Gullah Museum of Georgetown

@gullahsc.bsky.social

We seek to preserve Gullah Geechee history & culture by educating the public about how we shaped America. Open Mon. - Sat. 11 am - 4 pm. Closed Sundays. gullahmuseumsc.com #BLM #BlackHistory #AddToBlackSky

Look what came in today’s mail! Gullah Geechee author Ebony Allen Toussaint, PhD, wrote "G is for Gullah" to teach children the alphabet while educating them about Gullah Geechee culture. We sell the book at the Gullah Museum of Georgetown!

Book jacket

Happy Amistad Slave Revolt Day! On this day in 1839, a rice farmer named Sengbe Pieh—also known as Joseph Cinqué—led the African captives aboard the slave ship La Amistad in a revolt, breaking free from their chains and seizing the ship. Let’s get into some slave resistance!

"The Mutiny on the Amistad" (A 1939 oil on canvas painting by Hale Woodruff, in the collection of Savery Library, Talladega College, Talladega, Alabama / National Museum of African American History and Culture)

For forever, teachers in the U.S. taught school children that George Washington had a mouth full of wooden dentures. In fact they were a mix of wine-stained hippopotamus ivory, human teeth—from Africans enslaved on his Mount Vernon Plantation—brass screws, and gold wire.

Portrait of George Washington , the first president of the United States with a photo of one of his dentures.

On this day—June 21, 1832—marks trailblazer Joseph Hayne Rainey was born in Georgetown, South Carolina. He was the first African American, and Gullah Geechee, elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1870 . He served five consecutive terms during the Reconstruction era.

Congressman Joseph Hayne Rainey

Today, the Gullah Museum of Georgetown’s staff had to ask a guest to leave because he was making other guests uncomfortable with his comments. It started over the venerable Joseph H. Rainey, of Georgetown, SC, the 1st black American ever seated in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Joseph H. Rainey, of Georgetown, SC, the first black American to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The original name for Memorial Day was Decoration Day, and it was started by formerly enslaved and free Gullah Geechee people in Charleston, SC, some of whom fought in the 1st and 2nd South Carolina Colored Regiments and other U.S. Colored Troops.

A Civil away veteran and his child

Enslaved and free Black men formed the backbone of the American colonies' maritime industries. This work offered enslaved men unique autonomy and provided free Black men with pathways to financial independence, political agency, and community leadership.

Enslaved Black men in a canoe

In early May 13, 1862, the enslaved Gullah Geechee crew of the military transport the CSS Planter—Robert Smalls, John Small, Alfred Gourdine, and Abraham Jackson, Gabriel Turner, David Jones, Jack Gibs—began a series of secret meetings that would lead to one of the most daring escapes in history.

Smalls, age 23, shortly after he piloted  the Planter to freedom.Smalls and other members of the Planter’s crewSmalls

Let’s get into why ⚪️’s became depicting people of African descent as monkeys. The origin is rooted in a centuries-old, systematic effort to dehumanize Black people, dating back to early European colonial to justify slavery, colonialism, and white supremacy.

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They can remove names and historical incidents from federal entities. They can remove MLK Day and Juneteenth from National Parks Fee-Free Days. Black folk are unbowed and unbothered. We have been through this before—and still we rise. That and the internet is forever.

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HAPPENING TODAY: Come meet Santa Claus—“Sanyd Claw” in Gullah—and take free photos with him at the Gullah Museum on 11/29 and 12/13 from 11 am - 12 pm. We’re at 123 King Street, Georgetown, SC—behind the Wells Fargo Bank on Front Street in the historic district.

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Come meet Santa Claus—Sanyd Claw in Gullah—and take free photos with him at the Gullah Museum on 11/29 and 12/13 from 11 am - 12 pm. We’re at 123 King Street, Georgetown, SC—behind the Wells Fargo Bank on Front Street in the historic district.

Event flyer