Praise Houses, Saint Helena Island, Beaufort County, SC

Coffin Point Praise House, photographer facing NW

Saint Helena Island, SC has a long and storied history. French colonization at Charlesfort (now Port Royal) in 1562 by the French Hugenot, Jean Ribault, was followed by the Spanish explorer Pedro Salazar, who built a fort on the same location, and named it San Felipe. Eventually the English took over and established the colony of South Carolina.

Interior of the Coffin Point Praise House

With the English, came the transport of African slaves from Western Africa. From it's earliest times, the number of slaves on Saint Helena island greatly outnumbered the Europeans. These slaves gave rise to the Gullah culture that is associated with the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia.

Over time, the slaves adopted Christianity, and needed places to worship. Because of segregation, the slaves were not allowed in the churches attended by the whites. The plantation owners saw merit in having the slaves learn about Christianity, and allowed them to build praise houses.

The typical praise house was small, about a 20' by 20', wood-sided structure that could hold between twenty and thirty people. The reason for the small size was because the white's did not want too many slaves congregating in one place at the same time, fearing that they would organize, or plan an insurrection.  Because of this, praise houses cropped up all over the Saint Helena area, continuing to be used even after Emancipation, and the end of the Civil War. In 1903 there was a reported 3,434 "literate black males" to 927 whites in Beaufort County.

Eddings Point Road Praise House, photographer facing NW

A driving factor for post civil war use is that the sea islands were not connected by bridge to the mainland until 1927, so automobiles were a luxury. With very few islanders having automobiles as a transportation options, they needed places that were within walking distance from their community.

In 1932, there were 25 praise houses on Saint Helena Island. Today, there are only three remaining.

All three praise houses were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. You can check out a good video here on the history and significance of these places of worship.

Eddings Point Road Praise House, photographer facing west

Eddings Point Road Praise House, photographer facing south

Another Eddings Point Road Praise House; photographer facing NW

Another Eddings Point Road Praise House; photographer facing west

Old Farmhouse, Taliaferro County, GA c. unknown

Photographer facing south

Located on the west side of Hwy 22, between Hwy 44 and Philomath, GA, this old home has recently been exposed to the highway due to extensive logging around the house.

Photographer facing NW

This location is about as rural a location that you'll come across.  In fact, Taliaferro County is the second least populous county east of the Mississippi River. The 2010 census listed a population of 1,717, for a density of 8.8 people per square mile.

Just to the south and east of this location is Crawfordville, GA, a quaint classic small town in the south, so much so that there have been several movies shot there. These include Coward of the County, Paris Trout, Sweet Home Alabama, and Get Low.

Crawfordville was also known by anyone within 50 miles, as the home of Christmas in Dixie which operated from 1982 - 1997. My family would make the 55 mile trek out I-20 from Augusta to enjoy the decorations, fires with toasted marshmallows, hot dogs, and the Christmas Spirit. You can read more about Christmas in Dixie here.

Photographer facing NE

Taliaferro County is also home to Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy. He was born in Crawfordville in 1812. He also served as a U.S. Congressman, and Governor of Georgia until his death in office in 1883. His home, Liberty Hall is now part of the A.H. Stephens State Park in Crawfordville.

Photographer facing east

This house has lasted much longer than the Confederacy did, but traveling through this part of the state, with its bucolic views, allows you to time travel back to the same landscapes that would have existed 160 years ago. Open fields, sandwiched in between piney forests with some hardwoods mixed in.

There really isn't much in the way of modern buildings on Hwy 22 between I-20 and Hwy 78 near Lexington, GA. If you've never driven that stretch, it's worth the trip just to step back in time.

The classic old home with a tin roof, double chimneys on the NW side of the house, a covered porch on the back, evidence of a former covered porch on the front, and an old rock-lined hand-dug well certainly dates back to the early 1900's, if not the late 1800's. I know nothing of the history, or the former owners of this place.

Open, rock-lined, hand-dug well on the NW side of the house

Standing alone surrounded by the scrub trees that were left behind, while the underbrush and briers creep into the open sunny space that was formerly too shady for them to thrive; I try to imagine the sights and sounds that would have been present while it was somebody's home.

Even now, with hardly anyone around for miles, the home speaks to me, as the front screen door is pushed occasionally by the wind, and flaps and creaks on the one hinge that is still attached. She won't go easy.

Front door, photographer facing SW