Uncle Sam Polite | History Of SC Slide Collection

Grades

  • 8

Subjects

Collection

Series

The crafts that Africans brought with them in their heads and hands to the new world were crafts that were important to carrying out everyday life--whether it be making baskets and pots, or keeping peace with the spirit world around them. This 1910 photograph shows "Uncle Sam Polite" knitting a fish net, teaching students at the Penn School a craft that African ancestors from the coastal regions of West Africa brought with them. Slaves supplemented with fish the often inadequate diet that their owners provided them.

From the Penn School Collection. Permission granted by Penn Center, Inc., St. Helena Island, SC.

More in this Series

History of SC Slide Collection / I. South Carolina's African American Heritage | History of SC Slide Collection

Man Playing the Fiddle | History Of SC Slide Collection

Photo

Grades

  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
Man Playing the Fiddle | History Of SC Slide Collection
Episode 3
An unknown man, Charleston County, playing the fiddle, around 1900. By rights this photograph should be of a banjo, whose origins are indisputably African. As early as the late 17th century, records...
Critter Barn | History Of SC Slide Collection

Photo

Critter Barn | History Of SC Slide Collection
Episode 15
The Works Progress Administration photographer who recorded this structure in the 1930s called it a "Critter Barn." Its design and execution clearly mark the African building influence upon it, even a...