Mitchelville: America’s First Self-Governed Town for Freed Slaves
By Luana M. Graves Sellars Cover artwork American Gullah By Sonja Griffin Evans “Good colored
By Luana M. Graves Sellars Cover artwork American Gullah By Sonja Griffin Evans “Good colored
Inside the Little Blue House lives a great mission to preserve and protect artifacts, stories and a culture. When you walk into the Little Blue House, you’re greeted by a voice that sounds like warm maple syrup that envelopes you and takes you on a journey back in time to when Africans on Hilton Head began to adapt to living free in America. If you want to learn about the history of Hilton Head before the bridge, you have three points on your journey. “Honey Horn represents slavery. Mitchelvile represents freedom, and the Gullah Museum represents independence,” said Louise Cohen curator of the Gullah Museum.
The gift of rice to South Carolina was pivotal in several different ways. Slavery brought African people to Hilton Head who were from several West African countries. Their descendants were known as Gullah. The Gullah brought a variety of skills with them; they were skilled at farming a variety of crops, especially rice.
By Luana M. Graves Sellars Harvest Time By Sonja Griffin Evans The Carolina’s and Georgia’s
Hilton Head’s social and cultural history dates back to the early 1700’s, and from the beginning, the Gullah people were central to the story. Enslaved, and then abandoned by plantation owners fleeing the Union army, they not only endured their circumstances, they displayed the intelligence, fortitude and survival instincts to maintain and develop a culture and a community that is vibrant, and rich in traditions that are alive today.
Other than documenting the culture, the Corridor’s mission is to be a resource for all of the corridor’s community development organizations and their leaders in an effort to provide information and support to issues that have been prevalent within the Gullah communities, such as the erosion of the land to development and developers.
The Hilton Head Fishing Co-Operative consisted of a fleet of shrimp trawlers piloted by a group of men who took on the challenges of the waters everyday, and delivered hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish yearly. In addition to the challenges on the water, the fisherman faced other obstacles from corporate initiatives that would infringe on the fishing industry. The Hilton Head Fishing Co-Operative consisted of a fleet of shrimp trawlers piloted by a group of men who took on the challenges of the waters everyday, and delivered hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish yearly. In addition to the challenges on the water, the fisherman faced other obstacles from corporate initiatives that would infringe on the fishing industry.