AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE PROGRAM
Our African-American Heritage Program works to advance the broader preservation movement towards a more diverse and equitable representation of American history.
By the time of the American Revolution, South Carolina was the richest of any of the colonies, and by a wide margin at that. The number of enslaved people would ensure that South Carolina would be at the center of future American history, including the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow, and Brown vs. Board of Education. Many of the landmarks associated with these eras are either gone or at risk.
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We have helped save historically significant landmarks associated with all of the eras associated with Black South Carolina history, including work on Daufuskie Island.
Barely a dozen people descended from the original Gullah inhabitants still live on Daufuskie. Most of the historic homes and cottages, unique in design to the Gullah communities, are abandoned. All those that remain are listed as contributing properties in the National Register of Historic Places.
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For nearly a decade, we have worked with Gullah descendants to restore some of the original houses for use as rental cottages, such as the 1865 Frances Jones House (above), but at the same time allowing the original families to retain ownership under a long-term lease arrangement with Preservation South Carolina.