Karla
Fauver, paper 2 p1
Land Rights on Sapelo Island
Change,
transformation, metamorphosis, evolution; these concepts are not inherently
negative or positive; it depends on one’s own, unique perspective. According to Cornelia Walker-Bailey, who co-wrote
a book called God, Dr. Buzzard and the Bolito man, the residents of the
beautiful island of Sapelo, located off the coast of Georgia, are having some
difficulties as the community has undergone, and continues to undergo a
metamorphosis of sorts. It is becoming more of a place for government funded
research groups and wealthy vacationers and less of a home to native families
that have raised children and grown as a community there for generations. This particular situation in Sapelo may not
directly affect many individual lives on an everyday basis; however we as a
society have a vested interest in the passing of laws which demand/allow a
balance to be achieved in the fight for financial well-being and security,
without infringing upon the civil rights of others.
Land ownership as a civil rights issue is a
concept that can be understood only in a culture which defines personal success
in terms of material wealth of possession of land. On the Island of Sapelo, examples of a
material-wealth focused community, as well as a family-oriented, respectful of
the earth type of culture can be found throughout history. There were wealthy families that owned the
land during slave times who continued to use that land as a means of financial
gain even after slavery had ended. In
contrast, there were families of slave descendents who were so fortunate to own
land on the island, and were systematically forced into one area of the island,
Hog Hammock, over the course of many decades following the abolition of slavery. Miss Bailey recounts much of her daily life
in her book based on memories
she has treasured full
of lessons about nature in her early years living on Belle Marsh, a somewhat
secluded area on the island which her father had inherited and built his family
home. After her family was bullied by
the local authority time and again, her father made the agonizing decision to
uproot the family and move to Hog Hammock because he felt he had no other
option. This decision seemed to be the
best choice on the surface, as the house they moved into was in much better
structural shape than the one they had been living in on the Marsh; however
there was a noticeable change in Cornelia’s father. “When you move a man out of his home, he just
isn’t right again”(Bailey).
Cornelia Walker-Bailey tells us that Sapelo
Island was populated in the early 1800s, with a community of slaves who were
purchased like cattle and brought in to live and work the land. The land they worked for generations as
slaves, became home to their posterity, and eventually became a source of
pride, fostering roots for those families whose true ancestry is traced back to
West Africa. These family-focused people
lived with the land, mutually sustaining life and nature, in a balanced,
non-invasive lifestyle. Bailey reports
there was a cultural respect for the land itself, “…the Creator created us from
sand from the earth, so the earth was special, it had special healing
properties.” (Bailey 204). A culture who
feels a strong bond with land in this way would certainly be traumatized at
loosing that connection.
A
New York Times article, “Taxes Threaten an Island Culture in Georgia”, by Kim
Severson, outlines a current situation where in the state of Georgia has moved
in and exerted its authority over the land on Sapelo island with the expressed
position that they are trying to preserve the amazing natural resources found
on Sapelo, hoping to keep it alive and not let man destroy it through
developing technology. These efforts
should be applauded, if they are in fact the true agenda. The state is working to keep people
physically away from the land on Belle marsh to avoid contaminating its
purity. Unfortunately, that included the
native residents of the island who obviously posed no threat to its natural
habitat abilities, as they have been living there for nine generations (Bailey
23).
Another
agenda has presented itself as people have learned about the beauty, unique
climate and foliage on the island of Sapelo. According to Severson, the area has become a
place of interest to certain people as a vacation spot. In 2009, the tax updates were put on pause to
give people a chance to catch up in the falling economy. Some substantial sales were omitted from the
tax records, as a result (Severson 3).
“We’re rural, we’re on the coast and we are desirable”, said a Mr. Cook,
one of the officials involved in the tax review, who was quoted in Kim
Severson’s article.
Given
that people have a tendency to be self-serving, the people who want to preserve
these natural habitats are not considering the feelings, or the rights of those
whose families who have been living there since slave times. The state is proposing an exorbitant tax
increase for the residents of Hog Hammock, based entirely upon the increased
interest from outsiders for land ownership of the island, and the lack of
precise record keeping on Sapelo over the years, which was noted as ‘very, very
sloppy’ by the board of tax assessors interviewed by Kim Severson. The
tax increase has not yet been extended completely to the author and storyteller
of Sapelo Island, Cornelia Bailey, who still lives there today, but she has
experienced enough of an increase to incite anger over the lack of services in
exchange for those high taxes. She owns four properties located on the island,
and three of these are subject to the tax increase at this time (Severson p3).
She expressed her outrage to Ms. Severson as she explained that residents still
have no municipal trash pick-up or paved roads, or any services that are funded
in part by property taxes (Severson 3). The majority of these homeowners lack
the financial resources to pay the enormous tax increase, and it seems reasonable
to believe that the Georgia state authorities would be aware of that fact.
According to Kim Severson in her article in
the New York Times, the “state lawmakers have discussed creating a trust that
would protect land from development but allow residents who could not afford
their taxes to stay”(n.d.). However, the people living in Hog Hammock believe
that Georgia authority figures are expecting them to humbly abandon their homes
due to the pressure from the infiltrating community. There is no sign that these new-comers are
taking into consideration the people who have been there and would like to
continue to live and work the land.
The
most direct connection between that situation and one that has the ability to
affect families everywhere in America on a personal level is the application of
a tax burden based on the purchase of land by investors who want to capitalize
on its value. If local officials succeed
in increasing taxes for the native residents of Sapelo in an effort to force
them to leave, opening up money-making opportunities for private wealthy people
to come in and buy up the land, this would set a bad precedent for other
landowners in America. We all want our own rights protected, therefore the
precedent is important. Once a policy is
put into place, the likelihood that it will be removed is very small. We would be wise to take the issue seriously
and stand on the side of civil rights for these native people to retain their
land and be forgiven any tax liability increases. The new tax laws can apply to new ownership
while the current residents can be “grandfathered”. That can create somewhat of a win-win
situation, at least in the perspective that there can be revenue generated with
a tourist population, and human rights need not be trampled upon.
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