Role of Enslaved Africans

Learn about the growth and economy behind the African slave trade in South Carolina. Also learn about the African contributions to southern agriculture and the Gullah culture.
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Red Riding Hood | Gullah Tales
Red Riding Hood | Gullah Tales

Interactive

Listen to the interactive version of the Little Red Riding Hood in both English and Gullah. Storytelling performance by Anita Singleton Prather (Aunt Pearlie Sue)
Bossy Elephant | Gullah Tales
Bossy Elephant | Gullah Tales

Interactive

Listen to the interactive version of the Bossy Elephant in both English and Gullah. Storytelling performance by Anita Singleton Prather (Aunt Pearlie Sue)
Praise House | Gullah Music
Praise House | Gullah Music

Interactive

Students will understand how enslaved Africans created music for their worship experience. Religious meetings in “praise houses” provided the spiritual outlet for enslaved Africans on the plantation...
Secret Code | Gullah Music
Secret Code | Gullah Music

Interactive

Students will understand that music and material culture became a mode of covert communication between slaves. Aunt Pearlie Sue is our guide as students uncover hidden messages in the work songs...
Listen to Gullah Language | Gullah Net
Listen to Gullah Language | Gullah Net

Interactive

INSTRUCTIONS: Click on an English word to see and hear the Gullah word. About Gullah Language Gullah is also a language. It was developed among Africans as a way to communicate with people from other...
Spirituals | Gullah Music
Episode 4

Audio

Spirituals developed at the same time as work songs on the plantations. Although they were religious songs with a Christian message, spirituals were also heartfelt expressions of the slave experience...
Work Song | Gullah Music
Episode 3

Audio

Enslaved Africans sang songs as they worked to help keep the pace of the task they were doing. A leader called out a verse or yell and others responded. This is the call-and-response singing tradition...
Middle Passage | Gullah Music
Episode 2

Audio

European slave traders brought Africans to the New World on ships as early as the 1400s. These voyages across the Atlantic Ocean are called the Middle Passage. It was a terrible experience for the...
Family Across the Sea, Part 1 | SCETV Specials (1990)
Episode 1

Video

Family Across the Sea, Part 1 This award-winning program explores the remarkable connections between the Gullah of the South Carolina/Georgia Sea Islands and the people of West Africa, particularly...
West African Slaves | Pee Dee Explorer

Video

Find out how slaves were transported from West Africa to South Carolina. Also, discover the culture and language influences as Karl McAlister, Francis Marion University Librarian, takes us on a tour...