The Rice Culture of Historic Georgetown

The South Carolina African American Heritage Commission suggests the following trip itinerary through the coastal communities of Georgetown to enrich your vacation in South Carolina. Trips like this are outstanding, day-long excursions suitable for family reunions, fraternity / sorority get-togethers, meetings and other gatherings. A link to a route mapped out in Mapquest.com is at the bottom of the page. For details about other day-trips, including best practices for trip planning, click here.

10 a.m. The Rice Museum – 633 Front Street, Georgetown – 843-546-7423
The rice museum is perhaps the best first stop in Georgetown County to help give visitors a basis of the region’s history and heritage, much of which was influenced by the labor of enslaved West Africans. By 1840, the Georgetown District produced nearly one-half of the total rice crop in the United States. Tours available with fee.
Time at site 1.5 hours
11:30 a.m. Joseph Hayne Rainey House — 909 Prince Street, Georgetown
This National Historic Landmark was the family home of Joseph H. Rainey, the first African American elected to the US House of Representatives (1870-1879). Born in Georgetown County in 1832, it is believed Rainey made blockade-running trips during the Civil War. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1868, served two years in the SC Senate, and two years as an internal revenue agent of SC. He died in Georgetown, SC, in 1887. Marker erected by Georgetown Chapter Delta Sigma Theta, 1994.
Time at site – 30 minutes
12:15 p.m. Bethel AME Church – 417 Broad Street, Georgetown – 843-546-4503
Founded by freed slaves in 1865 and the oldest black church in the city, Bethel AME was the church home of Fraser Jr. and LaVaughn Robinson, grandparents of former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Time at site – 30 minutes
1 p.m. LUNCH – Aunny’s Country Kitchen, 926 Front Street, Georgetown, 29440 – 843-461-4750.
2:30 p.m. The Lowcountry Trail at Brookgreen Gardens – 1931 Brookgreen Garden Drive, Murrells Inlet – 843-235-6000.
The Lowcountry Trail consists of a beautiful boardwalk that crosses the hillside overlooking Mainfield, a restored rice field of the former Brookgreen Plantation. For enslaved Africans at Brookgreen, this hill was a bridge between the world of daily work and life in the slave village beyond its crest. Along the trail are interpretive panels that describe life on a rice plantation and four stainless steel figures that represent the Plantation Owner, the Overseer, an Enslaved African Male and an Enslaved African Female. These figures serve as visually compelling landmarks to draw visitors along the trail and to interpret a revealing story about each one’s role in the economic and social system of a Lowcountry plantation.
time at site 1.5 hours
MAPQUEST route itinerary — https://www.mapquest.com/directions/from/us/south-carolina/georgetown/29440-3623/633-front-st-33.365299,-79.282463/to/us/south-carolina/georgetown/29440-3549/909-prince-st-33.368507,-79.284409/to/us/sc/georgetown/29440-3607/417-broad-st-33.369589,-79.280474/to/us/south-carolina/brookgreen-gardens-3569954