.C. Driver’s License

– S.C. DMV Identification Card

– S.C. Voter Registration Card with a Photo

– Federal Military ID

– U.S. Passport

Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.

Before bridges came to the sea islands of Beaufort County later followed by big-box supermarkets and convenience store chains, more than a dozen Gullah-Geechee-owned country stores were part of the fabric of St. Helana Island. They were places where islanders could buy essentials like pickles, soft drinks and beer, grits, rice, cigarettes, sliced to order cold cuts and sometimes fresh seafood and vegetables. For those struggling with a problem or financially, residents could also find advice and maybe a small loan to get them through a tough spell.

One-by-one, these welcoming neighborhood institutions gradually disappeared — except for Chaplin’s Grocery, a local landmark that will celebrate 50 years in business this July. For the past couple of years, the unassuming store at 255 Storyteller Road has stood out as the sole remaining Gullah-owned grocery on the entire 64 square-mile island of 10,000 residents. Its singularity is notable in a region with the largest population of Gullah-Geechee residents and landowners in Beaufort County.

“There was no Publix, no Food Lion, no gas station, no nothin,’” Harriet Chaplin says of the grocery landscape when she and her husband, Howard, opened the store in July 1974.

She credits the store’s longevity to her husband’s vision, hard work and a mindset of giving. “We just serve,” Harriet Chaplin says.

While the Chaplins prepare to celebrate a half century of service to the island, a newcomer in the convenience store business is just getting started. Sandra L. Mack, a New Orleans native, recently opened Fountain Island Blue Convenience Store at 1210 Seaside Road in the former Seaside Mini-mart once operated by Samuel Miller, giving the island two Black-owned convenience stores for the first time in years. Mack’s partner in the venture is Columbus Allen, who grew up on St. Helena. The store is a little more than 3 miles to the east of Chaplin’s.

Both stores are tiny dots on the grocery map compared to giants like the new Harris Teeter or Publix. But their off-the-beaten-path locations make them convenient in rural St. Helena where the nearest major grocery store, Walmart on Sea Island Parkway, is 8 miles away. Getting there can be a hardship, especially for those who don’t own or have access to a car. These shops also serve migrant workers who work the area’s tomato and melon fields. Sometimes, those workers show up by the busload. Other times, individuals arrive by bicycle.

Local community action and business groups such as The Gullah Geechee Chamber of Commerce, Community Coalition Action Network of St. Helena and Pan African Family Empowerment and Land Preservation Network also are hailing Mack’s new store and the venerable Chaplin’s for continuing a long-tradition of Black-owned entrepreneurship dating to the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Theresa White of Pan African Family Empowerment and Land Preservation Network, a Beaufort-based organization that assists Gullah-Geechee families in preserving their land, says St. Helena once boasted 14 neighborhood convenience stores.

Many factors contributed to their demise, says White. One common factor was the deaths of owners whose children chose not to continue in the family business.

Both Chaplin’s and Fountain Island convenience stores are being added to the Gullah Geechee Seafood Trail, which the Gullah Geechee Chamber of Commerce is developing.

“Our people should be in business for ourselves, and build wealth like the other ethnic groups in America,” says Fountain Island’s Mack. “Then we can give back to our communities.”

Mack originally planned on becoming the “candy lady,” just selling candy, potato chips, soda, tobacco and the like. But once she got started, she discovered that more than candy was needed on St. Helena.

That’s when she decided to open a grocery and small kitchen.

“They call this a food desert,” says Mack. “So you can’t get food here.”

The Centers for Disease Control defines a food desert as a geographic area where access to affordable, healthy food options, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, is limited due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says 13.5 million Americans live in food deserts including more than a million South Carolinians. Much of St. Helena has a relatively high number of households without vehicles that are located more than a half-mile from a supermarket, the USDA says.

Mack named Fountain Island Blue after the Fontainebleau State Park in Louisiana, which she visited as a child.

At the store, fisherman can find fishing bait and ice used to keep the catch fresh. Car washes are offered, and a boat wash is in the works.

Customers can pick up a lottery ticket or order chicken Alfredo and pulled pork and New Orleans favorites like po’ boys. Other New Orleans-infused recipes are coming thanks to Mack’s sister, an excellent cook who is developing the recipes.

Cold cuts like hog head cheese and souse have gone over particularly well. “This is what they come for,” says Mack, as Allen sliced the sandwich meat one day last week.

Mack and the Chaplins agree that running a small store on a rural island doesn’t come without challenges. Creativity and a propensity for hard work is required to make ends meet. Both Mack and the Chaplins have many talents and use them to supplement their grocery incomes.

The 54-year-old Mack, for instance, is a master barber and a bail bondsman. “I just catch them with the charm, more than the gun,” Mack says with a smile, of her work hunting bad guys.

For his part, Howard Chaplin calls himself a “jack of all trades” — carpenter, fisherman, farmer and bricklayer. While Howard used his varied skills working in civil service jobs at Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island and Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Harriet ran the store and also worked at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. On top of that, the couple managed to raise four children — two boys and two girls —and also ran a farming and shrimping business.

“He was a workaholic — and he’s trying to make me one too,” she says with a laugh.

The oldest daughter Diane, who began working at the store when she was 10, calls her parents “a pillar” of the community.

One frustration the Chaplins have encountered recently is a distributor that is requiring a $3,000 weekly purchase in order to make deliveries. They’ve managed to work around it for now, but don’t think the requirement is fair for a smaller store. “Where are we going to put it?” says Harriet.

It was Howard’s dream to build the store. Harriet recalls a time when almost every St. Helena community had one. When Chaplin’s Grocery opened in 1974, the closest larger store was 10 to 15 miles away.

Chaplin’s has been a staple in the community ever since. Over the years, Howard and Harriet have occasionally provided advice and financial assistance along with the groceries.

“I was like a counselor,” Harriet Chaplin says. “They would come to me with their problems.”

As for Howard, Harriet says, “He was like a bank,” referring to the loans he was known to give out occasionally because of his big heart.

But if people needed help, she adds, whether it be medicine, food or clothing, the Chaplins stepped up and were quick to donate to the local athletic teams as well.

Open 7 days a week — even during hurricanes — Chaplin’s Grocery continues to provide simple basics, from canned goods to fresh shrimp to country-style fried pork cracklings, cold cuts, beer and fish bait.

“I think there is a great need because they are still buying,” Harriet says.

One day last week, a “ding dong” rang out every time the door opened as a steady stream of customers came in to buy this and that.

“These are all my good customers,” Harold Chaplin said as he sat behind the counter. “I’m blessed.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2024, 7:00 AM.

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Karl Puckett covers the city of Beaufort, town of Port Royal and other communities north of the Broad River for The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet. The Minnesota native also has worked at newspapers in his home state, Alaska, Wisconsin and Montana.

Juneteenth celebrates the day the Union army reached Texas, the westernmost state of the Confederacy, and announced to the enslaved population their freedom on June 19, 1865. That was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, during the Civil War. Over the weekend multiple events across Beaufort County celebrated the holiday and local historian shared some little known history of Beaufort County from the middle of the 1800’s.

The Civil War started in South Carolina. The state was the first to secede from the Union and saw the first shots fired at Fort Sumter. That made South Carolina an early target for the Union.

After capturing Hilton Head Island and winning the Battle of Port Royal, the Sea Islands including St. Helena, were occupied by Union forces very early into the Civil War. The Union army freed 10,000 Blacks on St. Helena during their occupation, according to Bernie Wright, the former director of the Penn Center.

“So that was the beginning of the end of this oppression,” Wright said. “ June 19, 1865, parts of South Carolina had theirs earlier, right? That’s that’s when, really, the beginning began.”

As early as 1861, the Port Royal Experiment, the first attempt at reorganizing society for a post-slavery nation, began. The Penn School, now the Penn Center, was a pivotal part of this reorganizing as one of the nation’s first schools for formerly enslaved people.

But more so than education, Wright says the biggest plight the now formerly enslaved people faced was land ownership.

“They had to be able to acquire some of that dirt, or get control of that dirt, and then from that they could grow commodities and participate somewhat, you know, in the trade industry. Selling what they grew,” he said.

And it wouldn’t be easy.

“Blacks had to apply for ownership. It had to be a husband and wife. It couldn’t be a brother-brother, sister-sister, a father and a son. But then they document this couple and they had to work for a period of time to prove that they could,” Wright said. “And they were doing the damn work all the time.”

The land the freed Blacks were given ownership of was the worst part of the Lowcountry; Boggy, marshland and sandy soil, Wright said. Ironic, because Wright said the enslaved people were the ones who learned to farm on plantations here.

“They weren’t brought over here because he can carry 200 pounds on their backs, or because they can lift like John Henry tapping down so many tracks on the railroad,” Wright said. “They were brought over here for their technical know-how. They were growing rice in West Africa before Christ was born.”

Enslaved Blacks developed a technique, using only a bar of soap, to tell when salt water was coming up the river so they could avoid ruining their rice crops. Rice, cotton and indigo were the most prominent crops in the area, at the time.

It’s worth noting that the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t solve every problem freed slaves would face. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 wouldn’t be signed nearly 100 years after the last slaves were freed in Texas. During those 100 years, Blacks in America faced countless challenges under the Jim Crow laws, from the Ku Klux Klan and the segregation of races.

This story was originally published June 18, 2024, 1:07 PM.

By Rev. Kenneth Hodges

My name is Rev. Kenneth Hodges, and I am a former State Representative for House District 121 (Beaufort and Colleton Counties). I am the pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Beaufort, and I have heard from many community members about their concerns related to the luxury golf resort development proposed on Pine Island. This project would defy the Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) zoning on St. Helena Island.

Golf course and resort developments have historically displaced Sea Island communities from North Carolina down to Florida. For more than two decades, the CPO has safeguarded St. Helena Island’s living Gullah/Geechee culture from this fate by prohibiting this type of development. The policy was written by and for the people and has kept the Island rural, allowing important cultural activities like farming, fishing, and hunting to continue thriving.

In June, Beaufort County upheld the CPO by denying a request to remove Pine Island from the CPO’s boundaries. Plans for three 6-hole golf courses were also denied by staff and the planning commission. The County Council listened to their constituents and arrived at these correct and logical decisions. The developer is now appealing those decisions and trying to negotiate a settlement.

Many Gullah/Geechee people have called St. Helena Island home for generations and continue to fight for their land. From my perspective, the community has made it clear through hours of public meetings, community gatherings, and testimony that golf courses, resorts, and gated communities do not mesh with St. Helena Island’s Gullah/Geechee culture and Sea Island heritage.

Moreover, we live in a society where everyone is expected to follow the laws, which are designed to protect the public at large. We do not enact these laws only to rewind them when it becomes inconvenient or because what is being proposed is not allowed. The County Council should hold the line and not waiver in their support of the CPO and Gullah/Geechee culture.

Finally, I leave you a verse from the gospel. Mark: 36-37 says “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Rev. Kenneth Hodges is the pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church and the owner of LyBensons’ Gallery on St. Helena Island. He is the former State Representative for House District 121.

The nearly 500 acres of land in question is part of the Gullah/Geechee nation. It has very sacred and historical value to the community and has remained nearly untouched for 150 years.

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BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. —

"Golf courses don't vote," said Roy Brown, a resident and member of the Community Coalition Action Network of St. Helena Island.

Some residents of St. Helena and Pine Islands are speaking up in support of a new golf course development on the old Pine Island Plantation site.

They're also saying misinformation is being spread about the new development.

The nearly 500 acres of land in question is part of the Gullah/Geechee nation. It has very sacred and historical value to the community and has remained nearly untouched for 150 years.

Last year, a Boston-based developer named Elvio Tropeano signed an option to buy the property for $21 million.

It was said that he wanted to build a gated residential community complete with an 18-hole golf course. This is prohibited by a cultural protection overlay.

A short memorandum was also shared with residents throughout the community. It was titled "Attention! Your Way of Life is at Stake" and warned residents against supporting the golf development.

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However, according to the coalition, Tropeano never had any intentions to violate local protection laws.

"If I received this information and said that our way of life was at stake, I would also be emotionally willing to fight. Because the information that you are receiving here would make me upset too, but this is not true," said resident Tade' Oyeilumi.

Willie Turral, another resident and member of the coalition, said, "Let's move forward with a commonsense decision. I'm upset that some people decided to create this emotional reaction with a lot of our community members by clearly running a campaign full of inaccuracies and mistruth."

The St. Helena Island city council has raised further concerns over rapid commercial development and harm to the environment.

The counter-proposal they are now working on with Tropeano involves building a new residential development that would create 166 new homes and septic tanks, as well as 100 new docks.

"I think the concerns are all valid and all accurate. But the action has to match the concern," Turral said. "The best option is the golf course. So, if you're about saving the environment and you do that by taking the option that saves the environment. You don't force them into an option that is environmentally more hazardous to the community."

According to the coalition's website, they are also concerned about an increase in property taxes, infrastructure, and traffic based on this new plan.

"It's important to use property for the highest and best use. Having 166 homes on Pine Island. I don't think it's what St. Helena Island wants or needs," said resident and real estate broker Pat Harvey Palmer. "Keeping the density down as much as possible, I think, is really, really important to all of us, and to the future. I'm not even going to be around when the time comes to enjoy all of this, but the future people of St. Helena will be around and will enjoy it."

Palmer further referred to the housing development plan as "absolutely ridiculous."

The coalition announced they're taking action to educate community members on the issue in order to raise the voices of people who have a shared vision for St. Helena and Pine Islands.

As for what is an appropriate development, Turral said, "At the end of the day, you can't preserve a culture by tying a rope around a tree or a land mass and saying don't do anything. It becomes a self-inflicting wound."

He adds that what's best for St. Helena Island is to come to an agreement with this developer that ultimately benefits the island.