Sapelo Island is a Georgia barrier island about 7 nautical miles off the coast near Darien. 

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The island is home to the Historic Hog Hammock Community, which many historians believe is one of the last intact island-based Gullah-Geechee communities in America.

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Because of the island's relative isolation, the Gullah-Geechee people who call Sapelo home -- we call ourselves "Descendants" -- have been able to retain an old-fashioned way of life, and have held on to aspects of West African culture and languages brought to these shores by our enslaved African ancestors.

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One of our island matriarchs, Cornelia Walker Bailey, shares her personal story and Sapelo history in her memoir, God, Dr. Buzzard and the Bolito Man. 

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                         Read Cornelia's essay, I am Sapelo.

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Sapelo also has many historically significant structures, abundant wildlife, and a vital salt marsh ecosystem that attracts thousands of tourists and researchers each year. 

 

When you visit the island, be sure to stop by the Hog Hammock Public Library and explore the many books, films and other documents that tell the island's unique story.