Beaufort, South Carolina

Monday, May 18

Day 41

Had a yummy breakfast of sausage, eggs, grits, toast and fruit and more conversation about travel. After breakfast we went into Beaufort, South Carolina which is the second oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston.

 Prior to the Civil War it was one of the wealthiest communities in the South with rice and cotton grown. It was captured by the Union army early in the Civil War, one of the earlier occupations of the war. The city, like Savannah, was never burned completely although there were incidents of arson. After the war the aqua phosphate mining industry helped Beaufort thrive but this was destroyed in 1893 by a Category 3 hurricane. There are many huge antebellum homes in an area that you can walk and a nice downtown area with many shops and restaurants. After a few hours exploring we had lunch. Jack had a shrimp poor boy and Jodi had a salad with tomato pie which is a pie crust piled high with sliced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese and baked. Quite tasty. We had to hit the road to get a few miles under our belt and drove into North Carolina to south of Raleigh. 

First African Baptist church

Note the 2 stairways.  Our guide in Savannah told us this design was used so ladies could go up
one stairway and gentlemen the other as it was forbidden for a lady to show her ankles!

View from the area around the antebellum homes