By the 1940s and 1950s, outside competition had caused many to leave Dafauskie island and search for jobs elsewhere, leaving the population in 1980 at less than seventy-five people.
Because of its limited population and limited means of access, Daufuskie has retained many of the historic homes, schools, churches, cemeteries, and archaeological sites that attest to this once-thriving black community.
Examples include the ruins of eight tabby slave residences (c. 1805-1842), First Union African Baptist Church (c. 1918), Janie Hamilton School (1937), Mary Field School (c. 1930), the First Union Sisters and Brothers Oyster Society Hall (c. 1890), Mary Field Cemetery, and numerous vernacular houses.
