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Booker T. Washington High School, Class of 1933, seated on the lawn in front of the main entrance to the school. Founded in 1916, the school was, until its closing in 1974, the hub of the separate...
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The first graded school in St. Matthews, photographed around 1910. A campaign to improve rural schools in the late 19th century replaced many one-room schools, in which all students were taught by a...
Lesson
Employers need employees or workers. During the Second Industrial Revolution in the United States, many new jobs were created. Many of the workers who filled these new jobs were children. The problem...
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The Avery Institute in Charleston. The Avery Normal Institute was established by the American Missionary Association in the spring of 1865, and initially named after the New York abolitionist Lewis...
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The original building of the Penn School photographed around 1890. The Penn School, located on St. Helena's Island, was the first school for freed African-Americans opened by northerners in the South...
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The Camden Male Academy was conducted as a semi-military academy, training young men in martial skills by Charles H. Peek in Camden from 1859 until his death in 1863. Many of the cadets, shown here in...
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During slavery, although plantation owners attempted to control the lives and activities of their slave labor, a vital community based on African traditions of family and kin networks aided African...
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The Works Progress Administration photographer who recorded this structure in the 1930s called it a "Critter Barn." Its design and execution clearly mark the African building influence upon it, even a...
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African herbal medicine traditions remained an important part of health care practices in the slave communities. Even after the war, when the Freedman's Bureau and northern educators tried to teach...
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One of the beliefs that Sea Island African Americans have adapted to South Carolina living is that connection of certain colors to protecting individuals against the hard feelings of the spirit world...
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Alfred Hutty painting of a Lowcountry group of singers. These men and women are quite likely the musicians for a "shout" ceremony, for they are singing and clapping their hands rhythmically. The...
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The crafts that Africans brought with them in their heads and hands to the new world were crafts that were important to carrying out everyday life--whether it be making baskets and pots, or keeping...
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A remarkable African slave craftsman in the Edgefield area, known only as "Dave," produced this pot, whose design is distinctly African in form. Courtesy of the South Carolina State Museum.
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A modern basket maker, Jannie Cohen, demonstrates her mastery of this ancient African skill. Courtesy of the South Carolina State Museum.
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A group of Penn School baskets, illustrating their many forms, as well as the beauty that made them an important craft that Sea Island residents could sell as the tourist industry began to expand in...
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The first basket teacher at the Penn School worked to revive and perpetuate the African basket making skills among the children of the Sea Islands. The baskets made had a wide range of utilitarian...
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This grave of an African American is near St. Andrews in Richland County. The African custom of decorating a grave with items that their former owner might need in the spirit world was widespread in...
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West African religious traditions varied widely, ranging from Islam, to various tribal faiths, to some Christianity. The different tribal faiths had a number of common patterns. These included a...
Photo
The music slaves brought with them from Africa came from a variety of different cultures, and it is impossible in the caption for a single image to recount the history of the blending of those...
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An unknown man, Charleston County, playing the fiddle, around 1900. By rights this photograph should be of a banjo, whose origins are indisputably African. As early as the late 17th century, records...
Video
Walter Thompson shows the method for stirring sheep stew
Video
Walter and Bernice Thompson discuss stewmaster Maxie Moore’s skill in making sheep stew.
Video
Wayne Parrish and Billy Wilkinson’s families made sheep stew.
Video
The Dundas Ruritan Club “dips” the stew and then sells to the local community.
Document
by Vennie Deas-Moore. A South Carolina native, Deas-Moore is a photographer and writer who specializes in the cultural history of the Lowcountry, especially the rice culture of Georgetown County. My...
Audio
His interest in hunting influences what he chooses to carve
Audio
How he went from carving canoes to carving larger boats in detail
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His feelings on the disadvantages of painting wood carvings.