Joseph Hayne Rainey

Front inscription

This National Historic Landmark was the family home of Joseph H. Rainey, the first African American elected to the US House of Representatives, 1870-1879. Born in Georgetown County in 1832, Rainey, it is said, made blockade-running trips during the Civil War. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1868, served two years in the SC Senate, and two years as internal revenue agent of SC. He died in Georgetown, SC, in 1887.