What's that you say about the 'Old Slave Mart'

When I was a kid I always tripped out when granny and I would ride by the old slave mart.  She would always get a little more silent when riding by.  She would always patiently answer my many questions.  "Granny did they slaves live there?, Where are the slaves now, Did you know the slaves, Why didn't they just run, Why were white people so mean, Did the mommies find their babies?" And the questions continued until life, ancestor recants and education collided (not public education either).  

As a child I just couldn't grasp that ACTUALLY happened and my great greats and my great Grandma Alice who was still living at that time experienced such devastation.  My Grandma Alice would suck ee teet and say "all dishea uz a slave mart! Disya jus wun mr. Charlie dun forgot baby"  Too much for a free brown child to truly grasp.  Even more deep that there was/is a tangible substance right there. It was almost like the "mommy where is God" question and next thing you know mommy is saying "just know God is here and real" i.e. please be quiet baby and stop all the questions.  Ha!

Charleston has many remnants of slavery and the horror of the old south.  I honestly believe what we call hauntings are really our ancestors' spirits whispering to us so that we live in forward motion, but never sever our roots.  As each generation is born and raised, whether you are in Charleston, SC, Georgia, Virginia or any parts of the south and/or USA,  whether you are geechee/Gullah and/or just salt of the earth people we have to teach the younger ones how real that era was and why some of the discussions and fights continue with black folks today.  

Listen, Charleston SC and Georgia are extremely great areas to start researching slavery history.  My children are trying to understand why mommy have an accent and why I pronounce words like I do most of the time  (even though living in Ca. I've learned the Cali accent as well and shru a gud edcashun and a demanding mama I can and do speak what most consider proper English most times.  Howeva mi Gullah tongue is way more fun and comfy mi mowt).  Don't judge me. 

 Anyhoo, I challenge you in 2013, to do something to get closer to your history/roots.  Many of you have raw history just a phone call away.  All these holidays, family dinners and reunions can be the juice you need.  I guarantee you once you start asking questions, the next thing you know you are knee deep in history and on the phone or Internet with www.ancenstry.com.  Go for it my people and share your findings with people of all races!  Django shouldn't be the rut (root) of 20th & 21st century learnings for non African Americans.  It may be a great talking point but not the RUT.

That's why when I hear about Gullah land being taken by local government for less substantial money making projects lets me know that black history is STILL not valued in America.  That like our ancestors' skin, limbs and history, it can still be bought and sold without a second thought.  just a matter of "all in favor say yea or nea?"  And unfortunately because we do not vote in our local elections like we should, raise cane, write letters, get signatures etc. we fall by the wayside.  And I do mean WE.  

*Not taking away any credit from our Gullah and historian foot soldiers that are and have been in the trenches for us already.  Thank you so much, much honor and respect!*

My people, let's get these janky #%*#?! politicians out of office.  Trust when I say, they will listen and change their views once you tell them "I am not voting for you sir/ma'am because you do not have my community's best interest in mind buh bye!"   Go to city council meetings and donate to renovations of our historical buildings, libraries etc.  We need our grand and great grand babies to have resources and not pictures in a book to know the who, what, where and whys.  Especially my beloved Gullah people.

I'm linking a wonderful detailed story on the historical Slave Mart -

Pentherapee getting off her soap box and wishing you a blessed, safe, prosperous 2013!  And thank all of you for supporting  

moregeechee.blogspot.com!!!!!!  Now get them peas & rice goin

Charlestonlowcpuntry.com/oldslavemart

Tracing our orgins

I use to hear stories about the Bermuda triangle growing up and wondered why my grandmother would always talk about Bermuda. As I got older I discovered that some of our ancestors may have come from there. Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean located off the East Coast of the United States. It is said that our ancestors were taken from Bermuda and brought the United States as slaves and that's where part of our accent comes from. In the seventy-five years from the beginning of the 18th century to the declaration of independence, more than forty percent of the Africans arriving in the British North Americans Colonies were quarantined and processed in coastal islands off Georgia and South Carolina.We were brought here with our ancestry in tack with our traditions and story telling ways. Researching our history starts with us tracing our history and knowing who our ancestors were and how did we end up on the coast lines of South Carolina. A great place to start our research would be Ancestry.com   and to talk to some of the older people in your family. Knowing where we come from is important so that we can answer questions like where did we develop our accent, why do we love rice so much, why are we so strong and different than regular African Americans. 

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I started researching my history a couple of years ago but I got stuck in the early 1900's. I guess with no records being kept it was hard to trace where we come from. For my family I know that my great great grandmother was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania she never came down south nor was she born a slave now her mother was but escaped north before she was born. When I did my research it seems that my great great great grandmother was a slave and she originally came from the Bermudas. Now was she originally brought here on the slave ships I have no idea but I do know that she was of Bermuda origins. I know her first name but don't know her last and can't find any records beyond what I know. Most of my info came from my grandmother before she passed. As a young girl she would tell me stories but when she got older she got Alzheimer's so the stories and history stopped. 

Now my grandfather I was able to trace him a few years back pretty good and discovered his father was an Indian. Now I know most of us have family that say they are part Indian and I do give the side eye but my great grandfather was a true indian and married a black women and they had my grandfather. I thought that was interesting considering my grandfather did have that good hair lol. 

 Have you traced your history as of yet? Do you know where your family came from?

Blue Bottle Tree

      

The blue bottle tree is another one of those southern tradition that many people don't know the complete history of.  Having a blue bottle tree in the yard is a old Gullah/Geechee custom. The trees are used to capture evil haints for getting into one's home. The haints are lured inside the bottle by light reflected thru the blue bottle at dusk. Once the haints are inside the bottle they are trapped. What happens to them are up for debate. Some say that they are trapped in the bottles forever, and the noise you hear are the haints moaning, and crying. Others say that once the sun rises the haints are vaporized by the sun's light. 

Today, people use different color bottles, but blue was the choosen by the Gullah/Geechee people for a reason. The Gullah/Geechees used blue because of their belief that the color blue wards off evil spirits. 

Do you know anyone with a blue bottle tree in their yard?

 

Who dat da shroh dat rice? Dat rice fa we da eat...

It is so true that if that's all you know it seems normal.  Chile I eat rice with most things southern.  Let's see we have red rice, okra & rice, greens & rice...RICE RICE RICE.  So of course here in California when I would eat at other folks home I always asked "where's the rice" a brief silence would fall then they would say "o' we don't eat rice with this or that". Ha! And Hunna look at them just as fool as they would look at me.  Check this out, once I became a fixture in my husband's family, mind you a traditional Alabama southern family it would kill them how I made a small pot of white rice for our southern feast...funny thing though, everyone I've introduced to the idea has lalalalaluved it! Now listen...I get it. In a society where we clearly understand white bread, white rice, white sugar WHITE  WHITE WHITE is a big no no.... I guess thats payback because black cat, black magic...you get it?  Usually anything black is associated with negativity so now its the color white turn (teehee).  Anyhoo, I blv all things in moderation is fine and this is why,  brown rice is uuuuggghhhhhh!  Baaaaaby nature can keep she brown rice!!!!  I've tried it every whicha way and I'm sorry it taste like bark and tree leaves with a dash of dirt (yep I said it)!  Don't you dare ruin my fine southern Gullah cuisines with y'all's brown rice...

Now just to give you a lil background on how tightly bound we (geechee people) are to rice, in the 1700s white plantation owners promptly paid more for Afrikaans from west Africa in the rice growing regions like Sierra Leone.  In fact west Afrikaans were the largest group imported into South Carolina and Georgia coastlines.   Also Gullah people are direct descendants of true Afrikkan rice laborers.  Truly RICE intertwines Gullah people and the people of Sierra Leone together just like white on rice (pun intended).  American colonists (da white people) figured out quickly that rice grew well in moist areas and the southern coastlines, specifically South Carolina was perfect rice land due to its semi tropical earth.  Dem boy bun smart.  I guess when you have to eat you rather know how to plant food rather than wait on someone to feed ya!  

Anyway I love seeing portraits with women carrying woven baskets on their heads, baby on their back and a Gullah song on ee lip thinking about how good their rice wus gonna go with the scraps given to them, which is now considered a southern cuisine (side eye) and/or the fruits of their own labor (what little they had).  Our sea islands are truly the 'salt of the earth'. I couldn't be apart if a better culture/people.  The more I learn the more in love I become.  We deep init? 

Story by PT 

Refer to Africanheritage.com for additional information on "The Rice People"

Seafood

Charleston, SC is where some of the Geechee people live. We love rice but something else that we love just as much as we love rice is our seafood. Growing up I was surrounded by water so it was natural that we caught our own seafood or bought them from docks instead of the grocery store. I remember Friday's being flounder and red rice day. Flounder came fresh from the docks right from the waters we live around. There is nothing like fresh seafood and the taste is very different. Crab boils were a staple with corn and sausage mixed in and don't let me speak about the shrimp we use to eat like they were candy.

It's so hard to find good seafood if you live inland. I am now living right outside of Atlanta,GA and I can ever find that fresh seafood. Sure the stores have them but they just don't taste the same. I am so use to my seafood being fresh and from the coast that I just am not satisfied. The best place to find seafood when you live inland is the farmers market. They have the best blue crabs and they are the only place I can find flounder not the filet kind but the one with the skin on it.

Some of my favorite seafood dishes
Flounder and red rice
Seafood lasagna
Po Boys
Lowcountry Gumbo
Shrimp and Grits
Sardines with Grits

If you are ever in Charleston, SC make sure you visit one of the best restaurants that sell seafood. Hymans Seafood 

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Georgetown Ghosts

Georgetown is recognized as the third oldest city in South Carolina, though this is argued as the Spanish settled the area in the early 16^th century, thus making it one of the oldest cities in the New World. If you are from Charleston, SC you have know we refer to Georgetown as the Ghost town because there are many stories of Ghosts that still linger. I will tell you one of my favorites the rest you can find at http://southernspiritguide.blogspot.com/2011/08/ghosts-of-georgetown-south-carolina.html

Among the oldest homes in Georgetown, the Cleland House was built in 1737 and has seen a whole panoply of American history, some of it even passing over its thresholds. Among the notable visitors to this house are German Generals von Steuben and de Kalb; French General Gilbert de Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, who all aided the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and American Vice President Aaron Burr. The home was originally built facing the Sampit River, but later on the front door was placed facing Front Street.

The story behind this house reads very much like an old fashioned ghost story. Anne Withers, possibly related to John Withers who is listed on the historical marker in front of the house as one of the owners, had fallen in love with a dashing sea captain. After one of his voyages he returned to Georgetown and presented his fiancée, Anne, with a rare gift, an ancient Egyptian bracelet. The bracelet featured a series of scarabs, stylistic representations of dung beetles which symbolize the heavenly cycle of life. The blushing bride saved the bracelet to wear with her wedding dress. On her wedding day, she placed the bracelet on her wrist and carried on with her other preparations. Just as she was about to descend the staircase, the bride let out a scream and collapsed, dead.

When her family rushed to her side, blood was dripping from underneath the bracelet. When it was removed, the scarabs were found to have tiny legs that had dug into the bride’s pale flesh. The heartbroken sea captain left Georgetown soon after and in London had the bracelet examined by a chemist. The chemist discovered that the legs on the scarabs had been rigged to open by the warmth from human skin and each leg contained poison that would be injected into the hapless victim. He surmised the bracelet had been made to afflict the person who stole the artifact from a tomb. Ever since Anne Withers’ wedding day death, her form, still wearing nuptial white has been seen in the garden of the Cleland House. 

Do you believe in ghosts? Well if you want to see some I suggest taking a trip to Georgetown, SC.....Halloween would be ideal....*insert loud ghostly laugh*

Gullah/Geechee Folklore: Boo Hag

Geechee Folklore: Boo Hag

  The Geechee/Gullah people are full of beliefs and traditions. One of those beliefs is of the legend of the Boo Hag. The Boo Hag is an evil spirit that uses someone's skin to move among people unnoticed. Without the stolen skin, The Boo Hag is red,and is very warm to the touch. Once night falls, they shed, and hide the skin. Boo Hags are said to hide their skin under porch steps, and under beds. Boo Hags can enter a person's house through the smallest of openings. Once the Boo Hag is inside they sit on the victim's chest and steals their breath. This is known as "ridin'". Boo Hag doesn't kill the person that they ride, because it can come back over, and over again to steal the person's breath, which is how it sustains itself. The Boo Hag rides it's victim all night, and before the sun comes up the Boo Hag has to return to it's skin because it can't survive without skin in the daytime.


 Legend has it that there are warning signs that a Boo Hag might be near. The warning signs are the air will feel damp, and hot, and will smell as if something is rotting. There are a few ways to help prevent a visit from Boo Hag including putting a loaded gun across the head of the bed, as a Boo Hag doesn't like that smell of gunpowder. The Boo Hag is quite nosey so it stops and count things. You can use a brush, or put salt near the bed. The most commonly used way to prevent a Boo Hag from ridin' you is to place a broom by a door, or near you when you sleep so it stops and count the straws until dawn, when it needs to return to it's skin. Since it an evil spirit, using haint blue also helps. It's said that if you wake up in the morning, after having a full night's rest feeling exhausted, there is a chance that you have been visited by Boo Hag. 

Boo Hag story from The Moonlit Road