From Soil to Shore to Sale: Gullah Geechee Production, Transit, and Exchange in the Port of Charleston, South Carolina

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Port of Call: Archaeologies of Labor and Movement through Ports", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Operating under a Black majority, South Carolina low country Blacks created a creole culture known as the Gullah Geechee, a culture that emphasized self-sufficiency and craft production. The Gullah Geechee on Antebellum plantations operated in a task labor economy that allowed them time to use on their own once their daily tasks were completed. Many used this time for the production of food and crafts for their own use, as well as for exchange in Charleston. This presentation examines food resources and crafts of the Gullah Geechee, their transition to the port of Charleston, and the Gullah Geechee’s historic and on-going role in the market economy of the city.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Port of Call: Archaeologies of Labor and Movement through Ports

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow