History and Culture of the Gullah people

History of the Gullah people and their culture

Wilbur Cross (2008) opens his Foreword to his seminal work Gullah Culture in America by saying that “since long before America’s independence, the nation has had hidden pockets of a bygone African culture, rich in native history, with a language of its own, and long endowed with beguiling talents in its traditions, language, design, medicine, agriculture, fishing, hunting, weaving, and arts” (viii). Gullah language is one of the best exponents of the complex and fascinating history of the Gullah Geechee peoples. Let’s begin our adventure!

Where do the Gullah people live?

The Gullah culture is one of the oldest surviving African cultures in the United States. It has its origins in descendants of Africans brought to the Carolina Colony in the 1500s. There are over 500,000 Gullah living between Jacksonville, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida today. This 500 mile stretch along the Atlantic Ocean is home to the Sea Islands. The Sea Islands are a chain of barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States. They number over 100, and are located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Gullah culture can be found in the south-eastern coast of the United States, in the coast between North Carolina and Florida. This area encompasses both the coastal marshes and lowlands, and many of the islands and islets there. Some of the major islands are: St.Helena, Edisto, Coosaw,Ossabaw, Sapelo, Daufuskie, and Cumberland.

This area 

features a sub-tropical climate with wet and rainy summers and falls. In fact, it was this very climate what made these islands and coastal areas perfect for the growing of the Carolina Gold Rice. Nowadays, these areas are famous for their Souther-Charm (with places such as Beaufort, once known as the “Queen of the South Carolina Islands;” and their natural landscape. Far from being a blessing, this has also triggered major land purchases by companies and realtors and the building of massive hotel complexes that threaten the life and existence of the Gullah Geechee People.

In 2006, the US Congress created a Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor that encompasses the coastal areas and barrier islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The creation of the corridor also implied the compilation of a special report on the significance of Gullah culture. The corridor is nowadays administered by the National Park Service.

Gullah History 

Gullah culture is testament to the strength and adaptability of African enslaved peoples brought to the United States. Most of the enslaved peoples that later became Gullah originated from West and Central Africa, mainly from rice-growing areas (which stretches from what are now Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in the north to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in the south). Their skills in the growing and collection of rice made them an attractive purchase for planters in coastal plantations. These people were normally captured by African slave traders and later sold to white traders. Many of them were prisoners of war product of internal conflict, thus being an heterogeneous group with different languages. Before being embarked for America, they would spend weeks at the ports and forts all over the African coast. Some scholars argue that it was in this stage when a kind of pidgin would develop among them.

2.1: Stop and Think!
Now that you have a little more idea about geography, why don't you try to locate these landmarks in the maps? 



You can check your answers in Google Maps. 

Charleston's Old Slave Market is one of the only extant
slave markets in South Carolina. Charleston was the entry
port for more than 75% of all enslaved Africans.

This was followed by the frightful “middle passage,” during which they were chained and locked in vessels to cross the Atlantic. At least, 20% of them never made it to America, and their bodies were thrown overboard. Those who did arrive alive to the United States would be sold at slave markets all over the East coast, in places such as New York City or Charleston. It was in Charleston where many of the slaves that would work in the rice plantations were sold. They would had had spent up to two weeks at Sullivan’s Island (an islet outside the coast of Charleston), also known was “pest house,” in quarantine. Charleston, with all its current glory, is known to have been the entry port and sale place of more than 120,000 enslaved peoples from Africa.

The Gullah culture is testament to the strength and adaptation of African slaves brought to the United States. It began along the West African coastline where captured Africans destined to be sold as slave labour for American rice and cotton plantations were imprisoned in holding cells before their journey across the Atlantic Ocean. This imprisonment brought a large number of Africans from different countries and cultures together. The enslaved peoples who would later become Gullah would have been original from tribes such as Mandingo, Bamana, Fula, Mende, Vai, Akan, Ewe, Bakongo, and Kimbundu (Cross 2008). Gullah culture evolved as a hybrid of the different languages, customs, beliefs and traditions of these regions. The term ‘Gullah’ is said to be a version of the country named Angola, from which nearly half the slaves brought to the Carolina Colony came. Many elders in the Gullah culture believe that the term refers to the African story of the Golas and Gizzis–two cultural groups living near Liberia during the time of the slave trade that also had large numbers captured and brought to this part of the United States.

In South Carolina, this group of African-Americans and the language they speak are referred to as Gullah. In Georgia, they are called Geechee. Although the islands along the south-eastern U.S. coast harbour the same collective of West Africans, the name Gullah has come to be the accepted name of the islanders in South Carolina, while Geechee refers to the islanders of Georgia. Geechee, historically considered a negative word identifying Sea Islanders, became an acceptable term in light of contemporary evidence linking it to West Africa.

Although the origins of the two words are not definitive, some enslaved Africans along the coast had names that were linked to the Kissi group, leading to speculation that the terms may also derive from that particular culture. West Africa during the time of the slave trade was a rice growing culture. Thus, the farmers from this part of the world were an invaluable source of knowledge and cheap labor to rice plantation owners.

After being sold, they would be brought to the many rice plantations in the coast, to work

"The Crucifixion" by
John Jones

under the close watch of ‘drivers’. Whereas in Brazil and other areas slaves would be worked to death in unhealthy and miserable conditions, those working for the rice plantations found a somehow different panorama. Their condition of skilled workers and the high price their masters had paid for them implied that their conditions would be somehow better, so that they could work long hours in the fields. Albeit many of them did reach their elder years, their conditions were nonetheless horrible. Cross points that, around the American Civil War, “slaves identified with Jesus because of the tortures and enmities he suffered not dissimilar to their own” (Cross 2008, 87)

This engraving shows slaves working at a rice plantation
in South Carolina.

Similarly, the humid weather of the islands and coast would be the perfect environment for tropical diseases such as yellow fever to run rampant. Whereas enslaved peoples did have some genetic resistance to those diseases, their masters and many white people did not. Thus, it was common for enslaved peoples to be left under the supervision of a minority of whites for long periods at a time. This proved to be a determining factor for the development of Gullah: left ‘alone’ to work, the slaves would have little need to communicate with outsiders. This pattern of isolation is surely one of the most relevant characteristics of the development of Gullah.

Religion: Praise Houses and Shout

One of the last surviving "praise houses" in St. Helena Island, SC.,
with his priest, Rev. Henderson (1995).

The particular religion of the Gullas may well be among the most iconic elements of this community. However, its history is long and complex. Nonetheless, it has also been a major source of knowledge and linguistic evidence.

Religion seems to have been one of those fields of life when the African heritage seems to have lasted more strongly. In fact, many of the hymns and songs people would sing would be in African languages. In fact, it was a religious song what gave Lorenzo Dow Turner concrete evidence of the presence of Africa in Gullah language and culture. In 1932, Amelia Dawley sang for Turner an old song her mother had taught her, who had been taught by her grandmother, and so on. The lyrics of the song, she didn’t understood. However, Turner recorded the song hoping that, during his trips around Africa, he would be able to find somebody familiar with the ancient chant. At the end, he did find a man who was familiar to the song: it was in Mende language of Sierra Leone, and it was a burial song. When Turner asked one of the elders of the tribe why the song would have perdured over more than 200 years, he answered: “‘All her people were buried with it,’ he explained, ‘and by singing it,

she would always be connected to her ancestors in Africa.’” (Cross 2008, 143-45)

This moving story triggered three different trips by the Gullah community to Sierra Leone, the first of which also gave rise to the movie “The Language you Cry in” (1988). This title makes reference to an ancient Mende proverb: “You know who a person is

by the language he cries in.” Here you can find the trailer for the movie, and (around minute 0:34), hear the ancient song being sang!

Religion in the Sea Islands and Gullah culture may well be best represented in the image of the “Praise House:” a small rustic shack where slaves would gather to pray and––later, after slavery was over––do communal meetings. In the close atmosphere of the prayer house appeared a new religion that was Christian but heavy with African elements. One of those elements was the ‘shout’: a kind of prayer where people would increasingly rise their voices singing hymns and songs while using their feet to mark the rhythm. Many of the material in Gullah we have today belongs to these kinds of context.

This short documentary, albeit highly religious, does show rare

insights inside a "praise house."

Another essential element to guarantee the survival of Gullah was the translation of the Holy Bible into Gullah, which was finished in 2005. Although some parts of it had long been recited in Gullah (such as the Lord’s Prayer, below), the complete translation into Gullah faced strong opposition by those who considered Gullah to be broken English. De Nyew Testament was translated under the director of Emory Campbell. Before its release date, all 10,000 copies had already been sold. There is an importance into translating the Bible to English: just like King John’s Bible provided an standard for British English, the Gullah bible legitimized Gullah as a true language. An Gullah woman is believed to have said: “That’s the first time I heard God talk the way I talk!”

The Lord's Prayer is one of the most iconic prayers. Despite the fact that the Bible as a whole was translated only in 2005, parts of it were translated before, such as this Lord's Prayer used as an expression of grace. Try to fill in the blanks in the English version:

2.2.: Stop and Think! The Bible
Now that you know a little bit more about De Nyew Testament you should look at some examples of its relevance. 

1) Let's begin by reviewing some quotes about this translation (as compiled in this site):

• “When we were young, it was drilled into us that if we expected to get ahead, we must get rid of the Gullah. But if you take away the language of a society, you destroy the individual. This translation should bring new respect to the language.” Doesn't this remind you of Thomas Lawrence memories of Gullah? Why do you think it's so important to provide education for people in their language? If you want more information on educational policies, you can begin by looking for the "Oakland Ebonics Resolution."

• “The Gullah translation offers comfort: It means the language is alive.” Ethnologue contemplates Gullah as "Sea Island Creole Englishes" and points that it has an "Developing" language. Why don't you check the status in this list and see what it means?

• “I’m so proud of my heritage now.”

• “This makes the language universal. People have done Gullah cookbooks, they have done African-American sayings, they have done proverbs. But for the Bible to go out with the Gullah sends a message. It means we can speak the Word.” The Bible is the book that provides a language with a sense of legitimacy.

• “When you read the Bible in Gullah, it’s like you’re talking to God one-on-one.”

Now, the official website for the Gullah Bible does feature some recordings. One of them for The Last Supper. Here, you can see the translation into Gullah. Click here to listen to a reading at the same time. Pay attention to the rhythm and intonation patterns:

Civil War and Emancipation: the Penn School

Recently freed slaves in Hilton Head, SC.

One of the most important turns of Gullah history occurred during the Civil War. We’ll here summarize the major events of this period, and you can––again––turn to Cross' Gullah Culture in America (2008) for an in-detail discussion of this period.

The Sea Islands were among the very first areas freed by the Union Troops, and many of the masters that once ruled over the plantations fled leaving their houses and

possessions behind. It was just in that period when Laura Matilda Towne (a follower of Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist ideas) and Ellen Murray decided to travel to Beaufort and the Sea Island of St. Helena to educate, heal, and spread the word of God. Both women were fervent educators, who found the Gullah community of St. Helena threatened by disease and the menace of war (Union Troops were stationed close by at Hilton Head, and skirmishes would soon be common in nearby areas, as well as compulsory drafts by the armies of the men of the Gullah community).

Their goal was to open a school in the area. They did on June 18, 1862. That day, Penn School was opened. Despite initial complications and periods of disease and hunger, the school endured, and its student body grew exponentially. Towne’s education program was successful in its pragmatic approach: she believed that Gullah people would be better off staying in their traditional lands, rather than migrating to the city, and thus provided a mostly agricultural and farming kind of education, as well as religion and English. This was a constant pattern, and years latter, Penn would become Penn Normal, Agricultural, and Industrial School (following the curriculum of Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee University).

This is Penn Center's Gantt Cottage, where Dr. King
used to stay during his visits.

The history of Penn is linked to that of the Gullah language and community. In fact, one of the few criticism that is currently made to those early stages of Penn is the fact that Gullah was not approved of as language in the premises, and students would be punished for using it. Penn would prove, however, decisive at a national level: it wasn’t only the first school of freed slaves, but also a sanctuary where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lodged several times (there’s a cottage in his honor), as well as met with group such as the Peace Coprs. In fact, the historical role of Penn seems to have been predicted even in the opening day: that day, in a solemn ceremony, Penn School was presented with a brass bell inscribed with “Proclaim Liberty” in the shape of Liberty Bell.

Despite the opening of Penn and some other developments, the Gullah population mostly remained isolated up until the mid-twentieth century because of the lack of bridges connecting the islands to mainland, that made water the only possible crossing. It was this isolation what saved Gullah culture, many argue. In a country riddled with racism, Gullah people essentially lived in an alternate dimension where African-Americans were majority and almost self-sufficient. This created the perfect environment for Gullah language and culture to develop and mature into a complex system.

By the 1940s, the shift from agriculture to tourism made them the dominant labour force in and of the hospitality industry, the chief income in every state wherever they reside in large numbers today.