The Gullah community of South Carolina and Georgia have lived along the sea-islands of the the region for hundreds of years. Historians estimate that as many as 40 percent of West African slaves who entered North America arrived through the landings and pest houses outside Charleston, South Carolina where they adapted their West African culture to the conditions of slavery. While their language and culture blends West African and American elements, those who remained as slaves and then as farmers on the sea islands retained many West African characteristics. On the Sea Islands. Gullah music, religion, and language all bore the marks of that West African heritage.
Today there are fewer than 10,000 Gullah speakers. The majority of them live on St. Helena, a sea-island across the sound from Hilton Head in Beaufort County, South Carolina. A combination of unique historical circumstances allowed them as freedmen and women to gain title to the land they once worked as slaves, and hence to preserve their culture. That cultural independence has enabled St. Helena to remain largely undeveloped.
This collection is an archive of Gullah culture around the South Carolina Lowcountry, and includes histories in the forms of books, stories, songs, and poems, culinary information, and a selection of fiction works by Gullah writers.
Gullah Language
| Call Number | Author | Title | Subjects |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCR 306.09757 Afrika | Afrika, Llaila | The Gullah: people blessed by God. | Gullahs. |
| SCR 398.1 R | Reeves, Harold S. ("Dick"), 1892-1972 | Gullah: a breath of the Carolina low country | African Americans--Sea Islands. |
| 427.973 Crucibl | The Crucible of Carolina: essays in the dev. of Gullah language & culture | Sea Islands Creole dialect. | |
| 427.9757 Haskell | Haskell, Ann S. (Ann Sullivan) (Thesis) | The representation of Gullah-influenced dialect in 20th century SC prose, | Sea Islands Creole dialect. Language and culture--SC, Caribbean & Africa, |
| 427.9757 Nichols | Nichols, Patricia Causey, (Thesis) | Linguistic change in Gullah: sex, age, and mobility | English language--Dialects--South Carolina. Sea Islands Creole dialect. |
| 427.9757 Turner | Turner, Lorenzo Dow | Africanisms in the Gullah dialect | Sea Islands Creole dialect--SC. Gullahs--Language. Creole dialects, |
| 427.975799 Cunningh | Cunningham, Irma Aloyce Ewing, (Thesis) | A syntactic analysis of the Sea Island Creole (Gullah) | Sea Islands Creole dialect--Etymology. |
| 427.975799 Geraty | Geraty, Virginia Mixson | Gulluh fuh oonuh = Gullah for you : a guide to the Gullah language | Sea Islands Creole dialect--Grammar, Generative. |
| 496.4 S | Smith, Reed, 1881-1943 | Gullah: dedicated to the memory of Ambrose E. Gonzales | Sea Islands Creole dialect--Dictionaries--English. |
| SCR 616.04208996 | McLean, David Costen | Maternal & paternal population genetic affinities of Gullah-speaking African Americans | Sea Islands Creole dialect. Gullahs. Ethnology--Sea Islands. |
| SCR 784.7 T | Thrower, Sarah Selina (Thesis) | The spiritual of the Gullah Negro in South Carolina | Spirituals (Songs)--History and criticism. |
| 975.799 Campbell | Campbell, Emory S. | Gullah cultural legacies | Sea Islands Creole dialect. |
History of Gullah Culture
| Call Number | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 277.5 Anderson | Anderson, Frank. (Thesis) | Gullah Christianity: an analysis of the ethical dimensions of Gullah culture & their implications for the practical theology of contemporary Afr.-Am. churches |
| SCR 277.5 O’Brien | O’Brien, Alicia (Thesis) | The development of the Gullah church |
| 306.874 Smith | Smith, Franklin O., (Thesis) | A cross generational study of the parental discipline practices & beliefs of Gullah Blacks of the Carolina Sea Islands |
| 326 Cru | Crum, Mason | Gullah: Negro life in the Carolina Sea Islands |
| SCR 371.8296 Brown | Brown, Thomas J. | Lessons learned from the Gullah experience: powerful forces in educating African-American youth |
| 398.0975759 Pinckney | Pinckney, Roger, 1946- | Blue roots: African-American folk magic of the Gullah people |
| 615.321 Mitchell | Mitchell, Faith | Hoodoo medicine: Gullah herbal remedies |
| 746.41 Coakley | Coakley, Joyce. | Sweetgrass baskets and the Gullah tradition |
| 759.1457 Green | Green, Jonathan, 1955- | Gullah images: the art of Jonathan Green |
| 917.57915 Brown | Brown, Alphonso | A guide to Gullah Charleston |
| 975.793 Frazier | Frazier, Herb | “Behind God’s back”:Gullah memories: Cainhoy, Wando, Huger, Daniel Island, St. Thomas Island, South Carolina |
| 975.799 Branch | Branch, Muriel Miller. | The water brought us: the story of the Gullah-speaking people |
| 975.799 Cross | Cross, Wilbur | Gullah Culture in America |
| 975.799 Hammond | Hammond, Pearce W. | Gone with the Tide: The vanishing Gullahs and Geechees Gullahs of South Carolina. |
| 975.799 Legacy | Goodwine, Marquetta L. | The legacy of Ibo Landing: Gullah roots of African American culture |
| 975.799 Low | United States: National Parks Service | Low Country Gullah culture special resource study and final environmental impact |
| SCR 975.799 Moore | Moore, Lisa Lynelle (Thesis) | Gullah/Geechee cultural survival: negotiating family, land, and culture on St. Helena Island, South Carolina |
| 975.799 Pinckney | Pinckney, Roger | The right side of the river: romance, rage, and wonder |
| 975.799 Pollitz | Pollitzer, William S. 1923- | The Gullah people and their African heritage |
| SCR 975.79900496 Thomas | Thomas-Watkins, June Esther (Thesis) | Strategies of social control in an isolated community: the case of the Gullah of South Carolina's St. Helena Island |
| SCR 975.7995 Opala | Opala, Joseph A. | The Gullah: rice, slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American connection |
History of Gullah People
| Call Number | Author | Title | Subjects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biography Smalls | Miller, Edward A., 1927- | Gullah statesman : Robert Smalls from slavery to congress, 1839-1915 | Smalls, Robert, 1839-1915. African Americans--Bio. Africans Am.--SC. |
| 306.09757 Rogers | Rogers, Nikki L. (Thesis) | The affinity of SCs "Gullah" African Americans: biological tests of cultural and historical hypothesis | |
| 306.0975 Jones | Jones-Jackson, Patricia | When roots die: endangered traditions on the Sea Islands | |
| 975.789 Coming | Chandler, Genevieve W | Coming through : voices of a SC Gullah community from WPA oral histories | |
| 975.789 Pyatt | Pyatt, Thomas | The Gullah people of Sandy Island. | African Americans-- SC--Georgetown Co.--History. Sandy Island (SC)-- |
| 975.799 Black | Black, J. Gary (James Gary), 1895- | My friend the Gullah: a collection of personal experiences | Sea Islands Creole dialect. Beaufort Co. (S.C.) African Americans--SC. |
Gullah Cooking
| Call Number | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 975.799 McGowan | McGowan, Pierre, 1926- | The Gullah mailman |
| 641.59296 Robinson | Robinson, Sallie Ann | Cooking the Gullah way, morning, noon, and night |
| 641.59757 Gantt | Gantt, Jesse Edward | The ultimate Gullah cookbook: a taste of food, history & culture from the Gullah people |
| 641.59757 Jenkins | Jenkins, Charlotte | Gullah cuisine: by land and by sea |
| 641.59757 Robinson | Robinson, Sallie Ann | Gullah home cooking the Daufuskie way |
| 641.59757 Segar | Segar, Eva | My Gullah kitchen |
Poems, Stories, and Songs from Gullah Culture
| Call Number | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 277.57 Manigaul | Manigault, LeRhonda | Talking to the dead: Religion, music, & lived memory among Gullah/Geechee Women "Ah tulk to de dead all de time": religion among Gullah/Geechee women |
| SCR 226.4 Bible | De Good Nyews bout Jedus Christ wa Luke write: the Gospel according to Luke, in Gullah Sea Island Creole with marginal text of the King James Version. | |
| 398.096 Davis | Davis, Mella (Thesis) | African trickster tales in diaspora: resistance in the Creole-speaking SC Sea Islands & Guadeloupe, French West Indies |
| 398.1 G | Gonzales, Ambrose Elliott | With Aesop along the black border |
| 398.1 S | Stoney, Samuel Gaillard | Black Genesis : a chronicle Tales of the Gullah Negroes of the Carolina low country told in Gullah dialect. |
| 398.2 Michelso | Michelsohn, Lynn | Tales from Brookgreen: folklore, ghost stories & Gullah folktales in the South Carolina Lowcountry |
| SCR 398.20975799 Smith | Smith, Tytianna Nikia (Thesis) | An exploration of African folktales among the Gullah community of the SC Sea Islands: history, culture, and identity |
| 398.245 Stoddard | Stoddard, Albert Henry | Gullah animal tales from Daufuskie Island, South Carolina |
| 782.253 Hawley | Hawley, Thomas Earl (Thesis) | The slave tradition of singing among the Gullah of Johnns Island, SC. |
| 784.7 P | Plair, Sally | Something to shout about: reflections on the Gullah spiritual |
| 811 T | Townsend, Saida | Sketches in sepia: Gullah and other poems |
| 812 Hey | Heyward, Dorothy | Porgy: a Gullah version / by Virginia Mixson Geraty |
| SCR 813.009 Peterkin | Purcell, Katharine Chapman (Thesis) | Reflections from the well: Julia Mood Peterkin and the Gullah community |
| SCR 818 C | Colcock, Erroll Hay | Dusky land, Gullah poems and sketches of coastal South Carolina |
| SCR 975.79 Heyward | Heyward, Janie Screven DuBose | Brown jackets |
Works of Gullah Fiction
| Call Number | Author | Title | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiction Daise | Daise, Ronald | Little Muddy Waters | Gullahs--South Carolina-- St. Helena’s Is.--Juvenile Fiction. |
| Fiction Dash | Dash, Julie | Daughters of the Dust | African Americans--Sea Islands--History--Fiction. |
| Fiction Geraty | Geraty, Virginia M. | Gullah night before Christmas | Sea Islands Creole dialect--Text--Juvenile poetry |
| Fiction Gonzales | Gonzales, Ambrose Elliott | The black border: Gullah stories of the Carolina coast, The captain; stories of the black border Laguerre: a gascon of the black border |
Huguenots--SC--History--Fiction. Sea Islands Creole dialect--Texts. |
| Fiction Holmes | Holmes, Jean E. | 'pon Jordan's far shore, Jubilation Morn, Morning Star Risen, Deep River Laurel, Bound for Glory | African Americans--SC--Sea Islands--History--19th century--Fiction. |
| Fiction Jones | Jones, Mary Pinckney | Dem Twelb Day | Sea Islands Creole dialect--Juvenile literature. Gullahs--Juvenile literature. |
| Fiction Peterkin | Peterkin, Julia Mood | Bright skin: a novel, Black April, Green Thursday, Scarlet Sister Mary | SC--Social life and customs--Fiction. African Americans--SC--Fiction. |
| Fiction Straight | Straight, Susan | I’ve been in sorrow’s kitchen and licked out all the pots: a novel | (SC) -- Fiction. Sea Island. Creole dialect. African Americans -- Fiction. |