The First Lighthouse ~ 1810

In 1804, Scottish-born plantation owner John Couper sold four acres of land for $1 to the new United States government to build the first St. Simons Light Station. James Gould was hired to design and build the lighthouse and keeper's dwelling in 1807, and the tabby lighthouse, made from oyster shells, lime, sand, and water, was first lit in 1811. The first lighthouse stood 75 feet tall, was octagonal, measured 25 feet at the base and tapered to 10 feet at the top, and its 10-foot iron lantern room used oil lamps suspended by chains. Gould also served as head lighthouse keeper from 1811 to 1837. In the summer of 1861, 1500 Confederate troops were stationed on this site at Fort Brown, and in 1862 Confederate troops destroyed the first lighthouse before evacuating the island so Federal forces could not use it as a navigational aid; the occupying troops were the African American Union soldiers known as the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. The plantation era began in the late 1700s and thrived on long staple cotton known as sea island cotton, along with indigo and rice, as plantations spread across St. Simons. Although slavery was outlawed in early colonial days, it became legal in Georgia by 1757, and the slave trade created a strong connection between the coastal sea islands and the Windward Coast of West Africa, as enslaved people from West Africa were highly prized for their ability to cultivate rice and then cotton. The War Between the States brought the virtual demise of this era, as the loss of slave labor made cotton growing and harvesting unproductive and not profitable. What remains is a cultural linkage between the Gullah/Geechee descendants of slaves of the sea islands and the countries of their ancestors, along with a few tabby ruins at Hampton Point, Cannon's Point, and Retreat Plantation, while most old plantation lands have been covered by growth or converted to residential or commercial properties.

St. Simons, Georgia · United States