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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.
A history of the rich culture of the Gullah people-a story of
upheaval, endurance, and survival in the Lowcountry of the American
South.Gullah Culture in America chronicles the history and culture
of the Gullah people, African Americans who live in the Lowcountry
region of the American South. This book, written for the general
public, chronicles the arrival of enslaved West Africans to the sea
islands of South Carolina and Georgia; the melding of their African
cultures, which created distinct creole language, cuisine,
traditions, and arts; and the establishment of the Penn School,
dedicated to education and support of the Gullah freedmen following
the Civil War. Original author Wilbur Cross, writing in 2008,
describes the ongoing Gullah story: the preservation of the culture
sheltered in a rural setting, the continued influence of the Penn
School (now called the Penn Center) in preserving and documenting
the Gullah Geechee cultures. Today, more than 300,000 Gullah people
live in the remote areas of the sea islands of St. Helena, Edisto,
Coosay, Ossabaw, Sapelo, Daufuskie, and Cumberland, their way of
life endangered by overdevelopment in an increasingly popular
tourist destination. For the second edition of this popular book,
Eric Crawford, Gullah Geechee scholar, has updated the text with
new information and a fresh perspective on the Gullah Geechee
culture.
When Andrew Jackson, newly elected as President of the United
States, moved on horseback to Washington and settlement in the
White House, it was with an immense sense of loneliness, following
the death of his beloved wife, Rachel. But the situation changed
for the better when he invited young people who themselves were
facing loneliness or a sense of failure in life, to join him there
and take up activitiees that would revive their spirits and offer
meaningful jobs and social assignments.
What happened in the following months and years, which will
amaze and dleight the reader, will be seen in the delightful and
captivating chapters of this novel. Most important, in spite of the
fictional elements used to enhance the stories, all of the
happenings are based on historical fact.
Wilbur Cross is the author of two other novels and more than 50
non-fiction books, many in the field of history, biography, and
adventure.
In 1928, defying Italy's Mussolini and the entire fascist party,
aviator Umberto Nobile, undertook a daring expedition to the North
Pole in Italia, one of several successful airships he had designed.
The tragic crash of the airship on the ice and search for survivors
was the most extensive in Arctic history, involving seven nations.
Although Nobile and eight crew members survived, those lost
included not only their tragic companions but searchers, including
the famous explorer, Roald Amundsen. The Italia tragedy was
described by The New York Times as "one of the most astonishing
episodes in the history of aviation."
The author of more than 50 non-fiction books and a leading
physician, whose lifetime hobby has been the study of American
Presidents, have teamed up to document an astonishing subject. This
is the extraordinary story of those American Presidents who have
suffered illnesses or injuries so critical they have threatened not
only the man in the White House but the entire nation. Here you
will find a startling behind-the-scenes story of the nation's chief
executives who have been stricken-some to the point of being unable
to remain on the job.
The Gullah people of St. Helena Island still relate that their
people wanted to "catch the learning" after northern abolitionists
founded Penn School in 1862, less than six months after the Union
army captured the South Carolina sea islands. In this broad history
Orville Vernon Burton and Wilbur Cross range across the past 150
years to reacquaint us with the far-reaching impact of a place
where many daring and innovative social justice endeavors had their
beginnings. Penn Center's earliest incarnation was as a refuge
where escaped and liberated enslaved people could obtain formal
liberal arts schooling, even as the Civil War raged on sometimes
just miles away. Penn Center then earned a place in the history of
education by providing agricultural and industrial arts training
for African Americans after Reconstruction and through the Jim Crow
era, the Great Depression, and two world wars. Later, during the
civil rights movement, Penn Center made history as a safe meeting
place for organizations like Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern
Christian Leadership Conference and the Peace Corps. Today, Penn
Center continues to build on its long tradition of leadership in
progressive causes. As a social services hub for local residents
and as a museum, conference, and education complex, Penn Center is
a showcase for activism in such areas as cultural, material, and
environmental preservation; economic sustainability; and access to
health care and early learning. Here is all of Penn Center's rich
past and present, as told through the experiences of its longtime
Gullah inhabitants and countless visitors. Including forty-two
extraordinary photographs that show Penn as it was and is now, this
book recounts Penn Center's many achievements and its many
challenges, reflected in the momentous events it both experienced
and helped to shape.
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