The Gullah And Geechea

The Gullahs, also referred to as the Geechee in some parts of the south, are West African slaves that were brought to the New World to work on the plantations in the lowcountry along the southeastern coast of the United States, from the Cape Fear River in North Carolina to the St. John 's River in Florida. This coastal region with its many barrier islands is separated from the mainland by creeks, rivers, and marshes. The islands were accessible only by boat until the first bridges were built around 1950.Those enslaved in the Carolinas referred to themselves as Gullah and the slaves in Georgia and northeastern Florida referred to as Geechee.

The word “Gullah” is short for the “Gola” people of Angola, and “Geechie” refers to the “Gidzi” people of Sierra Leone. The Gullah/Geechees ' are comprised of many ethnic groups, in Africa that included those from the Rice Coast - the Wolof, Mandinka, Fula, Kissi, Baga, Mende, and Limba; and those from the Gold Coast - Angola, Calabar, and Congo. The influx of these specific tribal groups on the southeastern seaboard and Sea Island plantations and their linkage to the same tribes in West Africa, allowed Gullah/Geechees’ to retain their homeland identities. To be referred to as …show more content…
Many early scholars once regarded the Gullah/Geechee oral language as "broken English." However, the Gullah/Geechee language is a Creole blend language with grammar and sentence structure that represent a diversity of African languages including Gola, Gidzi, Kissee, Ewe, Mende, Yoruba, Igbo, Twi, Efik, Fanti and Kongo languages; blended with Elizabethan English and a hint of French. The Gullah/Geechee language, born on Africa’s slave coast, served as a universal language that various African tribes used to communicate while in captivity in slave