"Gullah"

Are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina,which includes both the coastal plain and the sea islands.Historically,the Gullah region once extended north to the Cape Fear area on the coast of North Carolina and south to the vicinity of Jacksonville on the coast of Florida;but today the Gullah are is confined to the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry.The Gullah people and their language are also called Geechee,which some scholars speculate to be related to the Ogeechee River near Savannah,Georgia.The term Geechee is an emic term used by speakers (and can have a derogatory connotation depending on usage) and "Gullah"is a term that was generally used by outsiders but that has become a way for speakers to formally identify themselves and their language.The Gullah are known for preserving more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States.They speak and English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and significant influences from African languages in grammar and sentence structure.The Gullah language is related to Jamaican Creole,Barbadian Dialect,and the Krio language of Sierra Leone in in West Africa..Gullah storytelling,cuisine,music,folk beliefs,crafts,farming and fishing traditions,all exhibits strong influences from West and central African cultures.The name "Gullah" may derive from Angola,where some Gullah people may have originated.Some scholars have also suggested it comes from Gola, an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa,another region where many of the Gullahs' ancestors originated.The name "Geechee," another common name for the Gullah people,may come from Kissi,an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone Guinea and Liberia.Some scholars have also suggested Native American orgins for these words.The Spanish called South Carolina and Georgia coastal region Guale after a Native American tribe.The Ogeechee River,a prominent geographical feature in coastal Georgia,takes its name from a Creek Native American word.Most of the Gullahs ancestors in what is now the United States were brought to the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry through the ports of Charleston and Savannah as slaves,making their way from Sierra Leone by way of Brazil.Charleston was one the most important in North America for the Transatlantic slave trade.Up to half of the enslaved Africans brought into what is now the United States came from that port. A great majority of the remaining flowed through Savannah,which was also active in the slave trade.The largest group of enslaved Africans brought into Charleston and Savannah from the West African rice-growing region,centered primarily in Sierra Leone through the most significant slave castle for the modern day United States called Bunce Island.The people had cultivated African rice in this section of west Africa for possibly up to 3,000 years.South Carolina and Georgia rice planters once called this region the "Rice Coast,' indicating its importance as a source of skilled African labor for the North American rice industry.Once it was discovered that rice would grow in the southern  U.S. regions,it was assumed that enslaved Africans from rice-growing regions in Africa would be beneficial,due to their Knowledge of rice-growing techniques.In 1750 Henry Laurens and Richard Oswald opened the most significant slave castle just up the Sierra Leone river on what was then called Bance Island,and is now called Bance island.Here is where 80% of African Americans in the United States whose heritage comes from the slave trade are believed to have derived.The Gullah people have been able to preserve much of their African cultural heritage because of geography,climate,and patterns of importation of enslaved Africans.Taken from the western region of  Africa as slaves ands transported to some areas of Brazil (including Bahia) the Gullah Gheechee slaves were then sold to slaves owners in what was then Charlesttowne, South Carolina.By the middle of the 18th century,the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry was covered by thousands of acres of rice fields.African farmers from the "Rice Coast"brought the skills for cultivation and tidal irrigation that made rice one of the most successful industries in early America.The semi-tropical climate that made the LowCountry such an excellent place for rice production also made it vulnerable to the spread of malaria and yellow fever.These tropical diseases,endemic in Africa,were carried by slaves transported to the colonies by slave ships.Mosquitoes in the swamps and inundated rice fields of the Lowcountry picked up and spread the diseases to English and European settlers,as well.Malaria and yellow fever soon became endemic in the region.Because of having built some immunity in their homeland,African were more resistant to tropical fevers than the Europeans.In addition,because planters devoted large areas of land to plantations for rice and indigo,the white population of the Lowcountry and sea islands grew at a slower rate than the black population.More and more enslaved Africans were brought as laborers onto the sea islands and into the Low-country as the rice industry expanded.By a bout 1708,South Carolina had a black majority.Coastal Georgia later acquired its own black majority after rice cultivation expanded there in the mid 18th century,and malaria and yellow fever became endemic.Fearing disease,many white planters left the Lowcountry during the rainy spring and summer months when fever rampant.Others lived in cities such as Charleston.They left their "rice drivers,"or  overseers,in charge of the plantations.