Beaufort, SC … pronounced “Bew-Fert”
Tuesday 1st December 2020
It continues to be windy here except now it’s bright and really cold. Last night saw temperatures down to 37oF and tonight’s forecast is for close to freezing. We plucked up courage in the mid-morning and took the dinghy into the marina and spent a few hours walking around town. We were keen to visit St Helena’s Anglican church which is a beautiful white building surrounded by an atmospheric graveyard. We were met by a Docent who told us a little about the history of the church and city as a whole. Carl grew up in Rochester, NY but spent most of his life in Atlanta. We were struck by his enthusiasm for the town of Beaufort and his church. This is a lovely town with a long and rich history. It was originally founded in 1711 and prospered initially as a shipbuilding town. But it’s real growth and wealth was based on indigo and cotton; it prospered as a slave society and at one point had about 1000 white people and 9,000 slaves. After the civil war the discovery of phosphate rich deposits in the river beds led to a new economic foundation but that collapsed after a devastating hurricane in the 1890. More recently the area has become home to military establishments such as Paris Island and the Marine Corp Air Station in Beaufort and had become a tourist destination and golfing center based around Hilton Head.
It is wonderful that so many of the historical buildings have been preserved and there are many plaques outlining the history of the area. Everyone we met has been friendly and welcoming, but at times it feels uncomfortable to enjoy visiting a place that is so clearly founded on slavery. There don’t appear to be many of people of color in evidence. From what we read, there was a period of about 30 years after the civil war when the community was lead by the majority former slaves. However, Jim Crow laws brought an end to that and in the years that followed most of the black people left the area. We were shocked to read that it wasn’t until 1970 that the school district became fully integrated. Downtown Beaufort is now a desirable and expensive place to live, but how do you talk about the history and appreciate the current town without ever acknowledging that slavery, the basis for this prosperity, was wrong?
Tomorrow we are planning to leave around noon, head south down through Port Royal Sound and then sail offshore overnight to St Mary’s on the Georgia – Florida border, so we won’t be posting the next blog entry until Thursday evening. We’re a little nervous about how the passage will go because it is so cold … but we can’t face multiple days of navigating seriously shoaled water in the Georgia ICW. On arrival we hope to spend a few days visiting the town of St Mary’s and exploring a little northwards to Cumberland Island, GA before moving on south to Florida.
Mike
32 25.749 N, 80 40.818 W
No comments:
Post a Comment