Editing Gullah (section)

===Civil War period===
When the [[American Civil War|U.S. Civil War]] began, the Union rushed to blockade [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] shipping. White planters on the Sea Islands, fearing an invasion by the US naval forces, abandoned their plantations and fled to the mainland. When Union forces arrived on the Sea Islands in 1861, they found the Gullah people eager for their freedom, and eager as well to defend it. Many Gullah served with distinction in the [[Union Army]]'s [[1st South Carolina Colored Infantry Regiment]]. The Sea Islands were the first place in the South where slaves were freed. Long before the War ended, [[American Unitarian Association|Unitarian]] missionaries from [[Pennsylvania]] came to start schools on the islands for the newly freed slaves. [[Penn Center (Saint Helena Island, South Carolina)|Penn Center]], now a Gullah community organization on [[Saint Helena Island, South Carolina|Saint Helena Island]], South Carolina, was founded as the first school for freed slaves.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nielsen |first1=Euell |title=The Penn Center (1862- ) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/penn-center-1862/ |website=Blackpast.org |date=August 2016 |access-date=30 November 2023}}</ref>
[[File:1893 sea islands hurricane damaged houses.jpg|thumb|right|[[1893 Sea Islands hurricane]]-damaged houses in Beaufort County.]]
After the Civil War ended, the Gullahs' isolation from the outside world increased in some respects. The rice planters on the mainland gradually abandoned their plantations and moved away from the area because of labor issues and hurricane damage to crops. Free blacks were unwilling to work in the dangerous and disease-ridden rice fields. A series of [[1893 Sea Islands Hurricane|hurricanes]] devastated the crops in the 1890s. Left alone in remote rural areas of the Lowcountry, the Gullah continued to practice their traditional culture with little influence from the outside world well into the 20th century.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Gullah Geechee People |url=https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/thegullahgeechee/ |website=Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission |access-date=30 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gershon |first1=Livia |title=The Cosmopolitan Culture of the Gullah/Geechees |journal=Politics and History |date=2022 |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-cosmopolitan-culture-of-the-gullah-geechees/ |access-date=30 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Johnson N. |first1=Michelle |title=1893 Sea Islands Hurricane |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/1893-sea-islands-hurricane/ |website=New Georgia Encyclopedia |publisher=University of Georgia Press |access-date=30 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kukulich |first1=Tony |title=The Great Sea Island Hurricane devastated Beaufort County 130 years ago |url=https://www.postandcourier.com/hurricanewire/the-great-sea-island-hurricane-devastated-beaufort-county-130-years-ago/article_7a0dbcbc-41e6-11ee-8cdf-db3991422700.html |access-date=27 February 2024 |agency=The Post and Courier |date=2023}}</ref>