The Regeneration of Travel

An interabled couple explore family legacies and celebrate an extraordinary culture in South Carolina.

St. Helena Island, S.C. is widely considered the heartland of Gullah Geechee culture today. Gullah Geechee people descend from West African enslaved people forced to work on coastal and island plantations along the lower Atlantic shoreline going back to at least the 17th century.

The seclusion of these remote plantations created an environment in which these enslaved people, being isolated from the mainland, came to cultivate their own distinct culture, rooted in West African traditions and the island landscape they were forced to tend. The community developed its own language, artistry, spirituality, and food.

In recent decades, however, there’s been growing concern that these traditions—and, in fact, the whole culture—are fading away. And, like Charisma, many are losing their connection to the culture with the loss of older relatives. Charisma hopes to reconnect with these roots by exploring St.Helena’s culture and meeting its community.