Visitors to Historic Seabrook Village experience life as it was in rural coastal Georgia from the end of the Civil War until the Great Depression.

Former slaves received land grants—sometimes referred to as “40 Acres and a Mule”—from the U.S. Government in 1865. With little more than their freedom and their own land, the people of Seabrook built homes and schools and churches. Against the odds, they created a flourishing community through hard work, cooperation and sheer grit.

 

Started in 1990 as a non-profit foundation to preserve the last black one-room schoolhouse in coastal Georgia, Historic Seabrook Village has grown to include over a dozen period buildings making it the finest collection of African-American vernacular architecture in the rural South. The Eddie Bowens Farm is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation has used Seabrook as a study site for African-American vernacular architecture.

 

Today visitors are greeted by descendants of the original founders of the Seabrook community. Nowhere else can you experience the past as told by those who have lived it and absorbed its stories as passed down from grandparent to grandchild for centuries.

 

Winner of the 1995 Cultural Olympiad Regional Designation Award in the Humanities, Seabrook Village presents an accurate and authentic portrayal of the remarkable lives of African-American landowners in post-Civil War coastal Georgia. What stands out, though, is how seemingly ordinary life can be extraordinary—the strength and beauty of community resonates with all Seabrook visitors. It is a place where the content of our character matters more than the color of our skin or the language we speak. It is a place of personal magic. Come join us.

 

660 Trade Hill Road, Midway, GA, 31320 (912) 884-7008, (Tuesday -Saturday, 10-4)