As home to the oldest inland settlement in the United States, Beech Island may be the most historical area of Aiken County. Savano Town began in the late 1600s when Indian tribes traded with settlers in the town, near present day Beech Island. Visit the Beech Island Historical Society and learn of the British occupation of George Galphin’s plantation house (trading center) and of Silver Bluff Missionary Baptist Church, the first Black Baptist church in America founded in the mid-1700s. Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site is a grand historic home site in Beech Island, completed in 1859. A former cotton plantation, it was the home of South Carolina Gov. James Henry Hammond, three generations of his descendants and numerous African-American enslaved families. In more recent history, it's well-known that American singer and "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown also made Beech Island his home for many years.
Redcliffe Plantation was once a governor's mansion. It's half an hour from Aiken near the Georgia border. Provided
