From South Carolina Wildlife, March-April 1981
(written by Becky Roberts and Eugene M. McCarthy)
“….the 1450 year-old Angel Oak on John’s Island was already a large tree by the time of the Crusades. According to legend, the twisted limbs of the enormous Angel Oak shaded a familiar meeting site for Indians living on John’s Island.”
The Chicora Research Company did an archaeological study, entitled The Cultural Resources Survey of the Johns Island Property, Charleston County, South Carolina. This entire report can be found at the Johns Island library on Maybank Highway in the local history section.
It says,
“As a result of this cultural resources survey one archaeological site (38CH1933) and one isolated find (38CH00) was identified. Site 38CH1933 consists of a mid-nineteenth century domestic site. The site has the potential to provide information about the former settlement in the area. The site does extend off the current survey area, so it is impossible to evaluate the entire site. It is therefore RECOMMENDED POTENTIALLY ELIGIBLE FOR THE NATIONAL REGISTER…….ONE RESOURCE, 297-0072, ANGEL OAK, IS LOCATED DIRECTLEY NEXT TO THE SURVEY AREA AND HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE AFFECTED BY CONSTRUCTION.”
Eligibility in The National Register for Historic Places states:
“The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. ”
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From the Post and Courier, December, 1986:
“There is no question in my mind that the (Angel Oak) tree was used for something,” says T.A Beckett, who has worked on the then-overgrown Angel Oak three decades ago. As proof, he points to the shape of the mammoth oak. Many of the limbs touch the ground then rise up again. Even the premier branch, with a circumference of 7 feet, 5 inches, reaches down toward the earth then curves upward. ”Normally these oaks grow up. They do not spread out unless there is no competition from pines,” says Beckett. ”When a limb cannot take care of itself, it is eliminated. For a tree of that size, something had to keep the forest from coming in and killing the limbs or the tree….from 1000 to 1400 years ago, no one was here but Indians.”
…. A tree service did test borings and, allowing for a hollow center, estimated the Angel Oak is 1400 years old, says Beckett. ”I don’t think that is unreasonable.” Over the centuries, he adds, Indians might have used Angel Oak as a ceremonial tree or meeting place.
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The following is taken from an interview with Septima Clark on November 20, 1980 (South Carolina Historical society):
Septima Clark was born in South Carolina in 1898. Her father Peter Porcher, was a former slave. Septima was a teacher on John’s Island from 1916-1919, 1926-1929, and from 1942-1970.
“Segregation was at its height but the Angel Oak was not segregated. In the springtime to have some kind of recreation for the children, we could take a lunch and go to the Angel Oak tree. I did this from 1916 until 1929. We could go in and have our picnics and spend the day. The children played under the tree and then we would come back in buggies which were oxcarts. The island people say that when they tied the oxen to the Angel Oak it dragged part of the tree too. There are two big limbs over there dragged from the main tree. The people declared that angels would appear in the form of a ghost at the oak. The killings that happened around the tree during slavery time were seen by people with a call. The spirits were around the tree and it was a live oak and they considered that angels brought the spirits there. That tree is sacred because of the stories black people have heard from their early days. They respect that tree. My school children never felt they could drop paper around the tree. The very word angel means that it is sacred to them. They felt that anything like an angel had to be clean, loved, and respected. They didn’t feel they should do anything to desecrate it. The Angel Oak in 1916 was really as it is today….“
