In 1989, 1998, and 2005, fifteen Gullah speakers went to Sierra
Leone and other parts of West Africa to trace their origins and
ancestry. Their journey frames this exploration of the
extraordinary history of the Gullah culture-characterized by strong
African cultural retention and a direct influence on American
culture, particularly in the South-described in this fascinating
book. Since long before the Revolution, America has had hidden
pockets of a bygone African culture with a language of its own, and
long endowed with traditions, language, design, medicine,
agriculture, fishing, hunting, weaving, and the arts. This book
explores the Gullah culture's direct link to Africa, via the sea
islands of the American southeast. The first published evidence of
Gullah went almost unrecorded until the 1860s, when missionaries
from Philadelphia made their way, even as the Civil War was at its
height, to St. Helena Island, South Carolina, to establish a small
institution called Penn School to help freed slaves learn how to
read and write and make a living in a world of upheaval and
distress. There they noticed that most of the islanders spoke a
language that was only part English, tempered with expressions and
idioms, often spoken in a melodious, euphonic manner, accompanied
by distinctive practices in religion, work, dancing, greetings, and
the arts. The homogeneity, richness, and consistency of this
culture was possible because the sea-islanders were isolated. Even
today, there are more than 300,000 Gullah people, many of whom
speak little or no English, living in the remoter areas of the sea
islands of St. Helena, Edisto, Coosay, Ossabaw, Sapelo, Daufuskie,
and Cumberland. Gullah Culture inAmerica explores not only the
history of Gullah, but takes the reader behind the scenes of Gullah
culture today to show what it's like to grow up, live, and
celebrate in this remarkable and uniquely American community.
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