First name: Sadie
Last name: Turner
Class Year: 2026
Advisor: Crystal Feimster
Essay Abstract:
The Ten Mile Historic Settlement Community in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina was founded by Black and Gullah Geechee residents in the 1890s. Residents face double dispossession—land loss through both direct gentrification and indirect sea level rise. I apply a Critical Geography framework to examine the historic underpinnings of Ten Mile’s climate vulnerability. By presenting the community’s understudied history, I contribute to existing literature arguing that Reconstruction-era land allocation concentrated emancipated groups on marginal low-lying coastal tracts—producing a long-term geography of vulnerability now amplified by climate change.
Further, Ten Mile is the first settlement community to receive “full protection” in Charleston County under a comprehensive set of zoning laws designed to preserve the neighborhood’s historic character through architectural review. I find that historic landscape transformations from rice cultivation and residential development manipulated flood regimes; when coupled with rising sea levels and storm frequency, the severity of the region’s naturally occurring coastal flooding is amplified. Historical racism also determines the barriers faced by Black heirs’ property owners in obtaining flood insurance and high-ground, exacerbating vulnerability. My findings imply that architecturally-focused zoning laws fail to address the dual nature of land dispossession. Thus, preservation planners must include climate risk management into long-term solutions.