Lincolnville: Local Tour

Nestled among Live Oak Streets and long needle pine trees, Lincolnville is the oldest African American Town in South Carolina. A magical place of living history dating back to 1832 when the first railway carrying the first steam engine locomotive in the US was built through the center of town, to 1867 when Rev. Richard H. Cain, the founding pastor of Emmanuel AME Church and one of the first African Americans to serve in congress founded the Town of Lincolnville. Incorporated in 1889, Lincolnville remains self-governed” 157 years after its founding. In 2022, Lincolnville became a part of the National Park Service Reconstruction Era National Historic Network as well as a descendant community of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Participants will tour the living repository of untold stories from pre-Civil War, Civil War, Reconstruction, and Civil Rights eras and learn about the first woman preacher in the South, the first African American public school principal in the US and about Black political leadership from Reconstruction to Civil Rights. Moreover, participants will experience the unfolding progress of the development of a 21st Century Renaissance town deeply interwoven with United States, South Carolina and Lowcountry history. Lunch will be provided.