Other Gullah Geechee Collections at the Library of Congress

The American Folklife Center is not the only division of the Library of Congress with Gullah Geechee collections. Indeed, this research guide lists many Gullah Geechee collections in divisions outside the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. For additional Library of Congress materials not listed in the research guide linked above, see the materials listed below.

Public Programs

In 2022, the Gullah Geechee musical group Ranky Tanky performed at the Library of Congress in the Coolidge Auditorium. Before the performance, the Music Division at the Library of Congress recorded the videos below with members of the band. Each video highlights a different aspect of Gullah Geechee culture and musical traditions.

Books

Army Life in a Black Regiment, and other writings by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Published/Created: [1870] 1997

First published in 1870, Army Life in a Black Regiment details the experiences of Thomas Wentworth Higginson leading the First South Carolina Volunteers--a Union regiment composed of formerly enslaved Africans who had escaped bondage in South Carolina and Georgia during the Civil War. Higginson's writings provide some of the first written accounts of Gullah Geechee spirituals, ring shouts, and other cultural practices, which he observed while serving with these Black soldiers.
Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé by J. Lorand Matory
Published/Created: 2005

While Matory's book focused on the tradition of Afro-Brazilian cambomblé, Black Atlantic Religion features an appendix where Matory's theory of the "live dialogue" of Black Atlantic cultures is applied to the case of Gullah Geechee culture.

Films

To Live as Free Men is a 1942 film about the Penn School, an educational institution for African Americans in the Sea Islands of South Carolina. It discusses the history of slavery on the islands and the school's role in educating African Americans to teach them the skills needed to be self-sufficient and to contribute to society. For more information on the film, visit this link.

South Carolina, May 1940, Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort by Zora Neale Hurston and Jane Belo
Published/Created: 1940

Footage from a folklore collecting project that focused on the study of religious trances in the sanctified church. The footage was taken at services and in the community of the Commandment Keeper Church in Beaufort, South Carolina on May 18-19, 1940. Some services were held in the Grand Army of The Republic Hall; the interior and exterior are depicted. Other services are at the Beaufort River.
The Language You Cry In: the Story of a Mende Song by Alvaro Toepke and Angel Serrano
Published/Created: 1998

Traces the history of a burial song of the Mende people brought by slaves to the rice plantations of the Southeast coast of the United States over two hundred years ago, and preserved among the Gullah people.
Footage from the Original Gullah Festival of South Carolina
Published/Created: 1999

Video footage of the 1999 Original Gullah Festival of South Carolina, which took place at Henry Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort, South Carolina. Begun in 1986, the Original Gullah Festival of South Carolina was one of the first festivals of Gullah culture organized by Gullah community members. This footage features performances by the Manhattans, Aunt Pearlie Sue, and Scott Gibbs. The video was submitted to the American Folklife Center as part of the Local Legacies Collection, an initiative to provide a "snapshot" of American Culture as it was expressed in spring of 2000, in communities from every state in the nation.

Commerical Recordings

Gullah Songs of Hope, Faith and Freedom by Marlena Smalls and the Hallelujah Singers
Published/Created: 1997

Album by Gullah performers Marlena Smalls and the Hallelujah Singers, featuring a combination of traditional songs and contemporary stories from the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Gullah Geechee Collections at the American Folklife Center

Other Gullah Geechee Collections at the Library of Congress

Public Programs

Books

Films

Commerical Recordings