Black Heritage Tours

Black Roots in the Low Country

Wherever you live in the United States, it is very likely that if you are of African-American heritage, some of your ancestors traveled through the Low Country.

Savannah

Tour leader with a black church group in Savannah

Slavery was forbidden in Savannah, the 13th colony, when it was founded by an idealistic group from England in 1733. (They also banned lawyers and any alcohol except beer and wine.) But pressure for cheap labor to work the indigo and rice plantations became too much for the founders and slavery was established by the middle of the 1700s. Free blacks and slaves lived alongside each other here until slavery was abolished.

Records give us the names of free blacks who were river pilots and school teachers in the early 1800s. Some of them took extraordinary risks to educate black children after teaching blacks was outlawed in Georgia in 1801.

At First African Baptist Church, Savannah

Black sites in Savannah include lovely First African Baptist Church in Franklin Square and Laurel Grove Cemetery. The city also contains the Massie Heritage Center, which was originally the first school for "freedmen" established after the Civil War, and the Beach Institute, a vibrant center of African-American art. For younger people, who do not remember the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum is also a fascinating experience.

Seabrook Living History Museum is an easy drive from Savannah. This portrays life in a coastal village in about 1900, with buildings and artefacts collected from around Midway and Sunbury.

Singalong with the washboard band at Seabrook

After the Civil War, whites left this coast in droves, most of them unable to make a living without slave labor. Blacks who remained in villages like Seabrook, scratched a living from agriculture. The lifestyle portrayed reminds many of us of tales from our grandparent and great-grandparents. Grinding corn by hand, washing clothes on a washboard, and grinding sugar cane by hand are all enjoyable activites. And if you're lucky, the washboard band will play at lunchtime. We've enjoyed some fine sing-alongs at Seabrook.

St. Helena Island

St. Helena Island, across the river from Beaufort, has a vibrant Gullah culture and is a pleasants tourist destination. Some of the residents are now growing indigo again, and importing cakes of indigo from Africa to create lovely dyed fabrics.

The island is also home to Penn Center, founded as a school for freedmen after the Civil War, and now a museum celebrating black history on the island. There are some good restaurants, one with a wonderful collection of sweet grass baskets for sale.

Route 17 north of Charleston is one place you are almost certain to see a sweetgrass basket maker at work. Sweet grass (Muhlenbergia) is becoming hard to find in the wild, so various groups are planting it to make sure there is an adequate supply. Longleaf pine needles and other plant material may also be used in the baskets. Some of them are incredibly beautiful and are to be found in museums.