Bennett envisions a historic trail that links the following sites and historic assets: “Santa Elena, telling the story of European Exploration and Settlement, Penn Center, telling the Gullah Geechee and Reconstruction stories, Beaufort and Port Royal telling the story of Reconstruction, and Hilton Head telling the stories of the Civil War and Mitchelville.”
Beaufort County, South Carolina has a rich cultural history. Home to the towns of Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, Port Royal and Beaufort, the county was instrumental during and after the Civil War.
Even though slavery was abolished on January 1, 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation, the news was not received by slaves in Texas until June 19th, 1865 which was a day that not only changed the lives of tens of thousands of slaves in the United States, it also marked the change of our country’s history. Recognized as the date that slavery officially ended in America, Juneteenth has been celebrated for more than 150 years.
