CharlestonSavannah2013: St. Helena Island

September 25, 2013

After breakfast we had our usual trip review and then departed for Lady’s Island and St. Helena Island. This ride took us through beautiful farm and our to the end of Land’s End Rd where we had a view of Paris Island across the Beaufort River. Along the way we cycled past the historic Chapel of Ease, which just consists of the tabby-wall ruins (church was destroyed by fire in 1886). This was one of the churches constructed in the Colonial period (constructed 1742 – 1747) as a place of worship for the plantations, because the plantations were a great distance from the churches in Beaufort.

St. Helena Island is between Beaufort and the beaches of Harbor, Hunting, and Fripp Islands. Here many of the freed slaves lived in relative isolation during and after the Civil War. It is also the center of African American Gullah culture and language. The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Low Country regions of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah have preserved more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other US African American community. The language is related to Jamaican Creole, Bahamian Dialect, and the Krio language of Sierra Leone in West Africa. The Gullah storytelling, foods, music, folk beliefs, crafts, farming and fishing traditions are strongly influenced by African cultures.

St. Helena Island is also the site of Fort Fremont, which was built in 1898 in response to the Spanish American war. It was designed as a defense for the coaling station and dry dock at the Point Royal naval station.

Our lunch stop was at the Penn Center, which served as a school and community center for the African American community beginning in 1862. It was founded by two Pennsylvanian women (Laura Towne and Ellen Murray) during the Union occupation to educate 10,000 former slaves to read, write, and survive in a world without plantation masters. In the 1950s and '60s, as the only center in the South with bi-racial accommodations, it served as the meeting place for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The group planned the famous 1963 "March on Washington" while staying at Penn Center.

Penn Center has worked on many community-based projects over the years, such as bringing public water to the islands, helping farmers to buy and market cooperatives and advocating better housing and health care for low-income islanders.

In November 1981 Executive Director Emory Campbell established Heritage Days as a way to celebrate islanders' achievements with cultural exhibits, food, songs, stories, games and dances.

A visit to the Center gave us an opportunity to view the many periods of the Center’s contribution to African American education and cultural preservation. The photographic displays that go back into the latter 1800’s were most interesting.

After lunch we had a quick ride back to Beaufort with the help of a tail wind.

At 5 pm, we met for a tour of the historic area of Beaufort by Evelene. She covered a lot of the early history of the city and gave us a running history of the large number of antebellum homes. The survival of these homes was a consequence of Beaufort being captured at the beginning of the Civil War and being a “Union” city throughout the war with many of the homes serving as hospitals.

After the tour we had an outstanding dinner at Saltus with very relaxing views over the water. Tomorrow we leave Beaufort and are shuttled to Savannah – our last city on the trip.