The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of West and Central Africans who were enslaved on the rice, Sea Island cotton, and indigo plantations of the southeastern Atlantic coast.
History
Enslaved Africans brought knowledge of agriculture and of coastal and tidal landscapes to these plantations. The relative isolation of the Sea Islands and coastal communities helped their descendants keep many African traditions alive and shape them into a distinct culture.
Language
Gullah Geechee people developed their own creole language, which blends English with African languages. The linguist Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner documented its African roots in his 1949 study Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect, recording speakers along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia.
Cultural Traditions
The culture lives on in sweetgrass basketry and other crafts, in foodways rooted in rice and the coastal harvest, in spirituals and the ring shout, and in storytelling passed from one generation to the next.
Resilience
After emancipation, freed people built churches, schools, and landowning communities of their own. Needwood Baptist Church and its 1907 schoolhouse are one example in Glynn County. Today, communities and institutions across the region continue the work of preserving this heritage.
This introduction is a starting point. Gullah Geechee history is best told by Gullah Geechee people, and we welcome corrections and family stories. Share yours with the museum.