A language born of slavery, spoken nowhere else in the world, still echoes along the southeastern coast of the United States. From North Carolina to Florida, the Gullah Geechee communities have preserved a culture born among the descendants of people enslaved in the English colonies of North America. Their language, their cuisine, their music, and their traditions have carried forward many legacies from West and Central Africa. Today, this distinctive culture continues to be transmitted in the region’s islands and coastal communities, as the BBC notes.
A culture shaped by the isolation of the islands
The roots of the Gullah Geechee culture trace back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when Africans were relocated to the English colonies of North America and enslaved. In the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia, plantation owners specifically sought people from West and Central Africa for their agricultural knowledge, essential to cultivating rice, indigo, and Sea Islands cotton.
The harshness of slavery did not prevent certain African traditions from surviving. The geographic isolation of the islands and wetland areas even helped in their transmission and evolution. West African culinary techniques met locally available ingredients, giving rise to specialties such as red rice—a dish based on rice, tomatoes, spices, smoked pork, and sausage. The basket-weaving techniques brought from Africa were also adapted to the plants found in the Lowcountry.
This cultural continuity is also reflected in the language. Gullah developed as a means of communication among African populations speaking different languages and the English-speaking colonists. While its vocabulary rests largely on colonial English, certain words come from African languages. Oona, meaning “you all,” or nyam, “to eat,” are two examples.
Even the origin of the Gullah Geechee name remains uncertain. “Gullah could derive from Angola or from the Gola people of West Africa. Geechee could come from the Kissi people or from Geechee, linked to the Ogeechee River in Georgia”, explained Luana Graves Sellars, a cultural preservation expert and founder of the Lowcountry Gullah organization.
The Civil War then marked a turning point. After Union forces captured Port Royal Sound and Hilton Head Island in 1861, hundreds of people who had escaped slavery sought shelter behind the Northern lines. In 1862, the town of Mitchelville was founded on Hilton Head Island. It became the first self-governed town of freed Black people in the United States. Gradually abandoned after the war, it was largely deserted by the early 1880s before being ravaged by the Sea Islands hurricane in 1893.
A living memory, yet under threat
Two centuries after the birth of this culture, about a million people in the United States claim Gullah Geechee ancestry. Their heritage still manifests in daily practices, especially during gatherings and ceremonies.
Among its most iconic traditions is the “ring shout.” Participants form a circle, move counterclockwise, stomp their feet, clap their hands, and sing in call-and-response. For Luana Graves Sellars, this practice carries a particular force: “A ring shout has this effect. There are festive ring shouts. Religious ring shouts, ring shouts reserved for adults. But they seize your attention and almost make you want to participate”, she tells the BBC.
The language itself remains a central expression of this heritage. “To understand the Gullah Geechee language is to understand that everything we do is a form of expression”, said Sellars. Cooking also plays a central role. Rice and peas, shrimp with cornmeal mush, purloo or gumbo, continue to be staples in homes and restaurants across the region.
The Gullah Geechee legacy has enjoyed official recognition since 2006. The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor spans roughly 804 kilometers, from North Carolina to the southern tip of Florida. On October 12, 2026, it will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its designation as a National Heritage Area by the United States Congress.
Yet this recognition does not shield all sites tied to this history. The loss of ancestral lands, mounting real estate pressure, and climate change threaten several communities. “The cemeteries where our founders lie are under threat, the land passages that once connected the islands are no longer usable”, warns the expert.
In Hilton Head, Town Council member Alex Brown, himself from a fifth-generation Gullah family, summarizes the challenge of preserving memory: “Our people form a significant part of American history. The history of American democracy cannot be told in full without mentioning Gullah sites like Mitchelville.” A history long marginalized, but whose language, traditions, and places continue today to tell of the African presence in the southeastern United States.
