Georgetown, SC 22-25 Apr 2018
Moving north lead us to Georgetown, South Carolina
and the informative Gullah Museum. Pride
of place in the exhibits goes to Gullah artist Vermelle "Bunny" Smith
Rodrigues’ amazing quilts. The quilts
are folk art story quilts telling the history of the Gullah people and are used
to inform visitors at the Museum. Centre place however
is reserved for her famous Michelle Obama Quilt that tells of Mrs Obama’s
ancestral connections to the area.
I was granted permission to photograph these quilts
when we visited the Gullah Museum, which is well worth the effort, especially if you sit a while with very friendly and informed docents to really appreciate Gullah history. Not in Georgetown? Then read a little about the history here on Wiki.
My understanding, simplistically, is that the whole plantation system revolved around the use of slave labour and many slaves were brought in from West Africa to cultivate crops of rice, tobacco, indigo and sea island cotton. African people brought into the Low Country during colonial times developed their own creole language and maintained a culture rich with African influences. I found this interesting Pinterest site with lots of exciting examples of Gullah art; not quilting but very inspirational anyway.
Stop by the Museum in Georgetown to discover the joy of story-telling and quilts.
