Joseph Hayne Rainey House

This National Historic Landmark (circa 1760) is considered the birthplace and childhood home of Joseph H. Rainey, one of the first African Americans elected to the US Congress (1870-1879). Born to slave parents, Rainey purchased his freedom and that of his family around 1850 and established himself as a barber. Drafted by the Confederacy during the Civil War, Rainey escaped with his wife, Susan to Bermuda, returning to Georgetown after the war. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1868, served two years in the state senate and was a state internal revenue agent. Rainey died in Georgetown in 1887.