Beaufort, South Carolina

I went to Beaufort while doing some family genealogical research. The city has a plethora of information on the Gullah-Gechee culture. The Penn Center was opened in 1862 as the first facility for educating freed slaves. If you’ve never heard of Robert Smalls, once you leave Beaufort, you will definitely know who he is! I didn’t get to trace my family back to Beaufort, but my best friend who was along for the ride turned out to be related to another local and very popular historical figure. I plan on going back to see just how my Gechee family ended up in Edgefield, which is several hours away and is safe but definitely still lost in the pre-civil rights era. I had a man at their genealogical society tell me that he knows my uncle and that my uncle is a “good um.” That meant that my uncle gets along with the white folks and they respect him as not being a problem or threat. My uncle just laughed when I mentioned the guy. He said the guy’s harmless and some of those dinosaurs just don’t know what to say when they talk about black people, but that guy was definitely okay to be around, despite how he may sound or look. Edgefield is the actual hometown of Senator Strum Thurmond and they have a statue of him in the center of town. My mother and her siblings were neighbors to him when they were growing up.