The Legacy of Rice
Europeans came to the New World in search of fortunes. Africans arrived in slave ships not knowing their futures. The west coast of Africa was a diverse region made up of many different ethnic groups, languages, and cultural traditions. Here in Carolina, many African cultures melded with American Indian traditions and a host of European traditions to create a new African AMERICAN culture.
The African people carried unwillingly to Carolina brought not just their labor but their skills, memories, beliefs, customs, traditions, foods, and languages. In the New World they adapted, reshaped, preserved, modified, and improvised to build their own world within the oppressive system of slavery. Enslaved African people found ways to carved a few precious hours of personal time out of each day. They used this time to grow gardens, make baskets and pottery, or hire themselves out as black smiths, boat builders, carpenters, brick masons, cabinet makers and seamstresses to make a little money. They told stories to their children, held religious gatherings, played music and games, and took care of their families. In this way, traditions, customs, and beliefs were passed down through generations. This cultural knowledge is reflected in the beautiful sweetgrass baskets, once agricultural tools, now, works of art. It is there in the bricks of the region’s colonial and antebellum plantations and townhouses. It’s in the elegant iron fences and gates of Charleston. It’s in the food, literature, art, and music of America.
Today, we see these traditions most clearly in the lifeways and customs of the Gullah/Geechee people. Unfortunately Gullah/Geechee culture is threatened by the great changes development has brought to coastal South Carolina. Thanks to the hard work of many people, Congress passed a bill in 2006 to establish the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. The corridor extends through the coastal counties from Jacksonville, Florida to Wilmington, North Carolina and includes Charleston County, South Carolina.
The enslaved community on a Sea Island plantation.
Sweetgrass baskets for sale.
The Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (courtesy of the National Park Service).
St. Michael’s Church gate.