In the U.S. Civil War, white planters on the Sea Islands were afraid of an invasion by US naval forces. They left their plantations and went to the mainland. When Union forces arrived on the Sea Islands in 1861, the Gullah people wanted freedom. Many Gullahs served in the Union Army. The Sea Islands were the first place in the South where slaves were freed. Long before the end of the War, Unitarian missionaries came to start schools for the newly freed slaves.