The Roots of Gullah Culture

September 6, 2011: Our speaker, Herb Frazier, is a life-long journalist, having worked for the Post and Courier as well as papers in Columbia and New Orleans. He has traveled and lectured extensively in Africa and was awarded the 1990 Journalist of the Year in South Carolina.

Recently, the Daniel Island Foundation asked him to conduct interviews of survivors of a by-gone era and write a brief paper. His work developed into a book “Behind God’s Back”. In 1955 Harry Guggenheim purchased Daniel Island and in later years sold it to the Daniel Island Corporation. Before they developed it he became a benefactor for the preservation of the area culture. Prior to the construction of the Mark Clark expressway and the bridge over the Wando River, the small Gullah community on Daniel Island was almost isolated. Frazier’s book revisits these people along with folks from Cainhoy, which was originally called “Kenha”.

To make their living in the early years after emancipation of the slaves, they harvested timber and later made “moonshine” during prohibition. Among the many persons he learned about through interviews with their heirs was Nurse Broughton who served as a mid-wife in downtown Charleston. She also pulled a trailer medical office throughout the Cainhoy area to provide health care. One entrepreneur of the time established a ferry service across the Cooper River.

While bridges, highways and elegant homes now dot the area, Frazier’s book gives us a snapshot of the lives of the Gullah people who originally were the area’s inhabitants.

Submitted by Fred Sales, Keyway Committee