Gullah Geechee

On an unseasonably warm December night in Beaufort County, a soulful melody hummed through the worn wooden churches and praise houses of South Carolina’s marshlands. “Watchman,” the voices sang in harmony, “tell me the hour.” It was the final day of the year, and time seemed to stand still as midnight approached. This was 1862, and the Gullah Geechee people knew they were on the brink of freedom.

These were the descendants of the people brought to the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia in the 1500s to work on plantations. They mostly came from western and central parts of Africa where the climate and land was comparable to that of the Lowcountry. Skilled in growing crops similar to the rice, cotton, and indigo that thrived in this coastal region, they were vital assets to the area’s farming industry.

But beyond agriculture,