Daughters of the Dust

The Gullah-Geechee people (referred to in the text as Geechee) are an ethnic group who live on the Sea Islands of the Atlantic coast, also known as the South Carolina Lowcountry. The Gullah-Geechee are descended from enslaved Central and West Africans who were brought to the Sea Islands to work on rice, cotton, and indigo plantations. These enslaved people brought with them a multitude of distinct languages and cultures, and the creole culture that arose from the mixture of these influences became known as Gullah-Geechee.

Several circumstances encouraged the development and proliferation of a unique culture on the Sea Islands. Mosquito-borne illnesses proliferated in the hot and marshy region. While the enslaved Africans had already developed some immunity to these diseases, Europeans had not, and the rapid spread of yellow fever and malaria drove white enslavers away from the islands. Enslavers continued to bring enslaved people to the islands to work on the profitable plantations; however, the enslaved people were then left largely to their own devices, leading to the development of a culture that had little interaction with white society.

After the Civil War, most free Black people in the South chose to forego working in the Sea Islands due to the dangerous terrain and the risk of illness.