Gullah - an African Tree Grown in America

From the Gold Coast of West Africa they came. From Gambia. From Senegal. From Angola. From Sierra Leone and Nigeria. They came not willingly as the English, French and Spaniards before them, but on slave ships that plied the Atlantic Ocean. They entered North America through "a door of no return" - through the Ellis Island of the Southern Colonies - the Port of Charles Towne in South Carolina.

Their primary duty was the cultivation of rice, that favorite staple that the planters were having considerable difficulty with in the marshy, lowlands of the Colony. Since the Africans from the Rice and Windward Coast had the know-how for growing rice, their presence quelled a looming agricultural disaster. Much later, after rice finally failed, the slaves were put to cultivating indigo and Sea-Island Cotton - a fine, long-stapled cotton, so called because it was grown on the Sea Islands off the coast of Carolina and Georgia.

After their long, isolated trans-oceanic crossing, the slaves, who would come to be known as the Gullah, were forced into more isolation on the Sea Islands. In some ways this isolation was beneficial, for it enabled the Gullah to retain their cultural identity. On the other hand, those who were sent to the mainland, in time, were assimilated into a culture foreign to them.

Like the Creoles of Louisiana, the Sea Island Gullah developed a unique Afro-American folk culture that included their diverse African traditions. Today, one can learn of this culture and experience the rich folkways and folklore of the Gullah and Geechee through the Internet.

Gullah is an appellative used to describe a population of West Africans who were transferred permanently with their culture intact to the coastal region of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. If one visits Charleston, however, one more than likely will see not only Gullah, but also Geechee. According to Gullah historians, the difference is primarily one of linguistics. The Gullah language is rich with African words, while the Geechee tongue is spiced with more English words.

It is the custom for the Gullah to believe strongly in a set of values which identify the community as the focal point from which their existence is anchored. The African world view engenders ceremonies and rituals for all aspects of living from birth to death.