Gullah Geechee Culture

Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters performing at Fort Frederica's annual African American History Festival

NPS Photo

History of the Gullah Geechee

The Gullah Geechee story is one of human endurance, adaptation, reinvention, and survival on new ground. The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of enslaved Africans from various ethnic groups of west and central Africa. Enslaved Africans were forced to work on the plantations of coastal South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida. Individuals from what was known as the “Rice Coast” were considered very valuable. They were skilled workers who possessed detailed knowledge of large-scale rice production. On coastal plantations, they were forced to utilize these skills to produce immense profits for plantation owners and slaveholders. The conditions on these plantations were extremely dangerous, where back breaking labor and tropical diseases combined to make harsh living conditions. Because of the nature of the climate, many plantation owners were “absentee” owners, meaning they hired a white overseer or appointed an enslaved black individual to run the plantation in their absence. As a result, many plantations along the southeastern coastline had dozens, if not hundreds of African and African Americans for every white overseer or owner. Many rice plantations were run using the task system where enslaved people were given a number of tasks each day to complete. Once they finished these tasks, the rest of the day was their own. Though these tasks usually took most of the day to complete, it had a stark difference to the gang system, where enslaved people had to work from dawn until dusk. Within the task system, enslaved people were able to use the time they saved to plant their own gardens, complete extra tasks for monetary compensation, or tend to family members. Because of these conditions, enslaved people in this region were able to retain aspects of their African culture and adapt them to the new world. Through the geography of the coastal landscape and the strong sense of place and family amongst Gullah Geechee community members, Gullah Geechee communities continue to practice their culture and traditions. Today, the cultural and linguistic umbrella of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor extends from Wilmington, North Carolina to St. Augustine, Florida. Many African Americans in this region continue to honor their African heritage, which is reflected in their naming traditions, linguistic patterns and African vocabulary, worldview, philosophy, and African religious syncretism. More specific cultural traditions like ring-shouts, sweet grass basket weaving, cooking methods, carving, fishing methods, quilting patterns and storytelling are still practiced with great care.

 

Map of African American Cemetery next to the wall and moat of Frederica

NPS Photo

Homegoing: African American Death Ritual and Customs

In 2019, a cemetery containing the remains of formerly enslaved individuals was rediscovered at Fort Frederica National Monument. This cemetery contains the burial sites of Robert Abbott’s father and aunt, Thomas and Celia. The cemetery contained remnants of oyster shells, a strong indication of their connection to Gullah Geechee burial customs. The rediscovery of this cemetery placed an important piece of history, literally and figuratively, back onto the map of Fort Frederica. The final resting places were properly marked and honored where they continue to rest under the watchful presence of the Robert Abbott monument.

Origins

African people brought their cultural customs and identities, especially those surrounding death, to the New World and adapted them into new traditions and practices. Most enslaved African Americans came from Western Africa. This area of the African continent had a large diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds: from Christianity and Islam to Animism and Shamanism. After experiencing the trauma of being sold across the Atlantic, many enslaved people held more firmly to their faith and customs to cope with their new surroundings. Despite the subjugation they experienced in life, enslaved people found creative and traditional ways to honor their dead. Death could bring a sense of hope and release that was hard to come by in life as an enslaved person.

Homegoing

Most cemeteries and grave sites of enslaved people are inconspicuous because they were not allowed to have funerals. Slave owners did not want anything interfering with field work and they feared slaves would plan an escape during or after the funeral. Since enslaved people were not allowed to have funerals, they instead had “Homegoing” ceremonies which took place at night, with the body buried before dawn. The few times these rituals were witnessed it was noted that these homegoings were joyous occasions with singing and dancing. Since there was no hope in returning home in life, they saw death as the only way to escape enslavement and to return home. It was very important that the gravesites be kept secret from the slaveholders. To be truly at rest, and to return home, the location could only be known by the community of enslaved people.

Cemeteries and Grave Sites

Burial customs vary based on where people came from before enslavement. Most grave sites were kept overgrown to prevent detection and let the dead stay at rest, but a few were cleared of all overgrowth so snakes and cattle would not disrespect the graves. Family members were always buried together, to prevent loved ones from wandering aimlessly through the afterlife looking for each other.In accordance with Christian tradition, graves were buried in East-West directions, pointed toward the rising sun and the second coming of Christ. In this orientation, the deceased were also facing their homeland and freedom. Grave sites were placed near rivers or other water sources, in the belief that the water that carried Africans to the New World would return them home in death.

Symbolism

Items left on a grave held significant value. Because headstones were not available, simple unmarked stones would be placed at the head of the burial to mark it. But other items would adorn the burial site. The people of the Congo used dishes, glassware, and medicine bottles which the deceased last touched, believing they would break the chain of death in the family for a time. Seashells were the everlasting vessel of the soul, and a convenient way to prevent grass growth.Oil lamps, lanterns, and later, lightbulbs, are commonly found on African American graves because of the symbolism of lanterns guiding the dead to the afterlife. Mirrors were placed to protect the living and dead from evil spirits; if an evil spirit saw its reflection, it would be banished from this realm. It is also common to find metal pipes on one end of the grave as a grave marker. The pipes were open to allow the spirit to siphon from its grave. If the pipe was closed it was believed the spirit was trapped.

 

Historic Photo of a Ring Shout

Margaret Davis Cate Collection, Fort Frederica National Monument

Ring Shout

The ring shout is a musical folk tradition that evolved from Africans enslaved on rice and cotton plantations. Formerly enslaved people passed the tradition on in an effort to preserve African religious customs for future generations.The ring shout began along the coast as a clandestine religious performance in brush arbors on the vast plantations that once monopolized the region. Later, it was practiced in praise houses or, after emancipation, in churches. The ring shout tradition is often performed at concerts, festivals and on Watch Night, the evening before New Year’s Day.Ring shouts are performed in a call and response format, directed by the lead singer. The rhythm is created by the “stickman,” who beats a wood stick on the floor or uses a washboard. “Basers” accompany the lead singer with responses and vigorous handclapping. The women in the group, who are also known as the “shouters”, move counterclockwise in a ring, pantomiming or making gestures in response to the basers and the stickman.

 

Gullah Language

The Gullah Geechee traditionally speak Gullah, the only African Creole language spoken in the United States. Gullah originated over 250 years ago as a simplified form of communication among people who spoke many different languages including European slave traders, slave owners and diverse, African ethnic groups. Despite its unique and culturally importance, white academics have historically derided it as substandard English. Beginning with Lorenzo Dow Turner’s 1949 work, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect, Gullah has now come to be appreciated, even by outsiders, as a legitimate and remarkable language. Gullah has widely influenced both general American English and African American English. Words like gumbo, yam, tote, biddy, and nanny have come into English through Gullah. Besides words of African origin, Gullah has many distinctive idioms.

 

Charles Wilson, Basket Maker on St. Simons Island

Margaret Davis Cate Collection, Fort Frederica National Monument

Sweetgrass Basketry

Sweetgrass basketry is a centuries-old African art form. The baskets were commonly used on plantations to harvest rice and had other uses in enslaved dwellings and plantation houses. Baskets are woven by hand with sweetgrass that grows naturally in marshes and tidal areas, though the plant has been negatively impacted by coastal development. The tradition has been passed on by generations of Gullah Geechee people who continue to make baskets today for many household uses. Sweetgrass baskets can viewed in museums across the country, and even in the Fort Frederica visitor center.