January 19: St. Andrews picnic area . . .
Read MoreFrom Driftwood Beach, we continued our counterclockwise journey around the island. We passed by the Horton House and the Historic District before arriving at the Ben Fortson Parkway, (i.e. what the Jekyll Island Causeway is called once on the island). Continuing south on Riverview Drive took us past the Tidelands Nature Center, Summer Waves water park, and the "Marina that Never Was" before reaching the St. Andrews Picnic Area.
In September 1857, a masted sailing ship named The Wanderer departed for the west coast of Africa on a secret (and very much illegal) mission. Even though the importation of slaves was officially banned in 1808, demand for slaves was still quite high in the south, and enforcement of the ban was not sufficient to actually end the practice. The ship's owner, William Corrie, saw an opportunity to make a great deal of money. The ship that was originally designed to be a pleasure schooner was extensively modified to carry up to 600 people on a long voyage.
The Wanderer traveled to the African nation of Angola and loaded a cargo 487 slaves on October 18, 1858. Forty-two days later, the ship arrived at Jekyll Island on the morning of November 28, 1858, thus making The Wanderer the last documented ship to bring slaves to the US. The 409 slaves who survived the journey were unloaded and secretly dispersed throughout Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.
In November 2008, the Jekyll Island Museum dedicated a memorial to those who made that horrific journey. I saw that steel sculpture and storyboards during my first visit to the island back in 2014. A renovated and expanded Wanderer memorial was opened to the public in November 2018.Once The Wanderer arrived in Jekyll Island, it didn't take long for political leaders in Washington DC to receive word of the ship's arrival and purpose. The ship was impounded and the captain and crew of the ship along with the ringleaders of the mission were eventually put on trial. And in a not-so-bright-spot in our history, all parties involved were acquitted in May 1860.