Established on a small peninsula in 1711, Beaufort is the second-oldest town in South Carolina. With a population of 10,000 it is located at the intersection of US-21 and US-280, 49 miles south of Charleston in the state’s southeast.

This old seaport grew to prosperity in the eighteenth century on the back of Sea Island cotton and slavery. The old wealth has left the city a legacy of attractive Colonial and antebellum houses that, along with its excellent seafood restaurants and interesting African-American heritage, make it a popular tourist attraction. In 1779 Beaufort was the site of a Revolutionary War battle in which William Moultrie defeated the British, who were occupying the city.

The town’s small historic district, with its narrow streets, eighteenthcentury buildings and huge live oaks, can be explored by means of a self-guided walking tour map available from the visitor center. They can also tell you where scenes from the films The Big Chill, The Prince of Tides, and Forrest Gump were shot. Highlights include Thomas Hepworth House (circa 1717), the oldest building in town; the John Mark Verdier House (1802); and the Henry McKee House, which was purchased by Robert Smalls (1839-1915), who had previously worked there as a slave. Smalls, born in Beaufort, became something of a Union hero in the Civil War when he guided his steamship out of Charleston Harbor and into the hands of Union forces. Later, he was the state’s first African- American congressman.

It is said that the grave slabs from St Helena’s Episcopal Church (circa 1720) were employed as operating tables by surgeons in the Civil War. A far more substantial burial ground is the National Cemetery created by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 for those killed in Southern battles. It includes the graves of 9,000 Union soldiers and 122 Confederates, as well as British officers from the Revolutionary War. More history is located in the Beaufort Museum, housed within a 1798 Gothic-style arsenal.

It displays decorative arts, Native American pottery and artifacts from prehistory, early industry, and the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Just east of Beaufort is Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot, established in 1891. This institution trains most Marine recruits east of the Mississippi River. The harsh regimen was allegedly the inspiration for the first half of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. The depot has a museum that covers the history of the Marine Corps and its training methods. Displays here include weapons, uniforms, and exhibits on the European history of Parris Island, which dates back to a French Huguenot settlement attempted in 1564.

Driving tour maps of the area are available from the Parris Island Visitor Center.

The principal attraction in the area is St Helena Island, also to the east of Beaufort.

Probably one of the least environmentally degraded of the Sea Islands, it has a truly gorgeous landscape.

There are African-American shrimp- and oyster-fishing communities in this area, descended from slaves freed when the island was taken by Union troops who granted them allotments here.

The island’s Penn Center has its origins in a school for freed slaves that opened in 1862. It was used as a retreat in the 1960s by civil rights leaders such as Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The center houses a museum with interesting exhibits about itself and about Gullah culture. Gullah is a “Creolized” form of English that retains words and grammatical features from West African languages, reflecting the origins of the communities that use this patois among the Sea Islands and coastal regions of South Carolina, Georgia, and northeastern Florida.

The Gullah Institute has recordings of the dialect, along with other examples of Gullah culture, such as the intricately woven local sweet-grass baskets that also stem from West Africa. Photographs from the early twentieth century capture African-American farmers and anglers and their antiquated tools, rattlesnake skins, and shrimp nets.

A bridge leads over to Hunting Island State Park. Just 9 miles beyond the museum is the area’s main beach. The island is popular and at times crowded, but it is quite a beautiful prospect with its fine white sand, warm water, saltmarsh boardwalk, fishing pier, birdlife, deer, nature trail, shrimp boats, sea oats, and dense forests.

The visitor center has good exhibits on the island’s history, its beach habitats, and its lighthouse (1875). There is a campground or, if you have booked two years in advance, some appropriately weather-worn cabins.