Editing Gullah

{{Short description|African American ethnic group in the Southern United States}}
{{About|the Gullah people and their culture and diaspora||}}
{{Redirect|Geechee}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Gullah
| native_name      = Gullah Geechee
| native_name_lang = gul
| image            = Sweetgrass Basket Maker.jpg
| image_caption    = A Gullah woman makes a sweetgrass basket in Charleston's City Market.
| image_alt        = 
| total            = Est. '''200,000'''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-hurricane-matthew-geechee-snap-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |title= The Gullah people have survived on the Carolina sea islands for centuries. Now development is taking a toll |first=Nigel |last=Duara |date=November 4, 2016 |accessdate=July 27, 2021}}</ref>
| total_year       = 
| total_source     = 
| total_ref        = 
| genealogy        = 
| regions          = North Carolina • South Carolina • Georgia • Florida • Liberia
| languages        = [[American English]], [[African-American English]], [[Gullah language]]
| religions        = Majority Protestant; minorities Roman Catholic and [[Hoodoo (spirituality)|Hoodoo]]
| related_groups   = [[African-Americans]], [[Afro-Bahamians]], [[Afro-Trinidadians]], [[Haitians]], [[West Africa#Demographics and languages|West Africans]], [[Black Seminoles]]
| footnotes        = 
}}
{{African American topics sidebar}}

The '''Gullah''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|ʌ|l|ə}}) are a subgroup of the [[African Americans|African American]] ethnic group, who predominantly live in the [[South Carolina Lowcountry|Lowcountry]] region of the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within the coastal plain and the [[Sea Islands]]. [[Gullah language|Their language]] and culture have preserved a significant influence of [[Africanisms]] as a result of their historical geographic isolation and the community's relation to its shared history and identity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-10 |title=The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection |url=https://macmillan.yale.edu/glc/gullah-rice-slavery-and-sierra-leone-american-connection |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition |language=en}}</ref> 

Historically, the Gullah region extended from the [[Cape Fear (headland)|Cape Fear]] area on North Carolina's coast south to the vicinity of [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]] on Florida's coast. The Gullah people and their language are also called '''Geechee''', which may be derived from the name of the [[Ogeechee River]] near [[Savannah, Georgia]].<ref name="Gomez2000">{{cite book|author=Michael A. Gomez|title=Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfHU4mOPMmMC&pg=PA102|date=9 November 2000|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-6171-4|page=102}}</ref> ''Gullah'' is a term that was originally used to designate the [[Creole language|creole]] dialect of English spoken by Gullah and Geechee people. Over time, its speakers have used this term to formally refer to their creole language and distinctive ethnic identity as a people. The Georgia communities are distinguished by identifying as either "Freshwater Geechee" or "Saltwater Geechee", depending on whether they live on the mainland or the Sea Islands.<ref name="Morgan2011">{{cite book|author=Philip Morgan|title=African American Life in the Georgia Lowcountry: The Atlantic World and the Gullah Geechee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VK2crOGw6aAC&pg=PA151-IA17|date=15 August 2011|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-4274-0|page=151}}</ref><ref name="BaileyHarris2003">{{cite book|author1=Cornelia Bailey|author2=Norma Harris|author3=Karen Smith|title=Sapelo Voices: Historical Anthropology and the Oral Traditions of Gullah-Geechee Communities on Sapelo Island, Georgia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zdLiAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Saltwater%20Geechee%22|year=2003|publisher=State University of West Georgia|isbn=978-1-883199-14-2|page=3}}</ref><ref name="NPS2003">{{cite book|title=Low Country Gullah Culture, Special Resource Study: Environmental Impact Statement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k0o3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA16|year=2003|publisher=National Park Service|page=16}}</ref><ref name="NPS">{{cite web|author1=NPS|title=Gullah Geechee History, Language, Society, Culture, and Change|url=https://www.nps.gov/guge/learn/historyculture/upload/Historical%20Background.doc.|publisher=National Park Service|page=1|quote=Geechee people in Georgia refer to themselves as Freshwater Geechee if they live on the mainland and Saltwater Geechee if they live on the Sea Islands.}}</ref>

Because of a period of relative isolation from whites while working on large [[Plantations in the American South|plantations]] in rural areas, the Africans, enslaved from a variety of Central and West African ethnic groups, developed a creole culture that has preserved much of their African linguistic and cultural heritage from various peoples; in addition, they absorbed new influences from the region. According to the Gullah/Geechee Nation website, many Gullah/Geechees also have some native American or indigenous American ancestry.<ref name="Gullah/Geechee Nation">{{cite web |author1=Gullah/Geechee Nation |title=De Gullah/Geechee Foundation of America |url=https://gullahgeecheenation.com/2017/10/05/de-gullahgeechee-foundation-of-america/ |website=Gullah/Geechee Nation |access-date=11 February 2025 |date=5 October 2017}}</ref> The Gullah people speak an [[English-based creole language]] containing many African [[loanwords]] and influenced by [[African languages]] in grammar and sentence structure. Sometimes referred to as "Sea Island Creole" by linguists and scholars, the Gullah language is sometimes considered as being similar to [[Bahamian Creole]], [[Barbadian Creole]], [[Guyanese Creole]], [[Belizean Creole]], [[Jamaican Patois]], [[Trinidadian Creole]], [[Tobagonian Creole]], and the [[Krio language|Sierra Leone Krio]] language of [[West Africa]]. Gullah crafts, farming and fishing traditions, folk beliefs, music, rice-based cuisine and story-telling traditions all exhibit strong influences from Central and West African cultures.<ref name="Prahlad2016">{{cite book|author=Anand Prahlad|title=African American Folklore: An Encyclopedia for Students: An Encyclopedia for Students|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x92uDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA139|date=31 August 2016|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-930-3|page=139}}</ref><ref name="ShujaaShujaa2015">{{cite book|author1=Mwalimu J. Shujaa|author2=Kenya J. Shujaa|title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooVNCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA435|date=21 July 2015|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4833-4638-0|pages=435–436}}</ref><ref name="Berry2012">{{cite book|author=Daina Ramey Berry|author-link=Daina Ramey Berry|title=Enslaved Women in America: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pdH1okuXI5QC&pg=PA120|year=2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34908-9|page=120}}</ref><ref name="NPS200350–58">{{cite book|title=Low Country Gullah Culture, Special Resource Study: Environmental Impact Statement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k0o3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA50|year=2003|publisher=National Park Service|pages=50–58}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The origin of the word ''Gullah'' can be traced to the Kikongo language, spoken around the [[Congo River]]'s mouth, from which the [[Gullah language]] dialects spoken by black Americans today come. Some scholars suggest that it may be cognate with the name ''[[Angola]]'', where the ancestors of many of the Gullah people originated.<ref name="Gomez2000" /><ref name="Sumpter2006">{{cite encyclopedia|author1=Althea Sumpter|author2=((NGE Staff))|title=Geechee and Gullah Culture |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/geechee-and-gullah-culture |publisher=Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press; Georgia Institute of Technology |access-date=30 July 2016 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Georgia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406015809/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/geechee-and-gullah-culture |archive-date=April 6, 2016|date=March 31, 2006}}</ref> Shipping records from the [[Port of Charleston]] revealed that Angolans accounted for 39% of all enslaved Africans shipped to the port.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Gullah Community (in the United States of America), a story |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/the-gullah-community-in-the-united-states-of-america-a-story/ |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=African American Registry |language=en}}</ref> The story of [[Gullah Jack]] (an African slave trafficked from Angola to the United States) further supports the theory that the word ''Gullah'' originated in Angola.<ref name="Rodriguez1997">{{cite book |author=Marquetta L. Goodwine |title=The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-87436-885-7 |editor=Junius P. Rodriguez |page=322 |chapter=Gullah Jack |quote=Some people believe the word is a shortened version of Angola. Numerous Africans brought from the area that is now the country of Angola were named Gullah to denote their origin, which is why names like Gullah Jack and Gullah Mary appear in some plantation accounts and stories. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATq5_6h2AT0C&pg=RA1-PA322}}</ref>

Some scholars also have suggested that it may come from the name of the [[Gola people|Gola]], an ethnic group living in the border area between present-day Sierra Leone and [[Liberia]] in West Africa, another area of enslaved ancestors of the Gullah people.<ref name="Opala2006">{{cite web|author=Joseph A. Opala|title=Bunce Island in Sierra Leone|url=http://www.glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/publichistory/opala.pdf|publisher=Yale University|access-date=30 July 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151218070249/http://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/publichistory/opala.pdf|archive-date=18 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="Gomez2000" /> British planters in the Caribbean and the Southern colonies of North America referred to this area as the "Grain Coast" or "Rice Coast"; many of the tribes are of [[Mandé]] or Manding origins. The name "Geechee", another common name for the Gullah people, may derive from the name of the [[Kissi people]], an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone, [[Guinea]], and Liberia.<ref name="Gomez2000" />

Another possible linguistic source for "Gullah" are the [[Dyula people|Dyula]] ethnic group of West Africa, from whom the American Gullah might be partially descended.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1973 |title=Conferences |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3818615 |journal=Research in African Literatures |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=62–74 |jstor=3818615 |issn=0034-5210}}</ref> The [[Dyula people|Dyula]] civilization had a large territory that stretched from Senegal through Mali to Burkina Faso and the rest of what was [[French West Africa]]. These were vast savanna lands with lower population densities. Slave raiding was easier and more common here than in forested areas with natural forms of physical defenses. The word "[[Dyula people|Dyula]]" is pronounced "Gwullah" among members of the [[Akan people|Akan]] ethnic group in [[Ghana]] and [[Côte d'Ivoire]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Contributor |first=Clara Fagan, Staff |date=2021-01-18 |title=The Gullah People |url=https://africaotr.com/the-gullah-people/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Africa OTR |language=en-US}}</ref> The primary land route through which captured [[Dyula people]] then came into contact with European slavers was the "Grain Coast" and "Rice Coast" (present-day Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegambia, and Guinea).

One scholar suggested that the Gullah-Geechee name could have also been adopted from the [[Ogeechee River]].<ref name="Matory2015">{{cite book|author=J. Lorand Matory|title=Stigma and Culture: Last-Place Anxiety in Black America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WbreCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA196|date=2 December 2015|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-29787-3|page=196}}</ref> [[Sapelo Island]], the site of the last Gullah community of [[Hog Hammock]], was also a principal place of refuge for Guale people who fled slavery on the mainland.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.as.uky.edu/sapelo-island-mission-period-archaeological-project |title = The Sapelo Island Mission Period Archaeological Project &#124; College of Arts & Sciences}}</ref>

==History<!-- There is a lot of historical information in this section that is never tied back to the Gullah people. It's not clear what is specific to them vs. enslaved Africans in the US in general. For some of it it's not clear why it's here at all. I think most of it does actually belong here, but it needs to be explained why it is important to the Gullah people and culture specifically, and how it distinguishes them from other African Americans in the South.  -->==
===African roots===
[[File:African Slave Trade.png|thumb|Map of both intercontinental and transatlantic slave trade in Africa]]
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Caroline speaking Gullah and English.webm|thumb|Wikitongues: Caroline speaking Gullah and English. The Gullah language has several West African words.]]

According to Port of Charleston records, African slaves shipped to the port came from the following areas: [[Angola]] (39%), [[Senegambia]] (20%), the [[Windward Coast]] (17%), the [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]] (13%), [[Sierra Leone]] (6%), the [[Bight of Benin]] and [[Bight of Biafra]] (5% combined), [[Madagascar]] and [[Mozambique]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>[http://www.nps.gov/ethnography/research/docs/ggsrs_book.pdf ''Low Country Gullah Culture Special Resource Study and Final Environmental Impact Statement''], National Park Service, Southeast Regional Office, p. 3</ref>

Particularly along the western coast, the local peoples had cultivated [[African rice]], related to but distinct from [[Asian rice]], for what is estimated to approach 3,000 years. It was originally domesticated in the inland delta of the Upper [[Niger River]].<ref name=linares>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1073/pnas.252604599|issn=1091-6490| volume = 99| issue = 25| pages = 16360–16365| last = Linares| first = Olga F.| title = African rice (''Oryza glaberrima''): History and future potential| journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences| date = 2002-12-10| pmid = 12461173| pmc=138616|bibcode=2002PNAS...9916360L|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=genome>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1038/ng.3044| pmid = 25064006| issn = 1061-4036| volume = 46| issue = 9| pages = 982–988| last1 = Wang| first1 = Muhua| last2 = Yu| first2 = Yeisoo| last3 = Haberer| first3 = Georg| last4 = Marri| first4 = Pradeep Reddy| last5 = Fan| first5 = Chuanzhu| last6 = Goicoechea| first6 = Jose Luis| last7 = Zuccolo| first7 = Andrea| last8 = Song| first8 = Xiang| last9 = Kudrna| first9 = Dave| last10 = Ammiraju| first10 = Jetty S. S.| last11 = Cossu| first11 = Rosa Maria| last12 = Maldonado| first12 = Carlos| last13 = Chen| first13 = Jinfeng| last14 = Lee| first14 = Seunghee| last15 = Sisneros| first15 = Nick| last16 = de Baynast| first16 = Kristi| last17 = Golser| first17 = Wolfgang| last18 = Wissotski| first18 = Marina| last19 = Kim| first19 = Woojin| last20 = Sanchez| first20 = Paul| last21 = Ndjiondjop| first21 = Marie-Noelle| last22 = Sanni| first22 = Kayode| last23 = Long| first23 = Manyuan| last24 = Carney| first24 = Judith| last25 = Panaud| first25 = Olivier| last26 = Wicker| first26 = Thomas| last27 = Machado| first27 = Carlos A.| last28 = Chen| first28 = Mingsheng| last29 = Mayer| first29 = Klaus F. X.| last30 = Rounsley| first30 = Steve| last31 = Wing| first31 = Rod A.| title = The genome sequence of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and evidence for independent domestication| journal = Nature Genetics|date = 2014-07-27| pmc = 7036042| doi-access = free}}</ref> Once Carolinian and Georgian planters in the American South discovered that African rice would grow in that region, they often sought enslaved Africans from rice-growing regions because they had the skills and knowledge needed to develop and build irrigation, dams and earthworks.<ref name="Opala2006b">{{cite web|author1=Joseph A. Opala|title=The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection|url=http://glc.yale.edu/gullah-rice-slavery-and-sierra-leone-american-connection|publisher=Yale University|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006082735/http://glc.yale.edu/gullah-rice-slavery-and-sierra-leone-american-connection|archive-date=October 6, 2015|date=2006}}</ref>

[[File:Bunce Island 1805.jpg|thumb|Bunce Island, a historical slave port where the ancestors of many Gullah departed to the Lowcountry]]

Two British trading companies{{which?|date=January 2025}} operated the slave castle at [[Bunce Island]] (formerly called Bance Island), located in the [[Sierra Leone River]]. Their main contact in Charleston was American [[Founding Father]] [[Henry Laurens]]. His counterpart in Britain was the Scottish merchant and slave trader [[Richard Oswald (merchant)|Richard Oswald]]. Many of the enslaved Africans taken in West Africa were processed through Bunce Island, a prime export site for slaves to South Carolina and Georgia. Slave castles in Ghana, by contrast, shipped many of the people they traded to ports and markets in the Caribbean islands.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

After Freetown, Sierra Leone, was founded in the late 18th century by the British as a colony for poor black people from London and [[black Loyalists]] from Nova Scotia resettled after the [[American Revolutionary War]]. The British did not allow slaves to be taken from Sierra Leone, protecting the people from kidnappers. In 1808 both Great Britain and the United States prohibited the African [[History of slavery|slave trade]]. After that date, the British, whose navy patrolled to [[Blockade of Africa|intercept slave ships]] off Africa, sometimes resettled Africans liberated from slave trader ships in Sierra Leone. Similarly, Americans sometimes settled freed slaves at [[Liberia]], a similar colony established in the early 19th century by the [[American Colonization Society]]. As it was a place for freed slaves and free blacks from the United States, some free blacks emigrated there voluntarily, for the chance to create their own society.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

===Origin of Gullah culture===
[[File:Gullah1.PNG|thumb|The Gullah region once extended from SE North Carolina to NE Florida]]

The Gullah people have been able to preserve much of their African cultural heritage because of climate, geography, cultural pride, and patterns of importation of enslaved Africans. The peoples who contributed to Gullah culture included the [[Kongo people|Bakongo]], [[Ambundu|Mbundu]], [[Vili people|Vili]], [[Yombe people|Yombe]], [[Yaka people|Yaka]], [[Pende people|Pende]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Ras Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dPfzevzxIboC&q=mbundu |title=African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry |date=2012-08-27 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-02409-0 |pages=70 |language=en}}</ref> [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]], [[Kissi people|Kissi]], [[Fula people|Fulani]], [[Mende people|Mende]], [[Wolof people|Wolof]], [[Kpelle people|Kpelle]], [[Temne people|Temne]], [[Limba people (Sierra Leone)|Limba]], [[Dyula people|Dyula]], [[Susu people|Susu]], and the [[Vai people|Vai]].<ref name=":0" />

By the middle of the 18th century, thousands of acres in the [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[South Carolina]] Lowcountry, and the Sea Islands were developed as [[African rice]] fields. African farmers from the "Rice Coast" brought the skills for cultivation and tidal irrigation that made rice farming one of the most successful industries in early America.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

The subtropical climate encouraged the spread of [[malaria]] and [[yellow fever]], which were both carried and transmitted by mosquitoes. These tropical diseases were [[Endemic (epidemiology)|endemic]] in Africa and might have been carried by enslaved Africans to the colonies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_rice.htm/|author=West, Jean M.|title=Rice and Slavery: A Fatal Gold Seede|website=Slavery in America|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206050437/http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_rice.htm|archive-date=2012-02-06}}</ref> Mosquitoes in the swamps and inundated rice fields of the Lowcountry picked up and spread the diseases to European [[settler]]s, as well. 

Because they had acquired some [[immunity (medical)|immunity]] in their homeland, Africans were more resistant to these tropical fevers than were the Europeans. As the rice industry was developed, planters continued to import enslaved Africans. By about 1708, South Carolina had a black majority.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_laws_SC.htm/ |title=South Carolina Slave Laws Summary and Record |website=Slavery in America |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318172059/http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_laws_SC.htm |archive-date=2012-03-18 }}</ref> [[Golden Isles of Georgia|Coastal Georgia]] developed a black majority after rice cultivation expanded there in the mid-18th century. Malaria and yellow fever became endemic. Fearing these diseases, many white planters and their families left the Lowcountry during the rainy spring and summer months when fevers ran rampant.<ref name="Opala2006b" /> Others lived mostly in cities such as Charleston rather than on the isolated plantations, especially those on the Sea Islands.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

The planters left their European or African "rice drivers", or overseers, in charge of [[Rice production in the United States#Early history|the rice plantations]].<ref name="Opala2006b" /> These had hundreds of laborers, with African traditions reinforced by new imports from the same regions. Over time, the Gullah people developed a creole culture in which elements of African languages, cultures, and community life were preserved to a high degree. Their culture developed in a distinct way, different from that of the enslaved African Americans in states such as North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, where the enslaved lived in smaller groups, and had more sustained and frequent interactions with whites and British American culture.<ref name="Cassidy2020">{{cite journal |author1=Frederic G. Cassidy |title=The Place of Gullah |journal=American Speech |date=Spring 1980 |volume=55 |issue=1 |page=12 |doi=10.2307/455386 |publisher=Duke University Press |jstor=455386 |issn=0003-1283}}</ref>

In late 2024 underwater [[sonar]] was used to map 45 previously unknown irrigation devices used to control water flow for rice fields in conjunction with earthen dams and levees, developed by the Gullah Geechee over an area of 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of the northern end of  Eagles Island, North Carolina, US. This provided evidence of the Gullah Geechee engineering and technological skills used for rice cultivation.<ref>{{cite news| last=Walker | first=Adria R | title='I didn't realize the role rice played': the ingenious crop cultivation of the Gullah Geechee people |newspaper=The Guardian | date=21 December 2024 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/dec/21/gullah-geechee-rice-fields-north-carolina}}</ref>

===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>

===Since late 20th century===
[[File:Gullah basket.JPG|right|thumb|Gullah basket]]

In the 20th century, some plantations were redeveloped as resort or hunting destinations by wealthy whites.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} Gradually more visitors went to the islands to enjoy their beaches and mild climate. Since the late 20th century, the Gullah people—led by Penn Center and other determined community groups—have been fighting to keep control of their traditional lands. Since the 1960s, resort development on the Sea Islands greatly increased property values, threatening to push the Gullah off family lands which they have owned since [[Emancipation Proclamation|emancipation]]. They have fought back against uncontrolled development on the islands through community action, the courts, and the political process.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1044360911.html/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924065945/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1044360911.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 September 2014|title=Gov. Sanford to Sign Heirs Property Bill at Gullah Festival, US Fed News Service, May 26, 2006|access-date=25 September 2014}}</ref>

[[File:July 4, 1939.jpg|thumb|A Fourth of July celebration, St. Helena Island, South Carolina (1939)]]

The Gullah have also struggled to preserve their traditional culture in the face of much more contact with modern culture and media. In 1979, a translation of the [[New Testament]] into the Gullah language was begun.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blog.wycliffe.org/tag/gullah/|title=Gullah {{!}} Wycliffe Bible Translators USA|website=blog.wycliffe.org|access-date=2016-07-21|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919083958/https://blog.wycliffe.org/tag/gullah/|archive-date=2016-09-19}}</ref> The [[American Bible Society]] published ''De Nyew Testament'' in 2005. In November 2011, ''Healin fa de Soul'', a five-CD collection of readings from the Gullah Bible, was released.<ref>{{cite web | title=De Gullah Nyew Testament|year=2005 | url=http://www.gullahbible.com/ | access-date=21 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.islandpacket.com/living/religion/article33442776.html|title='Healin fa de Soul,' Gullah Bible readings released |first=CATHY|last=HARLEY|publisher=The Island Packet|date=6 November 2011}}</ref> This collection includes ''Scipcha Wa De Bring Healing'' ("Scripture That Heals") and the [[Gospel of John]] (''De Good Nyews Bout Jedus Christ Wa John Write''). This was the most extensive collection of Gullah recordings, surpassing those of [[Lorenzo Dow Turner]].<!-- This seems to assume the reader knows who Lorenzo Dow Turner is, without ever introducing him anywhere. Perhaps he deserves a mention in his own right somewhere in this section? --> The recordings have helped people develop an interest in the culture, because they get to hear the language and learn how to pronounce some words.<ref>{{cite news| last=Smith | first=Bruce | title=Gullah-language Bible now on audio CDs |newspaper=Savannah Morning News | date=27 November 2011 | url=https://www.savannahnow.com/story/news/2011/11/27/gullah-language-bible-now-on/13413492007/}}</ref>
[[File:Coffin Point Praise House.jpg|thumb|Coffin Point Praise House, 57 Coffin Point Rd, St. Helena Island, South Carolina]]

The Gullah achieved another victory in 2006 when the U.S. Congress passed the "[[Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor|Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Act]]"; it provided [[US$]]10&nbsp;million over 10 years for the preservation and interpretation of historic sites in the Low Country relating to Gullah culture.<ref>{{cite news| title=Bill Will Provide Millions for Gullah Community|first=FARAI|last=CHIDEYA|publisher=National Public Radio| date=17 October 2006 | url=https://www.npr.org/2006/10/17/6283153/bill-will-provide-millions-for-gullah-community|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801095328/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6283153/|archive-date=1 August 2020}}</ref> The Act provides for a [[National Heritage Area|Heritage Corridor]] to extend from southern North Carolina to northern Florida in a project  administered by the US [[National Park Service]] with extensive consultation with the Gullah community.
[[File:Charleston-city-market-shed-sc2.jpg|thumb|Old City Market shed entrance along Church Street in Charleston. The vendors on the left are selling Gullah sweetgrass baskets. (2010)]]

The Gullah have also been in contact with [[West Africa]]. Gullah groups made three celebrated "homecomings" to [[Sierra Leone]] in 1989, 1997, and 2005. Sierra Leone is at the heart of the traditional rice-growing region of West Africa where many of the Gullahs' ancestors originated. [[Bunce Island]], the British slave castle in Sierra Leone, sent many African captives to Charleston and Savannah during the mid- and late 18th century. These dramatic homecomings were the subject of three documentary films—''Family Across the Sea'' (1990), ''The Language You Cry In'' (1998), and ''Priscilla's Legacy''.<ref>{{cite AV media| title=F. Priscilla's Legacy|year=2014|website=Vimeo | url=https://vimeo.com/124400212|url-access=registration|medium=30' video}}</ref>

==Customs and traditions==
{{See also|Hoodoo (folk magic)}}
[[File:Gullah s carolina 1790.jpg|thumb|"Old plantation" (1790) demonstrates the cultural retention of Gullah people with aspects such as the [[banjo]] and broom hopping.]][[File:Wooden rice mortar 3.jpg|thumb|right|Wooden mortar and pestle from the rice loft of a South Carolina lowcountry plantation]]

===African influences===
*The Gullah word ''guba'' (or ''goober'') for [[peanut]] derives from the [[Kongo Language|Kikongo]] and [[Kimbundu]]  word ''N'guba''.
*The Gullah dishes [[Charleston red rice|red rice]] and [[okra soup]] are similar to West African [[jollof rice]] and okra soup. Jollof rice is a traditional style of rice preparation brought by the [[Wolof people|Wolof]] people of West Africa.<ref>[http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_cuisine.htm Slavery in America<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090919100626/http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_cuisine.htm|date=September 19, 2009}}</ref>
*The Gullah version of "[[gumbo]]" has its roots in African cooking. "Gumbo" is derived from a word{{Which|date=February 2025}} in the [[Umbundu]] language of Angola, meaning okra, one of the dish's main ingredients.
*Gullah rice farmers once made and used [[mortar and pestle]]s and [[winnowing]] fanners similar in style to tools used by West African rice farmers.
*Gullah beliefs about "[[Boo Hag|hags]]" and "haunts" are similar to African beliefs about malevolent ancestors, [[witchcraft|witches]], and "devils" (forest spirits).
*Gullah "[[Hoodoo (folk magic)|root doctors]]" protect their clients against dangerous spiritual forces by using [[ritual]] objects similar to those employed by African [[witch doctor|traditional healers]].
*Gullah [[herbalism|herbal medicines]] are similar to traditional African remedies.
*The Gullah "seekin" ritual is similar to [[coming of age]] ceremonies in West African secret societies, such as the [[Poro]] and [[Sande society|Sande]].
*The Gullah [[ring shout]] is similar to ecstatic religious rituals performed in West and Central Africa.
*Gullah stories about "[[Br'er Rabbit]]" are similar to West and Central African [[trickster]] tales about the figures of the clever and conniving rabbit, spider, and tortoise.
*Gullah spirituals, shouts, and other musical forms employ the "[[call and response]]" method commonly used in African music.
*Gullah "sweetgrass baskets" are coil straw [[basket]]s made by the descendants of enslaved peoples in the [[South Carolina Lowcountry]]. They are nearly identical to traditional coil [[basket]]s made by the [[Wolof people]] in [[Senegal]].
*Gullah "strip [[quilt]]s" mimic the design of cloth woven with the traditional strip [[loom]] used throughout West Africa. [[Kente cloth]] from the [[Ashanti people|Ashanti]] and the [[Ewe people|Ewe]] peoples, as well as [[Akwete cloth]] from the [[Igbo people]] are woven on the strip loom.
* An African song, preserved by a Gullah family in coastal Georgia, was identified in the 1940s by linguist Lorenzo Turner and found to be a [[Mende people|Mende]] song from Sierra Leone. It is probably the longest text in an African language to survive the transatlantic crossing of enslaved Africans to the present-day United States. Later, in the 1990s, researchers Joseph Opala, Cynthia Schmidt, and Taziff Koroma located a remote village in Sierra Leone where the song is still sung today, and determined it is a funeral hymn. This research and the resulting reunion between a Gullah family and a Mende family that have both retained versions of the song is recounted in the documentary ''The Language You Cry In'' (1998).<ref>{{cite journal|date=December 1999|title=Review: ''The Language You Cry In'': The Story of a Mende Song by Alvaro Toepke, Angel Serrano|journal=American Anthropologist|publisher=Wiley, on behalf of the American Anthropological Association|volume=101|pages=826–828|doi=10.1525/aa.1999.101.4.826|jstor=684061|author=Thomas-Houston, Marilyn M.|number=4}}</ref>
* Some words coming from other African languages such as [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]], [[Fon language|Fon]], [[Ewe language|Ewe]], [[Twi]], [[Ga language|Ga]], [[Mende language|Mende]], and [[Edo people|Bini]] are still used by Gullah people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Ras Michael |title=African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=180, 225–230 |isbn=9781107024090 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dPfzevzxIboC&q=Kongo%20Initiation%20Titles%20and%20Lowcountry%20Personal%20Names}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pollitzer |first1=William |title=The Gullah People and Their African Heritage |date=2005 |publisher=University of Georgie Press |pages=124–129 |isbn=9780820327839 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2efDSQdNq-cC&q=Development%20of%20a%20creole%20language}}</ref>
*The Gullahs’ English-based creole language is strikingly similar to [[Krio language|Sierra Leone Krio]] of West Africa and contains such identical expressions as ''bigyai'' ("[[greed]]y"), ''pantap'' ("on top of"), ''ohltu'' ("both"), ''tif'' ("[[theft|steal]]"), ''yeys'' ("[[ear]]"), and ''swit'' ("delicious").<ref>{{cite web |last1=Opala |first1=Joseph |title=The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection |url=https://glc.yale.edu/gullah-rice-slavery-and-sierra-leone-american-connection |website=Yale Macmillan Center Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition |date=March 10, 2015 |publisher=Yale University |access-date=12 September 2021 |archive-date=October 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019041928/https://glc.yale.edu/gullah-rice-slavery-and-sierra-leone-american-connection |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Cuisine===
[[File:Sea Island red peas.jpg|thumb|[[Sea Island red pea|Sea Island red peas]], an heirloom variety of cowpeas grown by the Gullah]]

The Gullah have preserved many of their west African food ways growing and eating crops such as [[Sea Island red pea|Sea island red peas]], [[Carolina Gold|Carolina Gold rice]], Sea island Benne, Sea island Okra, [[Sorghum bicolor|sorghum]], and [[watermelon]] all of which were brought with them from [[West Africa]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Low Country and Gullah-Geechee Cuisine|url=https://lenoir.ces.ncsu.edu/2017/07/low-country-and-gullah-geechee-cuisine/|access-date=2021-07-26|website=lenoir.ces.ncsu.edu|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=michaelwtwitty|date=2016-10-05|title=Crops of African Origin or African Diffusion in the Americas|url=https://afroculinaria.com/2016/10/05/crops-of-african-origin-or-african-diffusion-in-the-americas/|access-date=2021-07-26|publisher=Afroculinaria|language=en}}</ref> Rice is a staple food in Gullah communities and continues to be cultivated in abundance in the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina. Rice is also an important food in West African cultures. As descendants of enslaved Africans, the Gullah continued the traditional food and food techniques of their ancestors, demonstrating another link to traditional African cultures. 

Rice is a core commodity of the Gullah [[food system]]: a meal was not considered complete without rice. There are strict rituals surrounding the preparation of rice in the Gullah communities. First, individuals would remove the darker grains from the rice, and then hand wash the rice numerous times before it was ready for cooking. The Gullah people would add enough water for the rice to steam on its own, but not so much that one would have to stir or drain it. These traditional techniques were passed down during the period of slavery and are still an important part of rice preparation by Gullah people.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Beoku-Betts|first=Josephine|year=1995|title=We Got Our Way of Cooking Things: Women, Food, and Preservation of Cultural Identity among the Gullah|jstor=189895|journal=Gender and Society|volume=9|issue=5|pages=535–555|doi=10.1177/089124395009005003|s2cid=143342058}}</ref>

The first high-profile book on Gullah cooking<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meggett |first=Emily |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1262965927 |title=Gullah Geechee home cooking : recipes from the matriarch of Edisto Island |date=2022 |isbn=978-1-4197-5878-2 |location=New York, NY |oclc=1262965927}}</ref> was published in 2022 by [[Emily Meggett]], an 89-year-old Gullah cook.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Severson |first=Kim |date=2022-05-09 |title=A Cook Who Never Used a Cookbook Now Has Her Own |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/dining/gullah-geechee-cookbook-emily-meggett.html |access-date=2022-05-11 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

===Celebrating Gullah culture===
Over the years, the Gullah have attracted study by many [[historian]]s, [[linguist]]s, [[folklorist]]s, and [[anthropologist]]s interested in their rich cultural heritage. Many academic books on that subject have been published. The Gullah have also become a symbol of cultural pride for blacks throughout the United States and a subject of general interest in the media.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gullah_Geechee Youth Culture Quest |url=https://vimeo.com/927140827 |website=vimeo |publisher=Gullah Geechee Corridor |access-date=29 March 2024}}</ref> Numerous newspaper and magazine articles, documentary films, and children's books on Gullah culture, have been produced, in addition to popular novels set in the Gullah region. In 1991 [[Julie Dash]] wrote and directed ''[[Daughters of the Dust]]'', the first feature film about the Gullah, set at the turn of the 20th century on St. Helena Island. Born into a Gullah family, she was the first African-American woman director to produce a feature film.{{cn|date=February 2022}}

Gullah people now organize cultural [[festival]]s every year in towns up and down the Lowcountry. [[Hilton Head Island, South Carolina|Hilton Head Island]], for instance, hosts a "Gullah Celebration" in February. It includes "De Aarts ob We People" show; the "Ol’ Fashioned Gullah Breakfast"; "National Freedom Day," the "Gullah Film Fest", "A Taste of Gullah" food and entertainment, a "Celebration of Lowcountry Authors and Books," an "Arts, Crafts & Food Expo," and "De Gullah Playhouse". [[Beaufort, South Carolina|Beaufort]] hosts the oldest and the largest celebration, "The Original Gullah Festival" in May. The nearby Penn Center on [[St. Helena Island, South Carolina|St. Helena Island]] holds "Heritage Days" in November. Other Gullah festivals are celebrated on [[James Island, South Carolina]], and [[Sapelo Island|Sapelo Island, Georgia]].{{cn|date=February 2022}}

Gullah culture is also being celebrated elsewhere in the United States. The [[High Art Museum]] in Atlanta has presented exhibits about Gullah culture. The Black Cultural Center at [[Purdue University]] in [[West Lafayette, Indiana]] conducted a research tour, cultural arts festival, and other related events to showcase the Gullah culture. The Black Cultural Center Library maintains a bibliography of Gullah books and materials, as well. [[Metro State College]] in [[Denver]], [[Colorado]], hosted a conference on Gullah culture, called ''The Water Brought Us: Gullah History and Culture,'' which featured a panel of Gullah scholars and cultural activists. These events in Indiana and Colorado are typical of the attention Gullah culture regularly receives throughout the United States.{{cn|date=February 2022}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Exhibit Showcases Endangered Culture Embraced by African Americans in US South.ogv|[[VOA]] report about an exhibit about Gullah culture
File:City Market Sweet Grass.jpg|Sweet grass baskets made and sold by the African American Gullah community can be found throughout City Market.
File:Edisto Island National Scenic Byway - Sweetgrass Baskets - A Gullah Tradition - NARA - 7718281.jpg|Gullah sweet baskets from Edisto island
</gallery>

===Cultural survival===
[[File:Gullah Museum.jpg|thumb|A Gullah house painted in the color of haint blue]]

Gullah culture has proven to be particularly resilient. Gullah traditions are strong in the rural areas of the Lowcountry mainland and on the Sea Islands, and among their people in urban areas such as Charleston and Savannah. Gullah people who have left the Lowcountry and moved far away have also preserved traditions; for instance, many Gullah in New York, who went North in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] of the first half of the 20th century, have established their own neighborhood churches in [[Harlem]], [[Brooklyn]], and [[Queens]]. Typically they send their children back to rural communities in South Carolina and Georgia during the summer months to live with grandparents, uncles, and aunts. Gullah people living in New York frequently return to the Lowcountry to retire. Second- and third-generation Gullah in New York often maintain many of their traditional customs and many still speak the Gullah language.{{cn|date=February 2022}}

The Gullah custom of painting porch ceilings [[haint blue]] to deter haints, or [[ghost]]s, survives in the American South. It has also been adopted by [[White Southerners]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theawl.com/2018/01/haint-blue-the-ghost-tricking-color-of-southern-homes-and-gullah-folktales/ |title=Haint Blue, the Ghost-Tricking Color of Southern Homes and Gullah Folktales |first=Katy |last=Kelleher |work=[[The Awl]] |date=January 16, 2018 |access-date=March 5, 2018}}</ref>

==Representation in art, entertainment, and media==
{{main|Representations of Gullah culture in art and media}}

''[[Gullah Gullah Island]]'' is an American musical children's television series that was produced by and aired on the Nick Jr. programming block on the Nickelodeon network from October 24, 1994, to April 7, 1998. The show was hosted by Ron Daise—now the former vice president for Creative Education at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina—and his wife Natalie Daise, both of whom also served as cultural advisors, and were inspired by the Gullah culture of Ron Daise's home of St. Helena Island, South Carolina, part of the Sea Islands.

==Notable Americans with Gullah roots==
{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}
*[[Robert Sengstacke Abbott]]
*[[Cornelia Walker Bailey]]
*[[Jim Brown]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/05/03/10-prominent-african-americans-you-didnt-know-have-roots-in-the-gullah-geechee-corridor/4/ |title=10 Prominent African-Americans You Didn't Know Have Roots in the Gullah Geechee Corridor|work=Atlanta Black Star}}</ref>
*[[Kardea Brown]]
*[[Kwame Brown]]
*[[Marion Brown]]<ref name="allaboutjazz">{{cite web |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/marion-brown-marion-brown-by-aaj-staff.php |title=Marion Brown |date=February 10, 2008 |website=allaboutjazz.com |access-date=July 17, 2020}}</ref>
*Craig Anthony Bullock ([[DJ Homicide]])
*[[Emory Campbell]]
*[[Septima Poinsette Clark]]
*[[Julie Dash]]
*[[Sam Doyle]]
*William Jonathan Drayton Jr. ([[Flavor Flav]])
*[[Edda L. Fields-Black]]
*[[Joe Frazier]]
*[[Candice Glover]]
*[[Marquetta Goodwine]]
*[[Gullah Jack]]
*[[Mary Jackson (artist)|Mary Jackson]]
*[[James Jamerson]]
*[[Bumpy Johnson]]
*[[Griffin Lotson]]
*[[Earl Manigault]]
*Lenard Larry McKelvey ([[Charlamagne Tha God]])
*[[Khris Middleton]]
*Eric Milligan ([[The Blixunami]])
*[[Michelle Obama]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-obama-slavery-01-dec01,0,485324.story/|title=Michelle Obama's Family Tree has Roots in a Carolina Slave Plantation|work=Chicago Tribune|date=December 1, 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120109172851/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-obama-slavery-01-dec01,0,485324.story|archive-date=January 9, 2012}}</ref>
*[[Joseph Rainey]]
*[[Philip Reid]]
*[[Sallie Ann Robinson]]
*[[Chris Rock]]
*[[Tony Rock]]
*[[Eden Royce]]
*[[Raven Saunders]]
*[[Philip Simmons]]
*[[Robert Smalls]]
*[[Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor]]<ref>Economist Obit 09/24/2016</ref>
*[[Eddie Sweat]]
*[[Clarence Thomas]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/14/us/the-43rd-president-in-his-own-words.html|title=THE 43rd PRESIDENT; In His Own Words|date=December 14, 2000|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>
*[[Denmark Vesey]]
*[[Kemba Walker]]
*[[Robert Lee Watt]]
*Maurice Samuel Young ([[Trick Daddy]]){{Div col end}}

==See also==
{{portal|United States}}
{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}
*[[Atlantic Creole]]
*[[Bilali Document]]
*[[Black Seminoles]]
*[[Bristol slave trade]]
*[[Coastwise slave trade]]
*[[Colonial South and the Chesapeake]]
*[[First Africans in Virginia]]
*[[Virginia Mixson Geraty]]
*[[Ambrose E. Gonzales]]
*[[Great Dismal Swamp maroons]]
*[[Gullah language]]
*[[Igbo Landing]]
*[[Joseph Opala]]
*[[Port Royal Experiment]]
*[[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States]]
*[[Stono Rebellion]]
*[[Peter H. Wood]]
*[[Boo hag]]{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wikiquote inline}}
*{{Commons category inline|Gullah}}

{{Gullah topics|state=collapsed}}
{{African Americans}}
{{Sierra Leonean diaspora}}
{{South Carolina Lowcountry}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Gullah| ]]
[[Category:African-American society]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]