Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

In this two-part episode, producer Sara A. Lewis visits the South Carolina Sea Islands, where the triumphs and tragedies of Reconstruction have left a unique legacy. In Part I, join Sara on Edisto Island, where formerly enslaved people owned land, built schools, and created prosperous communities all before the Emancipation Proclamation. Hear from scholars and local experts as they tell the story of Edisto’s inspiring successes, its unjust dissolution, and the marks that both have left on the island today. This episode features musical performance by Frankie James, Olivia Stith, Samantha Higgs, and Dominique Jones, with arrangement by Frankie James, and is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the African American History Commission.