Searching Out the Hidden Stories of South Carolina’s Gullah Country

Great piece, but failure to mention Julie Dash's brilliant film, "Daughters of the Dust," is a real oversight.

Our family has visited the Sea Islands multiple times. This article correctly highlights many of the compelling remainders of the culture. The Penn Center is a excellent destination that recounts how people, determined to prosper, eagerly sought education after enslavement. One note is necessary to round out the authors' discussion of Robert Smalls based on Dr. Henry Louis Gates' recent PBS documentary of Reconstruction Era history: Mr. Smalls may have officially lost reelection but this was a result of the official and at the time legal voter suppression and disenfranchisement of African-Americans. Prevented from voting, the people were unable to return effective leaders to office. This disgrace needs to be known in order to prevent a recurrence in our modern election system. Thank you for leading us to the place and thank you to all who share the culture and importance of freedom.

Read "Scarlet Sister Mary", the 1929 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, set among the Gullah people. You won't have to imagine what praise house services were like because that is a major part of the story.

I have wanted to visit this part of the country for years since having a student whose grandmother spoke Gullah. This student was in an honors English class and we were watching an episode from the wonderful series on the development of the English language, "The Story of English." In our discussion after watching the episode, this student volunteered that she had learned to speak Gullah from her grandmother, who was then living with them and then told us that she often acted as a translator for her grandmother, as most people in Portland couldn't understand her. I've never forgotten that student...she was an expert "code-switcher" at 17 years-old, mastering the King's English as well as Gullah and hall talk.

My memory of that beautiful part of the world - before Hilton Head, etc., and all the legal trauma then about land ownership - was that Gullah was the local description and Geechee wasn't necessarily complimentary. Locals have obviously now adopted and given their own credence to both. A bit surprised there's no reference to the Angel Oak/the Tree of Life, but perhaps that's a hope of trying to protect one vital part of the heritage from tourism.

Listen to music from this area by a band called Ranky Tanky. Thank me later!

The comments here are as lovely and informative as the article. Thank you all for this snippet of a place based on living on and with the land as mine but oh so very different.

I wonder if this is where Frogmore stew originated? Shrimp, corn on the cob, and kielbasa, boiled together in a huge pot and dumped out on a kraft paper covered picnic table to be enjoyed by all.

Make sure you talk to you wealthy, privileged neighbors on St. Simons about how they drove the Gullah out of their homes https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/gullah-geechee.

How the Federal Government respects the Gullah people http://www.harrisnecklandtrust1.xbuild.com/movement-for-justice/4533525795

Reading this article brought back so many beautiful memories about St. Helena and Frogmore. But it also made me realize how we take things for granted and how little we often know or care to know about the places we call our home. I had the privilege of living on St. Helena island for several years. I appreciated it for its proximity to the beach and the seafood but little did I know about the culture that surrounded me. It was not until several years later, when I came to show my husband where I used to live that I became interested in the history of the Gullah culture and its history. It took me being a tourist to appreciate what once was right at my doorstep. Thank you so much for writing this article as a means to support and bring attention to the Gullah Geechee culture, the Sea Islands and the people living there. Hopefully your article will generate a sincere interest in protecting the history of this culture so generations to come can learn from it.

Mrs. Atwell's delightful article reminds me of my many trips to the South Carolina coast when I was growing up. We were generally in the Myrtle Beach and Georgetown area, but one year my father took us to Beaufort and out to St. Helena to see some of the locations in the article. For those who'd like to hear a bit of the Gullah culture, I recommend an album released last year by Ranky Tanky, a group that bases their music on these roots. It's fun, and I've never heard anything else quite like it.

This was a beautifully written and transparent article. As a child my southern born grandmother would call me Geechee for my love of rice and then I never knew why until a friend, and now this article explained very well why. Made me warm inside.

We recently visited Hilton Head Island and I was fascinated to learn some of the Gullah history that happened there in Mitchellville. Well worth a visit to the small park with the placards telling the story, and simulations of the buildings. We also visited the fort that had been established to protect the community. with just some shape left to the landscape, but again, some interesting historic placards.

While growing up we did not use Gullah and Geechee together. I thought Gullah were from Beaufort County and Geechee more around Charleston. I remember a local distinction. Is Gullah Geechee a more recent term?

Forgive me but Sea Island culture connects all the dots of the History of America. Circa 1840 Onward, ancestrally, starting with rice, then Sea Island Cotton, the area wealth was so massive that the slaveholding planters fired on Ft. Sumpter. The area was virtually a marshy fortress were the labor and engineering skills of the slaves was so formattable that few white people were around. Coastal Georgia/South Carolina industrial farming and agricultural feats were massive and the slaves were the brains and brawn of those endeavors. The slave (masters) only spent six or so months a year because white people feared swamp fever. The culture hunted game and caught fish for the White people but also for themselves. The grew vegetables and the kitchens were famous thought that time and up until today of cooking the fines fresh foods and fish and beef and Turkey and chicken and you name it. The culture there started the fine dining industry.

BTW myself and every generation of my family has fought in every war this country has been in since the Revolution. I still remember seeing a blue star in our front window - my uncle had fought in the battle of the bulge. He was a sargeant and when a German Tiger tank over ran his position, he set the tank on fire and when the Germans came out of their burning bank, he dispatched them with his Thompson sub machine gun. Another got the Medal of Honor by mowing down the Chinese army soldiers with his F-86 landing gear. When he landed he caused quite a stir as his ground crew dug out the Chinese soldiers from his landing gear. He retired to S California. I was shocked when I saw him answering when retired and was on TV, national news when he was asked if our Air Force could hit the Iraqui tanks - "Of course he said".

What a refreshingly informative and interesting article. The fact that The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke — and practiced what is often referred to as his most-important speech — at the Baptist Church is something I didn't know before. Love these kind of articles. So much better than the red-team-versus-blue-team pablum that so often fills the front page.

When I first moved to GA, I had a VW bus and had a platform with a bed in the back and explored the SC and NC coast. Went to Pawleys Island and discovered their outstanding hammocks there and then up to Gullah Island where the local people spoke Gullah, the language they they brought with them. My ancestors came to the USA in Colonial VA in 1608 and like John Smith were investors in the VA Company. By the 1680's they owned some of the largest plantations in VA. They also fought in the Revolutionary War and since cotton and tobacco had worn out the land, they bought thousands of the scrips signed by George Washingon giving them the ownership to thousands of acres in the new territory of Indiana. They went south to VA and west to a mountain crossing on the VA/SC border and then north to the crossing at Louisville. Then kept going north till they got to Mitchell IN, where they could grow corn. To trade they smoked pork and made corn whiskey and went south to Louisville, made rafts and floated down to Vicksburg or New Orleans and sold their products for specie/hard currency. This trail back to Louisville was called the devil's hwy. because when they encountered men they checked their hands and if they were soft, this means they were criminals and they cut their throats and threw them in the bushes for bears/coyotes to eat. Their leader was John Pleasant Burton and was buried standing up with his head roped up, a full gallon jug of whiskey and his rifle.

"To describe our growing up in the lowcountry of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, 'There. That taste. That's the taste of my childhood.'" Pat Conroy. The Prince of Tides. I return to this quote multiple times a year, and I really don't know why.

Slavery tourism? Are we still doing this? condensing a man-sized evil into gift-shop shelf size is one way to emulsify it i suppose.

I love the SC low country. One of the elements of this wonderful area the the scent. The scent of the "pluff mud" is something that reminds me of the timelessness of the sea & low country. If you have not been to this area of SC, plan a trip before developers spoil it.

Wasn't the movie "Daughters of the Dust" based in this area?

They better enjoy it while they can before gentrification steals their land.

A beautiful part of the world indeed. I fell in love, fueled by Pat Conroy's books, in 1982 while doing my Peace Corps training at Penn Center for service in West Africa. Come visit us and, like the author, please support these wonderful restaurants, churches, farms, and institutions safeguarding the Gullah heritage.

These photos are excellent.

Time marches on. You can pay money to preserve buildings and place markers. But preserving culture requires willing participants. Sometimes people are willing but unable (as in refugees feeing war), but usually it just fades as it in no longer tenable (like preserving a specific lifestyle on one tiny island, where movement of even a small number of people, on or off, upsets the order). Take pictures, record interviews, and get the stories preserved. The culture living culture will fade for the same reason the author drove back home.

A beautiful essay, and I appreciate the brief meditation on environmental justice and climate change. I only wish that the author would have mentioned Julie Dash's film Daughters of the Dust, which also was filmed on St. Helena's island. It is an incredible and moving film about the Gullah Geechee people, and one that I would deeply recommend.

We visited several years back whilst on a road trip. It was such an education! It is a dream location for a serious photographer!

I enjoyed reading this lovely piece. I'm surprised there's no mention of "Gullah Gullah Island", which I grew up watching on Nickelodeon in the 90s! It was a breakthrough for African-American programming at the time, and has made me always want to visit this area.

Every one of the people mentioned here, and doubtless many others, who are working to preserve the elements of Gullah language and culture deserve our heartfelt thanks and any support we can give them. Blessing on all of you. And that plate of smoked chicken and red rice makes me want to sneak off to the kitchen. Watching and trying to copy some of my great aunts as they created meals 60 years ago are among my very most cherished memories. I think I'll make a special trip to visit the Green's restaurant soon.

A lot of millennials will recognize the name from the children's show Gullah Gullah Island on Nickelodeon in the mid-90's. I remember it being one of my favorite shows. I'm glad the execs decided to produce the show and help promote such a vibrant and unique community that, save the Internet now, I would have never have known existed. Media representation is important, so thank you for this piece. I hope to be able to visit one day!

Great story. If you come down the Savannah River there are complete towns that speak pretty much nothing but Geechee. They are gentle, humble people and a credit to SC.

Does anyone know if this is “Yamacraw”, the island where the author Pat Conroy taught for a couple of years? He wrote a lovely book about his time there called The Water is Wide which was made into the movie Conrack.

This is one of my favorite areas. Thank you for capturing it so well. Friendly people, wonderful food, rich history.

A beautifully written essay that highlights a fascinating part of our American culture. Ms. Atwell's lyrical writing brings insight into a living part of our history that is vanishing at warp speed. many thanks!

What a charming and important historical area! I live "down the road" on St. Simons Island, GA and have never visited. I will now. Thank you for this lovely story.

I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you, Mary Stewart Atwell, for writing this. Recently we saw the music group, Ranky Tanky (very loosely translated as get funky). They have roots in the Gullah community in South Carolina. Had seen them at the 2017 Monterey Jazz, bought their 1st cd as a prelease and chatted with them for awhile; and just last Friday saw them again. A group of very talented musicians. Their music and stories of the Gullah community are great.

Thank you for this. I’ve been so curious about this unique, historic and culturally-rich (but near forgotten?) corner of our country and have always wanted to visit. I loved the descriptions and the photos. The trees to me are both foreign /unfamiliar and so beautiful.

I desperately want to visit this area. Can anyone tell me a good place to stay that's historic but not too pricey?

Haunting. And evocative

These islands have been special to me since my first visit in 1982. Coincidentally, I later married a women who is descended from one of the areas original founders, William Pinkney, so visits brought on added meaning. All that aside - it is a beautiful area, especially for someone looking to get off the beaten path and experience a piece of America's heritage and culture. It is very pleasing to know that attempts are being made to share this with future generations.

I went on a tour a few years back and was saddened that this history is not better protected.

Way back in the day, my dear aunt Irene moved then married a man from next door in South Carolina. Though we hadn’t met him, by way of her letters, he became simply Uncle June. When we finally met him, though looking like any other run-of-the-mill Black South Carolinian, we couldn’t understand a word he said. My grandfather, who was born in Ocala Florida and claimed Seminole Indian descent, attempted to resolve my youthful befuddlement with a clarifying explanation. “Boy,” he said, “June one of them Salt-Water Geeches!” Unfortunately, this only baffled me more! My, my I thought—Seminole Indians, Salt-Water Geeches— being Black in America is a many splendid thing, ain’t it??

I found this article in the NY Times World section. I was surprised not to find it in the U.S. section. Perhaps this deficiency will be remedied. I assume that The Times doesn't intend to imply that the Gullah Geechee people aren't Americans, or that their history in the Sea Islands isn't part of American history. The article itself certainly recognizes that the Gullah Geechee people are Americans. It would be very interesting also to have an article on the Sea Islands written by someone with a Gullah Geechee background.

I read about the Gullas Geechee many years ago and now they like the rest of the States are in jeopardy of being over run by wealthy inhabitants that could care less about the history or the inhabitants of St. Helena's. Good luck to you all.