Heirs of Dennis & Emma Allen
Our Mission
To protect, preserve, and encourage prosperity for African-American land owners in the Gullah Geechee corridor of the United States.
Gullah Geechee People Gullah/Geechee people of today are descendants of enslaved Africans from various ethnic groups of west and central Africa who were forced to work on the plantations of coastal South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida. Gullah/Geechee people are survivors - unique groups of African-Americans who lived near the coast and on barrier islands that were separated from the mainland by creeks, rivers, and marshes. Because of their geographic protection from outsiders and strong sense of family and community, Gullah/Geechee people maintained a separate creole language and developed distinct culture patterns, which included more of the African cultural tradition than African-American population in other parts of the United States.
Many traditional Gullah/Geechee communities have been lost to real estate development, encroachment by outsiders, and the resulting economic hardship. The remaining communities have become models for understanding negative as well as positive impacts of burgeoning tourism and large scale economic development in coastal regions of the American South. Despite the losses of recent decades, the Gullah/Geechee people remain a testament to the power of human adaptability and survival amid major stresses and assaults from many fronts in the rapidly changing economic environment of the modern world.
The first inklings of massive impacts on post-Civil War Gullah/Geechee cultural stability came during the 1920s and 1930s when wealthy industrialists from the North discovered the abundant wildlife and mild winter climate of the Low Country and adjoining islands. Magnates, such as Bernard Baruch, R. J. Reynolds, Howard Coffin, and Tom Yawkey, bought failed rice plantations from their bankrupt owners and established hunting lodges for themselves and their friends. In some cases Gullah/Geechee people who were living on this land were allowed to continue their farming and/or work for the new landowner, while other new owners forced black people from the land.
With land ownership tangled in years of subdivision of property among families and inheritance of land without recorded wills (heirs/ property), Gullah/Geechee people could not prove their ownership rights to their home sites. As years passed and more people died in testate, the property became more entangled in communal ownership. Many were forced from their land and/or the land and waterways where they had traditionally farmed, hunted and fished to supplement their tables and their incomes.
The great transformation, however, began in 1957 when Charles Frasier launched the construction of Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island. The availability of air conditioning suddenly made the sea islands appealing to affluent people. It was not very long before other developers joined in, and resorts sprang up all over the island. Although only about 20% of the island was actually owned by Gullah/Geechee residents, much of the remaining land was owned by absentee landlords who allowed free access to their property. The absentee landlords quickly sold out to developers. Between l950 and 2000, the South Carolina Low Country counties increased by 151% while the national population as a whole increased by only 86%.
Before construction of Sea Pines Plantation, Gullah/Geechee residents had been free to hunt and fish all over Hilton Head Island. Suddenly fences and gates blocked much of the land. Residents were cut off from their hunting and fishing grounds as well as their traditional burial grounds. Fences meant that Gullah/Geechee islanders could no longer "go in duh creek" to get supper.
Resorts, golf courses, and coastal suburban development on the islands led to steadily increasing property values and skyrocketing taxes. Island economies changed from rural subsistence farming to a service-based economy. Native islanders were often unable to bear the tax burden, and many were forced to leave their homes. Not just Gullah/ Geechee people but all islanders of modest means, black and white, have been adversely affected by the rising taxes caused by development and population growth. The construction of Interstate 95 in the mid 1970s was a major factor in the transformation of coastal zones. I-95 is the New York to Miami corridor and is thus one of the most heavily traveled interstate highways in the United States. Coastal regions of the study area, other than specific resort developments, were still relatively remote and isolated until after the construction of I-95. The highway not only gave easy access to Hilton Head Island and its neighboring resorts in South Carolina, but also created access to pristine islands and beaches. Development along I-95 in Georgia has been slower to occur, perhaps because the highway lies along the inland edges of great salt marshes. These marshes are likely to be viewed by uninitiated tourists as "swamps", rather than as the highly productive ecosystems that they, in fact, are. Almost 50% of the remaining salt marsh along the eastern seaboard of the United States lies along the Georgia coastline and much of it is currently protected by government agencies.
The Gullah/Geechee people of the Low Country and Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina are a distinctive people. They are also the only African American population of the United States with a separate, long-standing name identifying them as a separate people. They are distinct among African American peoples in this development of a tradition that depends as much upon maritime resources as upon land resources. Historically they are speakers of the only true African American creole language of the continental United States.
Gullah/Geechee people are the most African of African Americans in physical type, language, and culture; yet they are a uniquely American cultural type formed by the fusion of African cultural heritage and American experience. Through the diffusion and expansion of their population, the Gullah/Geechee people have become the source for many elements noted in other African American cultures. Of all African American cultures in the United States, the folk customs, oral history and literature, crafts and arts of the Gullah/Geechee people show the strongest continuities with indigenous cultures of Africa. The Gullah/Geechee culture also bears strong similarities to creole and maroon cultures of the Caribbean.
Thus, Gullah/Geechee cultural heritage, eating habits, cooking styles, music, language and traditions have made significant contributions, not only to the lives of southerners but also to all Americans. Recognizing the pivotal place that Gullah/Geechee people, language, folklore, and culture have occupied in African American scholarship.
(Source: http://www.nps.gov/guge/learn/historyculture/index.htm National Park Service Special Resource Study; Gullah Geechee History, Language, Society, Culture, and Change)