Hogg Hummock
Story:
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, the Hogg Hummock community (also known as Hog Hammock) on Sapelo Island faces a renewed threat to its historically significant design and cultural heritage. Home to one of the last remaining Gullah Geechee communities in the United States, Hogg Hummock was established by direct descendants of West Africans who were enslaved on the plantations of coastal Georgia. Following the Civil War, these formerly enslaved peoples settled on Sapelo Island and purchased over 400 acres of land. As with other Gullah Geechee communities, Hogg Hummock developed a distinct, interconnected culture of subsistence and cooperative living, due in part to the relative isolation from communities on the mainland.
Threat:
Now, like many areas in the Gullah Geechee corridor, Hogg Hummock faces persistent pressures that threaten the historic fabric of their community. As recognized by existing zoning regulations, Hogg Hummock has unique needs in regard to its historic resources, traditional patterns of development and threat from land speculators and housing forms. In spite of this language, recent rezoning will allow homes to be constructed that double the size of the current limits, which can contribute to land value increases which could further force the removal of the Gullah Geechee. This change in policy was enacted with little to no input from the public and directly conflicts with the intent of existing zoning regulations to reserve Hog Hummock for low intensity residential and cottage industry which are environmentally sound and will not contribute to land value increases.
For more information, please visit Keep Sapelo Geechee
Hogg Hummock or Hog Hammock?
The Gullah-Geechee community refers to the residential area on Sapelo as Hog(g) Hummock, rather than the spelling Hog Hammock which is more commonly used by the County and others. We have chosen to use the name that the residents use when referring to the community.
Images by Brian Brown/Vanishing Georgia
