The Gullah People and Their African Heritage

The Gullah People and Their African Heritage PDF Author: William S. Pollitzer
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 9780820327839
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
The Gullah people are one of our most distinctive cultural groups. Isolated off the South Carolina-Georgia coast for nearly three centuries, the native black population of the Sea Islands has developed a vibrant way of life that remains, in many ways, as African as it is American. This landmark volume tells a multifaceted story of this venerable society, emphasizing its roots in Africa, its unique imprint on America, and current threats to its survival. With a keen sense of the limits to establishing origins and tracing adaptations, William S. Pollitzer discusses such aspects of Gullah history and culture as language, religion, family and social relationships, music, folklore, trades and skills, and arts and crafts. Readers will learn of the indigo- and rice-growing skills that slaves taught to their masters, the echoes of an African past that are woven into baskets and stitched into quilts, the forms and phrasings that identify Gullah speech, and much more. Pollitzer also presents a wealth of data on blood composition, bone structure, disease, and other biological factors. This research not only underscores ongoing health challenges to the Gullah people but also helps to highlight their complex ties to various African peoples. Drawing on fields from archaeology and anthropology to linguistics and medicine, The Gullah People and Their African Heritage celebrates a remarkable people and calls on us to help protect their irreplaceable culture.

The Gullah People and Their African Heritage

The Gullah People and Their African Heritage PDF Author: William S. Pollitzer
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 9780820327839
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Gullah people are one of our most distinctive cultural groups. Isolated off the South Carolina-Georgia coast for nearly three centuries, the native black population of the Sea Islands has developed a vibrant way of life that remains, in many ways, as African as it is American. This landmark volume tells a multifaceted story of this venerable society, emphasizing its roots in Africa, its unique imprint on America, and current threats to its survival. With a keen sense of the limits to establishing origins and tracing adaptations, William S. Pollitzer discusses such aspects of Gullah history and culture as language, religion, family and social relationships, music, folklore, trades and skills, and arts and crafts. Readers will learn of the indigo- and rice-growing skills that slaves taught to their masters, the echoes of an African past that are woven into baskets and stitched into quilts, the forms and phrasings that identify Gullah speech, and much more. Pollitzer also presents a wealth of data on blood composition, bone structure, disease, and other biological factors. This research not only underscores ongoing health challenges to the Gullah people but also helps to highlight their complex ties to various African peoples. Drawing on fields from archaeology and anthropology to linguistics and medicine, The Gullah People and Their African Heritage celebrates a remarkable people and calls on us to help protect their irreplaceable culture.

Making Gullah

Making Gullah PDF Author: Melissa L. Cooper
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469632691
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
During the 1920s and 1930s, anthropologists and folklorists became obsessed with uncovering connections between African Americans and their African roots. At the same time, popular print media and artistic productions tapped the new appeal of black folk life, highlighting African-styled voodoo as an essential element of black folk culture. A number of researchers converged on one site in particular, Sapelo Island, Georgia, to seek support for their theories about "African survivals," bringing with them a curious mix of both influences. The legacy of that body of research is the area's contemporary identification as a Gullah community. This wide-ranging history upends a long tradition of scrutinizing the Low Country blacks of Sapelo Island by refocusing the observational lens on those who studied them. Cooper uses a wide variety of sources to unmask the connections between the rise of the social sciences, the voodoo craze during the interwar years, the black studies movement, and black land loss and land struggles in coastal black communities in the Low Country. What emerges is a fascinating examination of Gullah people's heritage, and how it was reimagined and transformed to serve vastly divergent ends over the decades.

A Gullah Guide to Charleston

A Gullah Guide to Charleston PDF Author: Alphonso Brown
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614232679
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
An expert in Gullah culture introduces the rich history of black Charlestonians through a series of local walking tours plus a sightseeing drive. The Gullah people of the Lowcountry South are famous for their cuisine, Creole language, and exquisite crafts—yet there is so much more to this unique culture than most people realize. Alphonso Brown, the owner and operator of Gullah Tours, Inc., guides readers through the history and lore of this storied people in A Gullah Guide to Charlestown. With this volume guiding the way, you can visit Denmark Vesey's home, Catfish Row, the Old Slave Mart and the Market; learn about the sweetgrass basket makers, the Aiken-Rhett House slave quarters, black slave owners and blacksmith Philip Simmons. Brown's distinctive narration, combined with detailed maps and vibrant descriptions in native Gullah, make this an authentic and enjoyable way to experience the Holy City.

The Water Brought Us

The Water Brought Us PDF Author: Muriel Miller Branch
Publisher: Sandlapper Publishing
ISBN: 9780878441532
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
"The origins of the Gullah language and culture can be traced to the castles and forts along the West African coast where captured Africans awaited transport into slavery in the West Indies and America. This distinctive Creole language and culture later took root and thrived among enslaved Africans in the West Indies and on the isolated Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia"--Page 4 of cover

Gullah Spirituals

Gullah Spirituals PDF Author: Eric Sean Crawford
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1643361910
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
In Gullah Spirituals musicologist Eric Crawford traces Gullah Geechee songs from their beginnings in West Africa to their height as songs for social change and Black identity in the twentieth century American South. While much has been done to study, preserve, and interpret Gullah culture in the lowcountry and sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia, some traditions like the shouting and rowing songs have been all but forgotten. This work, which focuses primarily on South Carolina's St. Helena Island, illuminates the remarkable history, survival, and influence of spirituals since the earliest recordings in the 1860s. Grounded in an oral tradition with a dynamic and evolving character, spirituals proved equally adaptable for use during social and political unrest and in unlikely circumstances. Most notably, the island's songs were used at the turn of the century to help rally support for the United States' involvement in World War I and to calm racial tensions between black and white soldiers. In the 1960s, civil rights activists adopted spirituals as freedom songs, though many were unaware of their connection to the island. Gullah Spirituals uses fieldwork, personal recordings, and oral interviews to build upon earlier studies and includes an appendix with more than fifty transcriptions of St. Helena spirituals, many no longer performed and more than half derived from Crawford's own transcriptions. Through this work, Crawford hopes to restore the cultural memory lost to time while tracing the long arc and historical significance of the St. Helena spirituals.

Gullah Geechee Heritage in the Golden Isles

Gullah Geechee Heritage in the Golden Isles PDF Author: Amy Lotson Roberts
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439667640
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description
The Golden Isles are home to a long and proud African American and Gullah Geechee heritage. Ibo Landing was the site of a mass suicide in protest of slavery, the slave ship Wanderer landed on Jekyll Island and, thanks to preservation efforts, the Historic Harrington School still stands on St. Simons Island. From the Selden Normal and Industrial Institute to the tabby cabins of Hamilton Plantation, authors Amy Roberts and Patrick Holladay explore the rich history of the region's islands and their people, including such local notables as Deaconess Alexander, Jim Brown, Neptune Small, Hazel Floyd and the Georgia Sea Island Singers.

Talking to the Dead

Talking to the Dead PDF Author: LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822376709
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Talking to the Dead is an ethnography of seven Gullah/Geechee women from the South Carolina lowcountry. These women communicate with their ancestors through dreams, prayer, and visions and traditional crafts and customs, such as storytelling, basket making, and ecstatic singing in their churches. Like other Gullah/Geechee women of the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, these women, through their active communication with the deceased, make choices and receive guidance about how to live out their faith and engage with the living. LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant emphasizes that this communication affirms the women's spiritual faith—which seamlessly integrates Christian and folk traditions—and reinforces their position as powerful culture keepers within Gullah/Geechee society. By looking in depth at this long-standing spiritual practice, Manigault-Bryant highlights the subversive ingenuity that lowcountry inhabitants use to thrive spiritually and to maintain a sense of continuity with the past.

Africanisms in American Culture, Second Edition

Africanisms in American Culture, Second Edition PDF Author: Joseph E. Holloway
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253217493
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
A revised and expanded edition of a groundbreaking text.

Sweetgrass Baskets and the Gullah Tradition

Sweetgrass Baskets and the Gullah Tradition PDF Author: Joyce V. Coakley
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738518305
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
Looks at the history of the African art of sweetgrass basket making in the Christ Church Parish of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

The Little Gullah Geechee Book

The Little Gullah Geechee Book PDF Author: Jessica Berry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578644028
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
There is a hidden treasure on the tongues of Low-country natives. The melodic rhythm of the Gullah Geechee language still rings strong from the South Carolina inland regions to the Sea Island coasts. Whether you are a tourist traveling through the low-country corridor, a come ya who has made the low-country your new home, or a been ya who was born and raised under the moss of the beautiful oak trees, there is always something to learn about Gullah Geechee. This pocket-guide to the Gullah Geechee history, culture, and language will give you a brief introduction to a United States gem.