A Vanishing History: Gullah Geechee Nation

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On the Sea Islands along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, a painful chapter of American history is playing out again. These islands are home to the Gullah or Geechee people, the descendants of enslaved Africans who were brought to work at the plantations that once ran down the southern Atlantic coast. After the Civil War, many former slaves on the Sea Islands bought portions of the land where their descendants have lived and farmed for generations. That property, much of it undeveloped waterfront land, is now some of the most expensive real estate in the country.

But the Gullah are now discovering that land ownership on the Sea Islands isn’t quite what it seemed. Local landowners are struggling to hold on to their ancestral land as resort developers with deep pockets exploit obscure legal loopholes to force the property into court-mandated auctions. These tactics have successfully fueled a tourism boom that now attracts more than 2 million visitors a year. Gullah communities have all but disappeared, replaced by upscale resorts and opulent gated developments that new locals — golfers, tourists, and mostly white retirees — fondly call “plantations.”

Faced with an epic case of déjà vu, the Gullah are scrambling for solutions as their livelihood and culture vanish, one waterfront mansion at a time.

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23 COMMENTS

  4. I'm Gullah Geechee but don't claim anything that thinks their religious when we weren't religious before slavery. I just know that I'm an ancient Kemite cause you won't find me mixing religion with spirituality. This is why they're losing. How are they comfortable paying to white God in the sky and white Jesus? That's not our ancestors.

  5. The brother in the end doing the ritual he may not know it but it's means the father put a hook in us tool us from Africa and look he has punished us severely, but the captivity is over, African Americans are one tribe of the 12 but we are the head tribe

  6. They send in people who want land, drug dealers, pimps, etc. As well as pretentions at charity… But at the bottom of it, seems to me it's not really about the money but control. Very intolerant of independence. And they'll use every sneaky trick in the book to get control and absorb any separate people.

  7. Apparently the Geechee people have a similar problem to Hill people more inland… too independent, particularly in a cultural way, for some people's liking… And they're being intruded on.
    I love people like this, but from a respectful distance, because I'd hate to be just as bad.

  9. Look at what them folks do to our history!! They built on top of us and all!! They Steal!! They Never could be a true friend of mine!! Yea I said what I said!! ✊🏾

  10. White people always want to take things that don’t belong to them. This is what they have done to this country and other countries. They only care about themselves. Greed and power. Africans, Blacks, and Indians.

  14. Forcing people out for commercial purposes affects all cultures, even people who are white. They get cheated like everyone does. All of this heritage should be protected, the same as all cultures.

  22. My Grandfather spoke Geechee fluently and used to talk to us in it which confounded my great Uncle on my Dad's side of the family because he waa from Detroit.

  23. That Black developer is the problem. I'm not even American but i sense jealousy in him. The Gullah have managed to preserve their African culture and traditions for generations and have a very rich culture known in Africa, and are well loved and admired by Africans. The same way Africans love Haitians. The Black developer is jealous because he hasn't got a culture or sense of community. Instead, he has spent his entire life trying to imitate and impress white city boys (who still have their culture). Coming face to face with a group of Black Americans who have actually managed to preserve their culture must be killing him inside. The thing he tried to run away from all his life. With all the Black American millionaires, I find it shocking that none of them are interested in preserving their heritage. The preservation of Gullah lands and heritage is a preservation of Black American heritage whether they are Gullah or not. If I was a Gullah, I would advice them not to sell their lands. Failing that, the community should have a community saving like they used to and still do in Africa. Every month, each member should put some money into the savings for eventualities like this.

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