Formerly The Penn School, The Penn Center is an African American cultural and educational center located on St. Helena Island, South Carolina.  In 1862 during the second year of the Civil War, the U.S. Navy captured the island from Confederate forces. With that capture, 32,530 enslaved African Americans suddenly found themselves free people. Northern abolitionists recognized the need to educate the freedmen and believed that what they did here would become a model for helping freedpeople become full citizens across the United States.  Abolitionists raised donations which were sent to the island and some Northerners arrived to oversee what would be one of the first examples of Reconstruction even as the Civil War continued.  The donations allowed schools to be set up to educate the ex-slaves. The first classes were held in the living room of the abandoned Oaks Plantation before a school house was built.  As more donations came in, land was purchased from plantation owners who had abandoned the island, and buildings were erected.  The Penn School, named after Quaker William Penn, was the first building completed.  It was also the first school founded in a Confederate state specifically for the education of African Americans. Eventually other buildings … Continue reading The Penn Center (1862- )