Gullah Culture Research Paper
Kiesha Jamison September 18th 2009 The History of Gullah and Geechee Culture The Gullah culture started with the transportation of African slaves to the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Sea Islands served as an excellent location for the Gullah culture because of its separation from the mainland. The African slaves, who came from different regions in African, brought with them their language, culture and traditions. Collectively these traditions and languages have merged into one to form Gullah. The Gullah culture has survived over the years by Gullah elders passing down the language and traditions to their children. However, over the past fifty years the Gullah culture has started to die. Three significant factors
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Native American refugees from around the South formed an alliance with African runaways to create the Seminole Nation. The name Seminole is from the Spanish word cimarrón, meaning runaway. The 1842 agreement between the United States and Spain, which ended the Seminole hold on Florida, caused a migration to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Some Seminoles followed Spanish protectors to Cuba and to Andros Island in the Bahamas. Aspects of West African heritage have survived at each stage of the circle of migration, with rice, language, and spirituality persisting as cultural threads into the twentieth century. The Geechee/Gullah culture on the Sea Islands of Georgia has retained a heritage that spans two …show more content…
The main purpose for making baskets were for rice cultivation. Documentation of the developing culture on the Georgia islands dates to the nineteenth century. Originally baskets were made from longleaf pine needles and stripes of palmetto leaf. Today the baskets are made with sweet grass and palmetto leaf. Today, tourism has made Basket weaving a profitable profession. Making nets is a long standing African tradition, that was brought over by the African slaves. Nets have been used for centuries by the Gullah people as a way to catch shrimp, fish, crabs,
Native American refugees from around the South formed an alliance with African runaways to create the Seminole Nation. The name Seminole is from the Spanish word cimarrón, meaning runaway. The 1842 agreement between the United States and Spain, which ended the Seminole hold on Florida, caused a migration to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Some Seminoles followed Spanish protectors to Cuba and to Andros Island in the Bahamas. Aspects of West African heritage have survived at each stage of the circle of migration, with rice, language, and spirituality persisting as cultural threads into the twentieth century. The Geechee/Gullah culture on the Sea Islands of Georgia has retained a heritage that spans two …show more content…
The main purpose for making baskets were for rice cultivation. Documentation of the developing culture on the Georgia islands dates to the nineteenth century. Originally baskets were made from longleaf pine needles and stripes of palmetto leaf. Today the baskets are made with sweet grass and palmetto leaf. Today, tourism has made Basket weaving a profitable profession. Making nets is a long standing African tradition, that was brought over by the African slaves. Nets have been used for centuries by the Gullah people as a way to catch shrimp, fish, crabs,