Hog Hammock is an African-American community on

Sapelo Island Sapelo Island is a state-protected barrier island located in McIntosh County, Georgia. The island is accessible only by boat; the primary ferry comes from the Sapelo Island Visitors Center in McIntosh County, Georgia, a seven-mile (11 ...

, a

barrier island Barrier islands are a Coast#Landforms, coastal landform, a type of dune, dune system and sand island, where an area of sand has been formed by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of an ...

of the U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. The island is near the port of

Darien, Georgia Darien () is a city in and the county seat of McIntosh County, Georgia, United States. It lies on Georgia's coast at the mouth of the Altamaha River, approximately south of Savannah, and is part of the Brunswick, Georgia metropolitan statist ...

about south of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

. The entire community was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1996 as Hog Hammock Historic District. In 1996 it included 59

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

, 16 contributing structures, and five contributing sites as well as 47 non-contributing buildings such as trailer homes. Its principal historic resources are about 50 one-story historic homes that are all small and simple vernacular buildings, most covered with weatherboard and some by

board and batten A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields. In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...

or other siding. with (see photo captions pages 33-34 of text document) Many of the full-time inhabitants of the Hog Hammock community, also known as Hogg Hummock, are

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

known as

Gullah-Geechee The Gullah () are a subgroup of the African American ethnic group, who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their ...

s, descendants of enslaved West African people brought to the island in the 1700s and 1800s to work on island plantations. The current population of full-time Gullah-Geechee residents in the community is estimated to be 47 (2009). The community includes homes, a general store, bar, public library, and other small businesses including vacation rentals. There are two active church congregations in Hog Hammock: St. Luke Baptist Church, founded in 1885, and First African Baptist Church, established in 1866. The latter congregation has an older building known as

First African Baptist Church at Raccoon Bluff The First African Baptist Church at Raccoon Bluff is a historic church on Sapelo Island, Sapelo Island, Georgia. The church was built in c.1899-1900 and is the last surviving remnant of the Raccoon Bluff community, once the largest community on ...

, constructed in 1900 in the former Raccoon Bluff community north of Hog Hammock. It is used for special services and programs. Hog Hammock also is the site of

Hog Hammock Public Library Hog or HOG may refer to: Animals * Pig ** Sometimes referring to other animals in the family Suidae, including: *** Warthog *** Red river hog *** Giant forest hog * Groundhog * Hedgehog * Hog (sheep), a yearling sheep, as yet unshorn Other uses ...

, founded by SICARS in 2002. The library became a separate organization in 2006, and was rededicated as a member of Three Rivers Regional Library System, based in Jesup, Georgia. The library is in a former two-room schoolhouse. It has more than 2,500 cataloged materials, including the Sapelo Island Heritage Collection. The residents must bring all supplies from the mainland or purchase them in the small store on the island. The children of Hog Hammock take the ferry to the mainland and then take a bus to school, as the island school closed in 1978. The Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society, Inc. (SICARS) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve and revitalize the Hogg Hummock Community. SICARS was founded in 1993 by Sapelo Island resident and non-resident descendants including Cornelia Walker Bailey. The founding members wanted to enhance the future of their community by educating all visitors to the island about the history and to increase awareness that Sapelo has existed as an African community for over 200 years. SICARS was incorporated in 1994. The organization hosts a Cultural Day festival every third Saturday in October. In the 1990s, mainlanders began acquiring parcels of land from the Gullahs to construct vacation homes. In 2012, McIntosh County property tax appraisers notified Hog Hammock residents of huge property tax increases, even though there was no longer a school on the island. One Hog Hammock property owner's annual tax bill soared from $600 to $2,100. In 2013, a fight over the sudden tax hikes was well underway, with some residents claiming they would be driven from land they had owned for many generations for the benefit of mainlanders who would acquire more of Hog Hammock's homes.Ga. island slave descendants fight huge tax hikes
By Russ Bynum, Associated Press In 2022, the county settled the case, freezing some residents' property taxes until 2025, and with the county responsible for improving emergency services and road maintenance. In September 2023 by a 3 to 2 vote, McIntosh County, which is 65 percent white, weakened zoning restrictions, more than doubling the maximum size permissible for Hog Hammock homes. The commission chair said the island's changing culture is due to Gullahs who sold their land.

References

{{Gullah topics, state=collapsed Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) National Register of Historic Places in McIntosh County, Georgia Geography of McIntosh County, Georgia African-American history of Georgia (U.S. state) Gullah country Sapelo Island