Gullah Geechee (A Guide): Home

The Gullah are an African American ethnic group who inhabit the Lowcountry regions of South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina within the coastal plain and sea islands. The Gullah people and their language is referred to as Geechee and it is derived from the name of the Ogeechee River near Savannah, Georgia. Gullah Africans from Central and West African ethnic groups developed a creole culture that preserved their African linguistic and cultural hertiage. The Gullah people speak a English-based Creole language influenced by African languages. 

Originally Gullah was a term used to describe the English dialect spoken by Gullah and Geechee people.  The term Gullah has been used to refer to the Creole language and ethnic identity of its people. 

Source: A rice raft with Gullah Geechees near Georgetown, S.C., in 1904. Photo: College of Charleston Stereoscopic Views, Special Collection, Addlestone Library.

The "Old Plantation" (1790) shows the cultural retention of Gullah people showing banjo and broom hopping.