Thanks to a grant received from the Coastal Community Foundation, historic Penn Center will be opening a new school on its historic campus.
The grant was awarded to Penn Center on Monday to assist them in creating a new school that will be focused on Heir’s Property rights.
An event was held at Penn Center on St. Helena Island, home of the very first school for freed slaves in 1865 when it was known as Penn School, and is the center of the Gullah/Geechee community today.
Fast forwarding 154 years, Penn Center now plans to open a new school that will focus on educating Gullah descendants from all over the Southeastern coast on the rights to their land and property.
Heirs property rights is a major complex situation today.
For the Gullah/Geechee people, the land is part of their identity; it represents a spiritual and cultural bond that is deeply rooted in ways that are difficult to describe.
To fully understand the complexities of heirs property, you need to examine its origins.
At one time, in South Carolina, the number of slaves outnumbered white slave owners. As a result, after emancipation, many slaves chose to remain in the area of their enslavement. Some of the slaves were given land by their owners, or they acquired abandoned land; others, through hard work and dedication, were able to purchase land.