The history of African Americans in Beaufort goes back to the 18th century, yet remarkably little research or study has ever been carried out on the subject. Prior to 1800, when the town's black population consisted entirely of slaves, the records are virtually silent on their lives and the crucial roles that they must have played in the development and very construction of the town and its society. The labor performed by these slaves, from clearing land to building houses to working as domestics and servants in white households, made possible the very existence of the town during the difficult settlement period of the 18th century. Beaufort's slaves, like most, left no written history; as a result they are anonymous and will likely remain so.
With the growth of the free-black population during the early decades of the 19th century, the fascinating story of African Americans, and their contribution, begins to unfold. Beaufort's black population, which stood at 122—all slaves—in 1800 when the entire town numbered only 559, grew to include 59 free blacks and 579 slaves in 1860, in a town of 1,610. The federal census records for 1850 and 1860 list the occupations of free blacks for the first time, revealing a wide range of skills and trades including house-carpenter, shoemaker, fisherman, farmer, and even four musicians. Five free blacks in Beaufort had achieved the status of property owner by 1860. The great majority were still enslaved, all working daily to build and develop the town which was then in the midst of an antebellum heyday as a fashionable summer resort. MORE . . .
African Americans in Beaufort - An Overview
