Gullah of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Erik Hastings experiences Gullahs rich history and culture on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Erik visits the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn, the Stoney-Baynard Ruins, and the Mitchelville schoolhouse, site of the Souths first freedmans village. Historians Dr. Emory Campbell and Louise Cohen give a first-hand account of Gullah heritage from rice plantation origins to current Gullah Heritage Trail Tours.
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[@melissageiger71]

I'm from, and am currently sitting in Jasper county South Carolina... it's magnificent living here. I'm white, but I grew up here and went to public school here....we had the best school lunch on earth! I didn't realize till I was an adult that I was learning all kinds of Gullah culture... I just knew these teachers and kids as MY teachers and friends that I loved.. I didn't know how special it all really was. My mom died when I was 20, in ('92') so my older brother, whom had worked on Daufuskie island for 10 years or so, moved us over there.. that was just what I needed then...but again, at just 20, I still didn't realize how amazing it was... I moved away, to Baton Rouge for 20 years and came back with two daughters in tow lol...I learned some totally different culture in Louisiana as well, and I'm rich because of it...rich in what I have learned about people..I thank God for all that people have shared with me, unselfishly...and I'm glad to be back in the Lowcountry... My brother never left Daufuskie, so thankfully, I still get to visit there too.. ❤️ 🌙🌴

[@jeffmartin8924]

I know what you're talking about bro. I lived on Hilton Head in the mid 70's. I'm a white guy and my best friend was black and was from Bluffton. Arthur (Cass) Grant. 90% of the employees at the Hyatt Palmetto Dunes were black. (I believe the Hyatt is no longer there) Employees got free golf. I was the only white guy in room service. No racism. Everybody was friendly. Highway 278 was a 2 lane highway. Hilton head had no street lights and no traffic lights. A little different today. lol. Still Beautiful! We rented a small house on Honey Horn Plantation in 1975 for $150 a month. No rental application, No deposit...Just drop off the rent each month. We use to watch polo matches out of the living room window. I know it's unbelievable but It's true! At the time you could rent a one bedroom condo in Harbor Town with a view of the lighthouse for $350 a month.

[@bheadh]

For years. The day is comming soon "when we done put 'em back up wey de sposda go". BTW "kumbaya" is a Gullah song. The legendary "boogie-man/ booga hag are Gullah legends! God bless the Gullah People!

[@jakeblues1295]

I'm from South Carolina and I can remember throughout elementary school a gullah story teller would come and I swear you could only understand maybe a 10th of what they said.

[@cynthiataylor8247]

I love learning about the Gullah Geechee. Nation. I remember my father talking about He Geechee loving rice okra and slab beacon also white rice or okra soup .The stories he use to tell about Sumter South Carolina. Thank you for this learning page. I want to learn more.

[@Mrcstigallese]

@HipHopIsInMyNYBlood Also the runaway Gullahs and Geechees ran to Florida and the Bahamas. We actually call them Maroons. There they met up with the Seminole Indians and lived and bred with them. This is where Black Seminoles come from. They also founded Fort Mose', the first free Black town during slavery. So we were definitely fighters and a force to be reckoned with but those on the Islands were there originally because of the tropical climate great for rice crops (Marshland, heat, etc...).

[@Mrcstigallese]

@HipHopIsInMyNYBlood The West Africans who are now the Gullah/Geechee people were mostly brought through Sullivan's Island in Charleston,SC and spread throughout the Gullah/Geechee Nation (Sea Island from Jacksonville,NC to Jacksonville, FL and 30 to 35 miles inland). Malaria made it where the Masters would only spend the colder months with the enslaved. This is how we preserved our culture. You can got to Facebook and join the Gullah/Geechee Nation page to learn more... Thanx!!

[@kevinforbes7252]

they sound just like my relatives i have in the Bahamas almost %100 identical accent turks and caicos islands also has the same accent met a charleston S.carolina man tonight on a Jacksonville Fl bus as soon as i heard him speak the hairs on my hair raised up had to ask if he was Charleston or the Bahamas

[@islandgyal5269]

Kevin Forbes that's because they took our aboriginal ancestors from the eastern coast to the Caribbean and brought them back to the eastern coast,and that is how the"slave trade out of Africa"story begin...we are the aboriginals of the Americas

[@invisibleman3441]

@NYNews I just got your reply I haven't watch this video in a minute and I still remember the night 3 years ago in Jacksonville FL when I met and heard my first Charleston Gullah since then I met one more in another part of Florida where he always gets confused with being from the Caribbean but a response to your comment everyone might hear something different when they listen to different speakers but I knew 2 guys from the Turks and Caicos and their accents sounded almost identical to the folks I know or knew from the islands of the Bahamas both nation's are right next to each other they were both one time British colonies now only one is a British colony and to me south Carolina deep Gullah accent people ,Bahamas and Turks and Caicos sound almost identical with just a few differences

[@trevycoley83]

Nice job. I'm from New Orleans but I'm due for a trip over that way, never been.

[@bheadh]

I have lived on Hilton Head for 30 years. When I moved here there were 6000 year-round residents, @ least 3000 were/are Gullahs. Now there are 35,000 year-rounders, mostly white retirees. The over-development of this once pristine place has RUINED the natural beauty & disrupted the Gullah culture. Many who have lived on their land for centuries are being pushed off their land by greedy developers & unfair taxes & tax "laws". I have many Gullah friends & have worked with these blessed people.cont

[@jeffreywilson1867]

My culture my ppls

[@nola305]

This is similar to the Creoles of Cane river in Louisiana (see the youtube video). The Creoles there would NEVER let their traditions and culture fade like what i see in South Carolina, and their land wouldn't be taken away either.

[@Gullahbae-xm6ms]

Our culture is very alive in SC and who in the hell wants to live in Louisiana! Nobody!

[@ToniA5555]

I am from California, but I lived at MCAS Beaufort and worked on Hilton Head for over a year. What I saw there in the late 1970s was that most of the visible population was rich white people living in villas. The black people were not as visible to me, and the ones I did have contact with seemed mostly to be living as they would have in the late 1800s, way off the beaten path and in not-so-modern homes.

[@NybKww]

A lot of geechee people live in edisto island and the islands straight off of SC. that's where they make and sell a lot of the geechee baskets, sing and have all of the art.

[@curtistaylor7938]

YAh🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿

[@Mrcstigallese]

@pang5 LOL!!! No problem!!

[@bethbartlett5692]

Is there not a full documentary on the Island and various Peoples whom lived there? I do know a Union General ordered a land/plats, roads, for the Black Community he found to be living in tragic conditions, he took the land portion from a Confederate General. That's about all I've discovered.

[@Erikthetravelguy]

Beth…we looked for one as well and couldn’t find anything if any prominence.

[@HipHopIsInMyNYBlood]

@Mrcstigallese I was taught that the Gullah people were runaway slaves who moved to the islands and were so fierce (for lack of a better word) that the scared the whites from coming to mess with them. By keeping them away, they preserved their culture. no?

[@BKinNY]

We , maybe you, not we!

[@bethbartlett5692]

160 years ago. With a continued suppression until JFK and Robert Kennedy's intervention. 💖☘️

[@Erikthetravelguy]

Yep

[@slicvic2012]

THEY ARE THE ISRAELITES!!

[@realtrillion]

That's Right!

[@nikkijones8046]

Nehemiah they're not from isreal

[@Thamikaroxy]

The interview/narrator is extremely annoying and borders on rude. He's constantly interrupting, interjecting and the loud folk music in the background is too much. The gullah should fire Erik Hasting.

[@johnhorse8627]

lol are indigenous and reasons why they are rooted in Africa is because they where kidnapped from here in the U.S.

[@eawatahatanguatama383]

No the fuck they wasnt. Shut up with that we came from Africa not no America