Sweetgrass Baskets and the Gullah TraditionArcadia Publishing, 2005 - 128 pages The ancient African art of sweetgrass basket making has been practiced for more than 300 years in the Christ Church Parish of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Seen on the roadways of Charleston County and in museums and galleries worldwide, these unique handmade baskets are crafted from sweetgrass, bullrush, pine needles, and palm leaves. Traditionally, artisans use a piece of the rib bone of a cow and a pair of scissors as their only tools for construction. When English settlers founded Christ Church Parish in the late 1600s, they saw a place rich in natural beauty and ideal for harvesting rice, cotton, and indigo. Skilled agricultural laborers were needed, and consequently, South Carolina became the top importer of enslaved West Africans. Finding a landscape similar to their homeland, those who came kept many of their traditional practices. Today, the richness of the West African presence can be seen in Charleston's architecture, basketry, and ironworks. |
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Contents
Acknowledgments | 10 |
GRASSmuhlenberia filipes perennial seagrass used to make sweetgrass baskets grows along | 10 |
Gullah | 19 |
The Cultural Repository | 25 |
Historical Happenings | 35 |
47 | 47 |
House Food and Medicine | 71 |
The Institution of Hope | 79 |
OF | 85 |
Churches and Religious Traditions | 89 |
Ancient African Art 2 Gullah 3 Places Christ Church The Cultural Repository 4 Historical Happenings 5 Flowers and Other Vendors 6 Home Life Ho... | 97 |
Common terms and phrases
20th century African Americans ancient African Annie back no mo Barnwell basket makers basket stand became Boone Hall Plantation cabin Charleston County Christ Church Parish colored cooked Cooper River Cooper River Bridge Courier crafted Duke Ellington early 20th century Emancipation Proclamation Enslaved Africans farm flower ladies Foreman freed Africans friends gathered Goodwill AME Church Graddick Gullah language Highway 17 historic homemade Ike Coakley Janie Johnson Laing High School Laing School late 19th century lived Love Manigault Mary Jane Mazyck McConnell meal Mile community Moultrie Mount Pleasant Mount Pleasant community nights older oral histories palmetto Pentecostal popular potato purchase red rice Rosa Rouse sell sewing shooly Shu lay skills slavery slaves sold flowers South Carolina Lowcountry spiritual Street styles Sunday sweetgrass basket sweetgrass basket makers sweetgrass community taught vegetables vendors Washington wild herbs women York