During the 1920s and 1930s, anthropologists and folklorists became obsessed with uncovering connections between African Americans and their African roots. At the same time, popular print media and artistic productions tapped the new appeal of black folk life, highlighting African-styled voodoo as an essential element of black folk culture. A number of researchers converged on one site in particular, Sapelo Island, Georgia, to seek support for their theories about "African survivals," bringing with them a curious mix of both influences. The legacy of that body of research is the area's contemporary identification as a Gullah community. This wide-ranging history upends a long tradition of scrutinizing the Low Country blacks of Sapelo Island by refocusing the observational lens on those who studied them. Cooper uses a wide variety of sources to unmask the connections between the rise of the social sciences, the voodoo craze during the interwar years, the black studies movement, and black land loss and land struggles in coastal black communities in the Low Country. What emerges is a fascinating examination of Gullah people's heritage, and how it was reimagined and transformed to serve vastly divergent ends over the decades.

Looks at the history of the African art of sweetgrass basket making in the Christ Church Parish of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

The Gullah people are one of our most distinctive cultural groups. Isolated off the South Carolina-Georgia coast for nearly three centuries, the native black population of the Sea Islands has developed a vibrant way of life that remains, in many ways, as African as it is American. This landmark volume tells a multifaceted story of this venerable society, emphasizing its roots in Africa, its unique imprint on America, and current threats to its survival. With a keen sense of the limits to establishing origins and tracing adaptations, William S. Pollitzer discusses such aspects of Gullah history and culture as language, religion, family and social relationships, music, folklore, trades and skills, and arts and crafts. Readers will learn of the indigo- and rice-growing skills that slaves taught to their masters, the echoes of an African past that are woven into baskets and stitched into quilts, the forms and phrasings that identify Gullah speech, and much more. Pollitzer also presents a wealth of data on blood composition, bone structure, disease, and other biological factors. This research not only underscores ongoing health challenges to the Gullah people but also helps to highlight their complex ties to various African peoples. Drawing on fields from archaeology and anthropology to linguistics and medicine, The Gullah People and Their African Heritage celebrates a remarkable people and calls on us to help protect their irreplaceable culture.

The first major Gullah Geechee cookbook from “the matriarch of Edisto Island,” who provides delicious recipes and the history of an overlooked American community The history of the Gullah and Geechee people stretches back centuries, when enslaved members of this community were historically isolated from the rest of the South because of their location on the Sea Islands of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Today, this Lowcountry community represents the most direct living link to the traditional culture, language, and foodways of their West African ancestors. Gullah Geechee Home Cooking, written by Emily Meggett, the matriarch of Edisto Island, is the preeminent Gullah cookbook. At 89 years old, and with more than 50 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Meggett is a respected elder in the Gullah community of South Carolina. She has lived on the island all her life, and even at her age, still cooks for hundreds of people out of her hallowed home kitchen. Her house is a place of pilgrimage for anyone with an interest in Gullah Geechee food. Meggett’s Gullah food is rich and flavorful, though it is also often lighter and more seasonal than other types of Southern cooking. Heirloom rice, fresh-caught seafood, local game, and vegetables are key to her recipes for regional delicacies like fried oysters, collard greens, and stone-ground grits. This cookbook includes not only delicious and accessible recipes, but also snippets of the Meggett family history on Edisto Island, which stretches back into the 19th century. Rich in both flavor and history, Meggett’s Gullah Geechee Home Cooking is a testament to the syncretism of West African and American cultures that makes her home of Edisto Island so unique.

Vibration Cooking was first published in 1970, not long after the term “soul food” gained common use. While critics were quick to categorize her as a proponent of soul food, Smart-Grosvenor wanted to keep the discussion of her cookbook/memoir focused on its message of food as a source of pride and validation of black womanhood and black “consciousness raising.” In 1959, at the age of nineteen, Smart-Grosvenor sailed to Europe, “where the bohemians lived and let live.” Among the cosmopolites of radical Paris, the Gullah girl from the South Carolina low country quickly realized that the most universal lingua franca is a well-cooked meal. As she recounts a cool cat’s nine lives as chanter, dancer, costume designer, and member of the Sun Ra Solar-Myth Arkestra, Smart-Grosvenor introduces us to a rich cast of characters. We meet Estella Smart, Vertamae’s grandmother and connoisseur of mountain oysters; Uncle Costen, who lived to be 112 and knew how to make Harriet Tubman Ragout; and Archie Shepp, responsible for Collard Greens à la Shepp, to name a few. She also tells us how poundcake got her a marriage proposal (she didn’t accept) and how she perfected omelettes in Paris, enchiladas in New Mexico, biscuits in Mississippi, and feijoida in Brazil. “When I cook, I never measure or weigh anything,” writes Smart-Grosvenor. “I cook by vibration.” This edition features a foreword by Psyche Williams-Forson placing the book in historical context and discussing Smart-Grosvenor’s approach to food and culture. A new preface by the author details how she came to write Vibration Cooking.

More than 100 heirloom recipes from a dynamic chef and farmer working the lands of his great-great-great grandfather. From Hot Buttermilk Biscuits and Sweet Potato Pie to Salmon Cakes on Pepper Rice and Gullah Fish Stew, Gullah Geechee food is an essential cuisine of American history. It is the culinary representation of the ocean, rivers, and rich fertile loam in and around the coastal South. From the Carolinas to Georgia and Florida, this is where descendants of enslaved Africans came together to make extraordinary food, speaking the African Creole language called Gullah Geechee. In this groundbreaking and beautiful cookbook, Matthew Raiford pays homage to this cuisine that nurtured his family for seven generations. In 2010, Raiford’s Nana handed over the deed to the family farm to him and his sister, and Raiford rose to the occasion, nurturing the farm that his great-great-great grandfather, a freed slave, purchased in 1874. In this collection of heritage and updated recipes, he traces a history of community and family brought together by food.

5th Generation Gullah Geechee Chef Reveals: The Secrets Of 150-Year-Old Traditions That Industrial Revolution Hasn't Touched Yet!(Over 300 Delicious Recipes Included!) Would you like to taste some of the oldest Afro-American traditional dishes brought from the African Continent and managed to survive during Slavery? Maybe you have Gullah Geechee roots and want to bridge the gap separating your current life and the one your ancestors used to be living? Or maybe you are just curious about how food culture in The United States was born and some of the traditional foods that laid the foundation of what we eat now? If you answered "Yes" to at least one of these questions, please read on... There are a lot of traditions and cultures dying Today... Not only because children want to leave their roots behind, but more so because the growing economies and "real estate money-makers" wish to own every piece of our beautiful land, make significant profits and bring wads of cash for the rich. Of course, it's nearly impossible to win against these giants, and probably we will lose this fight eventually. But, there will always be something that unites us all, and we will do our best to pass on these great traditions and tastes for generations after us. Inside this book, you'll find over 300 unique, affordable, and time-saving traditional Gullah Geechee recipes I tested and collected during the last 3 years from some of the best cooks in South Carolina (some say it is the capital of Gullah Geechee Culture) Take a look at what's inside: - What it's like to be a true Gullah Geechee? Island Life Revealed (a must-read chapter if you want to understand the fundamentals of this ancient culture) - What is special about Gullah food? Why and how has it has survived for so many years and decades? (the secrets of the most amazing Gullah tastes revealed) - Over 300 Traditional Gullah Recipes with ingredients from your local grocery store (and how to make Gullah cooking convenient and simple without disrespecting its true traditions and culture) - Are you a fan of meat, fish, or seafood? You'll love this massive recipes section... - Traditional beans, peas, rice, and other casseroles recipes (suitable for vegetarians and conventional food lovers) - Salad, Vegetable and Bread recipes (a complete meal selection for just about every occasion or meeting you can think of) - Preserving recipes to get your favorite food ready for whenever you feel like eating in minutes! (great way to enjoy your favorite Gullah dishes any time of the year!) - Detailed cooking instructions, serving sizes, and nutritional facts included (to make sure you succeed with every meal you cook) - Much much more... The secrets inside this cookbook you are about to discover were born over 150 years ago, and now I am giving them to you! So cherish them and cook every meal with love and passion! Scroll up, click on "Buy Now," and Enjoy!

Talking to the Dead is an ethnography of seven Gullah/Geechee women from the South Carolina lowcountry. These women communicate with their ancestors through dreams, prayer, and visions and traditional crafts and customs, such as storytelling, basket making, and ecstatic singing in their churches. Like other Gullah/Geechee women of the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, these women, through their active communication with the deceased, make choices and receive guidance about how to live out their faith and engage with the living. LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant emphasizes that this communication affirms the women's spiritual faith—which seamlessly integrates Christian and folk traditions—and reinforces their position as powerful culture keepers within Gullah/Geechee society. By looking in depth at this long-standing spiritual practice, Manigault-Bryant highlights the subversive ingenuity that lowcountry inhabitants use to thrive spiritually and to maintain a sense of continuity with the past.

Sallie Ann Robinson was born and reared on Daufuskie Island, one of the South Carolina Sea Islands well known for their Gullah culture. Although technology and development were slow in coming to Daufuskie, the island is now changing rapidly. With this book, Robinson highlights some of her favorite memories and delicious recipes from life on Daufuskie, where the islanders traditionally ate what they grew in the soil, caught in the river, and hunted in the woods. The unique food traditions of Gullah culture contain a blend of African, European, and Native American influences. Reflecting the rhythm of a day in the kitchen, from breakfast to dinner (and anywhere in between), this cookbook collects seventy-five recipes for easy-to-prepare, robustly flavored dishes. Robinson also includes twenty-five folk remedies, demonstrating how in the Gullah culture, in the not-so-distant past, food and medicine were closely linked and the sea and the land provided what islanders needed to survive. In her spirited introduction and chapter openings, Robinson describes how cooking the Gullah way has enriched her life, from her childhood on the island to her adulthood on the nearby mainland.

In a powerful and rhythmic picture book, a grandmother tells the tale of Gullahs and their beautiful sweetgrass baskets that keep their African heritage alive. Reprint.