Gullah Roots

Gullah Roots dives deep into South Carolina’s ties with West Africa, educating viewers about Gullah heritage, including spiritual, musical and artistic traditions.

Gullah Roots: Rice As Cash Crop | Carolina Stories

Episode 1

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

Rice is a staple food of Sierra Leone. Rice is not only a favorite dish of Sierra Leoneans and the Gullah-Geechee, but it is also a part of their history. A dike system for cultivating rice worked...

Gullah Roots: Return to Bunce Island | Carolina Stories

Episode 2

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

From 1617 to the abolishment of the English slave trade in 1807, Bunce Island was the last glimpse of home for tens of thousands of enslaved Africans. Today, only ruins remain, as a testament to the...

Gullah Roots: Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor | Carolina Stories

Episode 3

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

With the ending of the civil war in Sierra Leone, the next generation looks to the future with hopes of rebuilding their country, and getting educations. These inspiring young Sierra Leoneans are also...

Gullah Roots: Establishment of Freetown | Carolina Stories

Episode 4

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

Freetown was founded by formerly enslaved people, many of them from South Carolina and Georgia. Their first attempt to establish an African colony in 1787 failed, but in 1792, more than a thousand...

Gullah Roots: Gullah and Krio Languages | Carolina Stories

Episode 5

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

In the city of Kabala, in Sierra Leone, residents speak their native tongue, as well as a Creole language called "Krio," which is similar in many ways to the Gullah language spoken by the Gullah...

Gullah Roots: Sweetgrass Basket Making | Carolina Stories

Episode 6

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

Nakia Wigfall is a seventh generation Gullah basket maker from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Wigfall travels to Sierra Leone with a mission to make sweetgrass baskets with the other local residents...

Gullah Root: Same Song in Mende and Gullah | Carolina Stories

Episode 7

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

Scholars have located a song linking a family from Georgia to the village of Senehun Ngola in Sierra Leone. Linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner traveled to Georgia in 1931 to hear people speaking and singing...

Gullah Roots: Ring Shout Dance | Carolina Stories

Episode 8

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

A circular dance called the "Ring Shout" was a part of Gullah-Geechee Christian worship services for many years.

Gullah Roots: Penn Center, Education of Free Blacks, African Myths and Beliefs | Carolina Stories

Episode 9

Video

Grades: 6 7 9 10 11 12

The Penn Center, formerly the Penn School, was founded on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, by Northern abolitionist missionaries. The school was created to educate freed people, and was one of the...

Gullah Roots

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