The Angel Oak
Johns Island, South Carolina, United States
A southern live oak four to five hundred years old on Johns Island, held in deep esteem by the Gullah Geechee community and wrapped in legend of spirits of the enslaved appearing in its shade.
The Angel Oak spreads over seventeen thousand square feet of shade on Johns Island outside Charleston, a live oak estimated at four to five hundred years old. The Gullah Geechee communities of the island, descendants of enslaved Africans who built the Sea Islands' distinctive culture, hold the tree in particular esteem, and the local tradition it inherited includes stories of spirits of formerly enslaved people appearing around it at dusk; the tree is a site of respect and, for some, of visitation, not simply scenery.
When lowcountry development pressed toward the island, the fight to protect the land around the oak became a community cause, with the Lowcountry Land Trust securing the surrounding acreage; the attachment is ongoing, not historical.
Visiting
Angel Oak Park is free and open daily (closed some holidays), managed with the City of Charleston; see the city page. Climbing or carving the tree is prohibited.
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angel_Oak001.jpg), CC BY.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories