January 23, 2025
The Anderson County planning fee gave the inexperienced gentle on the mission with a 7-0 unanimous vote.
Leaders in South Carolina have accredited plans to maneuver ahead with a housing building mission on a property residents imagine to be gravesites for enslaved folks.
The Anderson County Planning Fee unanimously accredited the mission with a 7-0 vote. The approval comes months after a choose stopped Spano & Associates, Inc.’s plans to construct greater than 100 properties on the previous Rivoli Plantation in South Carolina, the place dozens of gravesites are reported.
It’s a blow for some residents who went the additional mile to overview the positioning.
At Least 15 Gravesites Discovered on South Carolina Property
“When these slaves died, they simply took them out behind the barn alongside the place the creek is, they usually buried them,” Deacon Albert Simmons of New Holly Missionary Baptist Church informed native outlet WSPA. “These our bodies are nonetheless there. Our slaves, our ancestors are nonetheless there.”
Fox Carolina experiences resident Stanley Hix employed an archaeologist after the choose overseeing the case gave him 10 days in October to seek out proof of gravesites. The developer reportedly additionally performed its personal search. Hix informed the outlet at the least 15 graves had been discovered.
“The search of the property by me and the businesses I employed discovered enslaved graves on the property,” mentioned Hix.
“The search carried out by the developer in the summertime of 2024 didn’t discover any burial grounds.”
In accordance with Esri, from the beginning of slavery in 1619 till emancipation, plantation house owners put aside marginal plots for burial websites of enslaved folks. Practically a century after the Civil Struggle, Black households additionally confronted restrictions on burial places due to legal guidelines that supported racial segregation.
Due to that, communities nationwide are rediscovering forgotten and misplaced Black cemeteries. Many websites are uncounted, unprotected, and infrequently documented on maps.
Hix, a lifelong resident and landowner in Anderson County, has steered taking the matter again to the courts.
“We’ll be again earlier than the choose and we’ll let him determine if what they give you on this choice is simply or not. I don’t assume the choose goes to be very pleased with the county, or the developer for his or her actions,” mentioned Hix. “They’ll be penalties.”
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