Gullah Tradition

I was driving across Johns Island the other day on my way out to Kiawah Island, a high-end resort that sits about 20 minutes from downtown Charleston.  Johns Island is one of the most interesting places in the Charleston area, and driving across the Island you would not get that impression.  Don't get me wrong, Johns Island has its own type of natural beauty and the highways have live oak trees filled with Spanish Moss that form canopies over the roadway.  You just don't get the sense of the Island's history as you explore.

Johns Island did play an important role in the Charleston area's cultural history.  Just after the Civil War, the once-remote island became the home for many of the plantations' slaves.  The Freedmen, as they were called, developed their own unique culture which was drawn from a mixture of customs from their native Africa.   The culture, which is called "Gullah," is unique to the Charleston area and these people didn't have much contact with the "mainland" until bridges were built in the early 1940's.