Savannah and Charleston are the major urban centers of Gullah culture. The Gullah are a distinctive group of African Americans who live principally along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts including the “Sea Islands.” Traditionally, they have spoken an English based creole language with retentions of African speech and culture unknown elsewhere in the United States. A recent survey indicates that at least 100,000 people still speak Gullah. The Book of Luke in the Holy Bible has been translated into Gullah with more books to follow.

The Old City Market
Ellis Square had been a marketplace since Colonial days. When the City Market was built on that square, it too became a place where virtually all of Savannah rubbed elbows. Gullah vendors supplied much of the city's fresh produce. also, vendors with baskets of corn, beans, tomatoes, collards, okra, fruit, and seafood perched ontheir heads called out their wares to a receptive buying public. (Image courtesy of the Georgia Historical Society)

A group of historians has shown that the enslaved ancestors of the Gullahs (Geechees) were largely from the rice-growing regions of West Africa stretching from Senegal to Liberia and centering on Sierra Leone. People from these areas were sought after by Georgia and South Carolina rice planters because of their knowledge and experience of the rice culture in their native lands for hundreds of years. They brought with them the early technology and know-how of the rice culture in advance of the development of the specialized farm machinery necessary for rice cultivation following the American Revolution.
 
 

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