Gullah Lives

Gullah is said to be a dying Culture. Though this culture has brought life into so many other cultures and still thrives in lands today, its dying culture? Culture may lie within the land it came from, but it thrives through its connections. With influences all over the globe it might not be the most prominent culture, but it surly cannot be dying yet.
Gullah was created by cultural mixtures brought upon by the African Slave Trade. Between 1650 and 1860 there were around ten to fifteen million enslaved people transported from Africa to the Americas (Murphy). This human cargo was transported across the Atlantic Ocean and sold to New World slave owners, who bought slaves to work their crops. They brought rum, cloth, iron, firearms, gunpowder, and other goods of that nature which they were able to trade for human beings in return (Murphy). The slaves were treated like cattle. They were packed close and tight into ships with unbearable heat and nearly unbreathable air for months at a time. They were chained in pairs, shackled wrist to wrist or ankle to ankle. People were crowded together, usually forced to lie on their backs with their heads between the legs of others. Under these circumstances they often had to lie in each other's feces, urine, and with many women aboard, even blood. In such cramped quarters, diseases such as smallpox and yellow fever spread like wildfire. The diseased were sometimes thrown overboard to prevent wholesale epidemics (Murphy). Because a small crew had to control so many, cruel measures were taken. They would use tools such as iron muzzles and whippings to control the slaves. As terrible, dreadful, and horrifying as it was, this began the creation of the lively growing culture we know today as Gullah. ...

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...t has not died; it has beautifully blended and changed cultures all over the world through our cultural connection which is Gullah.

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