ABSTRACT
Most are aware of the historical significance of Ellis Island and Angel Island as points of entry for millions of people who came from Europe and Asia. However, most are unfamiliar with Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, South Carolina, where more than 200,000 enslaved people from Africa were brought to North America against their will between 1707 and 1799, an estimated 40 to 60 percent of Africans brought to what became the United States during the slave trade. Today, more than 3 million people visit Ellis Island per year and an additional 200,000 visit Angel Island per year. And while hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Sullivan's Island per year, they come for the sandy public beaches, nightlife, and the Revolutionary-era Fort Moultrie. In 2008 a bench was placed “by the road” on Sullivan's Island by the Toni Morrison Society's Bench by the Road Project, which has drawn some visitors, but this pales in comparison to the experience visitors encounter at Ellis and Angel islands about immigrants from Europe and Asia. Few tourists visit Sullivan's Island to think and reflect on this bench about the African immigrant experience because it has primarily been forgotten.
