jehossee

Updated: May 1, 2025

The governor had arrived at Jehossee before me, and Saturday being pay-day, the faces of the negroes were wreathed in smiles. Here, in his quiet island home, I remained until Monday with this most excellent man and patriot, whose soul had been tried as by fire during the disturbances caused by the war.

Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes) Bishop - Voyage of the Paper Canoe; a geographical journey of 2500 miles, from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, during the years 1874-5

The life he had entered upon, though at first distasteful, had been forced upon him, and he met his peculiar responsibilities with a true Christian desire to benefit all within his reach. When a young man, having returned from the tour of Europe, his father presented him with Jehossee Island, an estate of five thousand acres, around which it required four stout negro oarsmen to row him in a day.

Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes) Bishop - Voyage of the Paper Canoe; a geographical journey of 2500 miles, from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, during the years 1874-5

The persecutions of the owner of Jehossee did not, however, terminate with the war; for when the struggle was virtually ended, and the fair mansion of the rice-plantation retained its heirlooms and its furniture, Beaufort, of South Carolina, was still under the influence of the Freedman's Bureau; and when it was whispered that Aiken's house was full of nice old furniture, and that a few faithful servants of the good old master were its only guards, covetous thoughts at once stirred the evil minds of those who were the representatives of law and order.

Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes) Bishop - Voyage of the Paper Canoe; a geographical journey of 2500 miles, from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, during the years 1874-5

Thus accompanied, we steamed over the bar in safety, had a peaceful ascent, passed the island of Jehossee, the fine estate of Governor Aiken, then left undisturbed by both sides, and fired our first shell into the camp at Wiltown Bluff at four o'clock in the morning. The battery whether fixed or movable we knew not met us with a promptness that proved very shortlived.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson - Army Life in a Black Regiment

For several seasons prior to the war, Jehossee yielded a rice crop which sold for seventy thousand dollars, and netted annually fifty thousand dollars income to the owner. At that time Governor Aiken had eight hundred and seventy three Slaves on the island, and about one hundred working as mechanics, &c., in Charleston.

Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes) Bishop - Voyage of the Paper Canoe; a geographical journey of 2500 miles, from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, during the years 1874-5