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How can we help to preserve Gullah culture in our Johns Island community?

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Investigate the Mystery Piece in your classroom! Use sticky notes to record "I See, I Think, I Wonder" observations.

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Preview our visit to McLeod Plantation by reading this short introduction. Then, add one "I know" and one "I want to know" to the class chart.

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McLeod Plantation Historic Site is not just a place for memorialization and a place of conscience, but a place where the transformation of conscience can occur.

Established in 1851, McLeod Plantation has borne witness to some of the most significant periods of our nation's history. Today McLeod Plantation Historic Site is an important 37-acre Gullah/Geechee heritage site that has been carefully preserved in recognition of its cultural and historical significance. The grounds include a riverside outdoor pavilion, a sweeping oak allée, and the McLeod Oak, which is thought to be more than 600 years old.

It is a place like no other, not frozen in time but vibrant, dynamic, and constantly evolving, where the winds of change whisper through the oak trees and voices from the past speak to all who pause to listen. McLeod Plantation was built on the riches of sea island cotton - and on the backs of enslaved people whose work and culture are embedded in the Lowcountry's very foundation. It is a living tribute to the men and women and their descendants that persevered in their efforts to achieve freedom, equality, and justice.

All of their stories - black and white, enslaved and free - are given their due. After years of careful research and restoration, McLeod Plantation Historic Site invites you to explore the lives of people who, though nearly erased from history, shaped Charleston's complex past and the nation's future.

Tour the homes and compare the McLeod family home with those built for enslaved families.

Learn about daily life and the relationships among the men, women, and children who lived and worked here before and after slavery.

Study the cultivation and importance of sea island cotton.

Gain insight into the plantation's strategic importance during the Civil War and the role of the free black Massachusetts 55th Volunteer Infantry in emancipating enslaved people.

Examine the influence of the Freedmen's Bureau at McLeod Plantation and throughout the South.

Trace the emergence of Gullah Culture in the Lowcountry.

Explore worship and spirituality in the lives of McLeod Plantation's residents.

Draw parallels between the changing relationships among McLeod Plantation's residents and in American society during the 20th century.

See how people dramatically changed the natural history of the plantation's landscape through time.

Hours

Tuesday - Sunday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Open Memorial Day and Labor Day. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Inclement weather and some park events may cause additional closures.

Interpretive Tours

Included in admission are guided interpretive tours offered at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m.

Admission

$20: ages 13 & up

$15: ages 60+

$6: ages 3-12

Free: ages 2 & under

A Gold Pass allows free entry for 4 guests per visit.

Pets, bicycles, and smoking are prohibited.

Guided Tours

Included in admission are guided interpretive tours offered at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m.

Self-Guided Tours

Download the McLeod Plantation Historic Site: Transition to Freedom app on your iPhone for a self-guided tour that reveals the different perspectives of those who lived and worked so closely together, but were worlds apart.

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In February 28, 2011, Charleston County Park & Recreation Commission purchased McLeod Plantation on James Island. The property was purchased from the Trustees of Historic Charleston Foundation for $3.3 million. To ensure the protection of the historic site, CCPRC has hired consultants having experience in historic preservation to develop a master plan for the property and stabilize the structures prior to opening the plantation to the public.

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Individual Product: Historian's research notebook with facts and details about the specific element of Gullah culture your team is studying

Team Product: ThingLink with at least 5 links to relevant photos or videos, including factual information on your topic

Making It Public: Interactive game or activity for final presentation at Gullah festival

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3.2.2.ER: Identify and analyze the
ways people interact with the physical
environment in different regions of the
state, the country, and the world.

3.4.1.PR: Investigate the cultural
characteristics of places and regions
around the world.

MC.S1.2: Participate in discussions;
ask questions to acquire information
concerning a topic, text, or issue.

MC.S2.1: Recall information from
experiences and gather information
from print and multimedia sources;
take brief notes from sources,
categorize, and organize.

MC.S2.2: Report on a topic or text, tell
a story, or recount an experience with
appropriate facts and relevant
descriptive details.

MC.S3.2: Create presentations using
video, photos, and other multimedia
elements to support communication
and clarify ideas, thoughts, and
feelings.

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In the past, people have described the Gullah culture as quaint and the language as unintelligible. A closer look reveals a complex history and language with direct links to West Africa that survived slavery and thrived on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah experience has many variables that make it unique to each family and community.

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Grades K-5 In the past, people have described the Gullah culture as quaint and the language as unintelligible. A closer look reveals a complex history and language with direct links to West Africa that survived slavery and thrived on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia.

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What do we as a class need to know to get started on our project?

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What does my team need to know about our specific topic to successfully complete this project?

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Use ThingLink to create a presentation with at least 5 links to relevant photos or videos, including factual information on your topic

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View the interactive image by Kate Williams

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https://my.pblworks.org/system/files/documents/PBLWorks-3-5-Presentation-Rubric-Non-CCSS_1.pdf

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Whether you're new to PBL, or you're a busy PBL teacher, our Project Designer gives you a shortcut to implementing high quality PBL in your classroom. Adapt one of 73 Gold Standard PBL projects - or create your own project - that's ready to use in the classroom or online.

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https://my.pblworks.org/system/files/documents/PBLWorks-3-5-Collaboration-Rubric-CCSS_0.pdf

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Whether you're new to PBL, or you're a busy PBL teacher, our Project Designer gives you a shortcut to implementing high quality PBL in your classroom. Adapt one of 73 Gold Standard PBL projects - or create your own project - that's ready to use in the classroom or online.

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https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/thegullahgeechee/

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Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor - Where Gullah Geechee Culture Lives

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THE GULLAH GEECHEE PEOPLE
The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of Africans who were enslaved on the rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton plantations of the lower Atlantic coast. Many came from the rice-growing region of West Africa. The nature of their enslavement on isolated island and coastal plantations created a unique culture with deep African retentions that are clearly visible in the Gullah Geechee people's distinctive arts, crafts, foodways, music, and language.

Gullah Geechee is a unique, creole language spoken in the coastal areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Gullah Geechee language began as a simplified form of communication among people who spoke many different languages including European slave traders, slave owners and diverse, African ethnic groups. The vocabulary and grammatical roots come from African and European languages. It is the only distinctly, African creole language in the United States and it has influenced traditional Southern vocabulary and speech patterns.

ARTS, CRAFTS AND MUSIC
The ancestors of the Gullah Geechee people brought to this country a rich heritage of African cultural traditions in art, foodways and music. ​ Today's Gullah Geechee arts and crafts are the result of products designed by their ancestors out of necessity for daily living such as making cast nets for fishing, basket weaving for agriculture and textile arts for clothing and warmth.

Deeply rooted in music traditions brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans, their music evolved out of the conditions of slavery that characterized their lives. The influence and evolution of musical forms that arose out of Gullah music can be heard in many musical genres such as spirituals and gospel music, ragtime, rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop and jazz.

FOODWAYS
The traditional Gullah Geechee diet consisted of items available locally such as vegetables, fruits, game, seafood, livestock; items imported from Europe, items imported from Africa during the slave trade (okra, rice, yams, peas, hot peppers, peanuts, sesame "benne" seeds, sorghum and watermelon), and food introduced by Native Americans such as corn, squash, tomatoes and berries. Rice became a staple crop for both Gullah Geechee people and whites in the southeastern coastal regions.

Making use of available food (or rations), making a little go a long way, supplementing with fish and game, leftovers from butchering and communal stews shared with neighbors were African cultural practices. African cooking methods and seasonings were also applied in Gullah Geechee homes and plantation kitchens. Because plantation cooks were primarily enslaved women, much of the food today referred to as "Southern" comes from the creativity and labor of enslaved cooks.

SPIRITUAL EXPRESSIONS
Religion and spirituality have a sustaining role in Gullah family and community life. Enslaved Africans were exposed to Christian religious practices in a number of ways and incorporated elements that were meaningful to them into their African rooted system of beliefs. These values included belief in a God, community above individuality, respect for elders, kinship bonds and ancestors; respect for nature, and honoring the continuity of life and the afterlife. Lowcountry plantations frequently had a praise house or small structure where slaves could meet for religious services.

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THE GULLAH GEECHEE - Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor

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THE GULLAH GEECHEE PEOPLE The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of Africans who were enslaved on the rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton plantations of the lower Atlantic coast. Many came from the rice-growing region of West Africa.

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Document Asset | Gullah Glossary | GullahNet | Knowitall.org

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benne wafer (ben.ne wa.fer) n. - a cookie made with sesame seeds and eaten for good luck; introduced by slaves from West Africa. /

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The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition

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Introduction

Mrs. Queen Ellis of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina making a Gullah basket (1976).

The Gullah are a distinctive group of Black Americans from South Carolina and Georgia in the southeastern United States. They live in small farming and fishing communities along the Atlantic coastal plain and on the chain of Sea Islands which runs parallel to the coast. Because of their geographical isolation and strong community life, the Gullah have been able to preserve more of their African cultural heritage than any other group of Black Americans. They speak a creole language similar to Sierra Leone Krio, use African names, tell African folktales, make African-style handicrafts such as baskets and carved walking sticks, and enjoy a rich cuisine based primarily on rice.

Indeed, rice is what forms the special link between the Gullah and the people of Sierra Leone. During the 1700s the American colonists in South Carolina and Georgia discovered that rice would grow well in the moist, semitropical country bordering their coastline. But the American colonists had no experience with the cultivation of rice, and they needed African slaves who knew how to plant, harvest, and process this difficult crop. The white plantation owners purchased slaves from various parts of Africa, but they greatly preferred slaves from what they called the "Rice Coast" or "Windward Coast"-the traditional rice-growing region of West Africa, stretching from Senegal down to Sierra Leone and Liberia. The plantation owners were willing to pay higher prices for slaves from this area, and Africans from the Rice Coast were almost certainly the largest group of slaves imported into South Carolina and Georgia during the 18th century.

The Gullah people are directly descended from the slaves who labored on the rice plantations, and their language reflects significant influences from Sierra Leone and the surrounding area. The Gullahs' English-based creole language is strikingly similar to Sierra Leone Krio and contains such identical expressions as bigyai (greedy), pantap (on top of), ohltu (both), tif (steal), yeys (ear), and swit (delicious). But, in addition to words derived from English, the Gullah creole also contains several thousand words and personal names derived from African languages-and a large proportion of these (about 25%) are from languages spoken in Sierra Leone. The Gullah use such masculine names as Sorie, Tamba, Sanie, Vandi, and Ndapi, and such feminine names as Kadiatu, Fatimata, Hawa, and Isata-all common in Sierra Leone. As late as the 1940s, a Black American linguist found Gullahs in rural South Carolina and Georgia who could recite songs and fragments of stories in Mende and Vai, and who could do simple counting in the Guinea/Sierra Leone dialect of Fula. In fact, all of the African texts that Gullah people have preserved are in languages spoken within Sierra Leone and along its borders.

The connection between the Gullah and the people of Sierra Leone is a very special one. Sierra Leone has always had a small population, and Sierra Leonean slaves were always greatly outnumbered on the plantations by slaves from more populous parts of Africa-except in South Carolina and Georgia. The rice plantation zone of coastal South Carolina and Georgia was the only place in the Americas where Sierra Leonean slaves came together in large enough numbers and over a long enough period of time to leave a significant linguistic and cultural impact. While Nigerians may point to Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti as places where Nigerian culture is still evident, Sierra Leoneans can look to the Gullah of South Carolina and Georgia as a kindred people sharing many common elements of speech, custom, culture, and cuisine.

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The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection

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Introduction Mrs. Queen Ellis of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina making a Gullah basket (1976).