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Descendants of slaves who occupy the islands that stretch from Jacksonville, N.C., to Jacksonville, Fla., the Gullah have survived for generations primarily by fishing and farming. Their way of life is intrinsically linked to the state of the waterways, said Veronica Gerald, a professor at Coastal Carolina University and a Gullah-Geechee Heritage Corridor commissioner.
"The culture has always been linked to the water," Gerald said. "Even on African soil, the Gullah diet has always been closely tied to water life. That's why so many of our recipes and food relate to water."
But development restricting access to the area's waterways continues to threaten the culture, Gerald said.
"The restrictions imposed on fishing forced us to buy a lot of things we used to get for free," she said. "The emphasis has always been: You caught it that day and you ate it that day."
The major shift came in the late 1960s and '70s with the development of inland areas and Lowcountry sea islands such as Hilton Head and Fripp.
"Development was one of the main influences that changed fishing and hunting laws," Gerald said. "It's affected our economy."
Many fisherman are now faced with catch restrictions, limited access to docks and oyster beds, depletion of fish stocks and the rising costs of commercial fishing, she said.
Fishing, boat-making and net-making also were a cultural phenomena that brought people together to socialize.
"We still have net makers and boat makers in the community, but younger Gullah are accustomed to going to the grocery store," Gerald said. "A lot of times now, net casting must be done from a boat because the rivers' ecosystem has changed."
Ronald Daise, a Gullah artist and a Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor commissioner from Beaufort, said his father owned a traditional flat-bottomed, wooden fishing boat he used off St. Helena Island. When Daise returned to the island after college, many of his family's old fishing spots were off-limits.
"The new owners would often not allow access to the waterways," Daise said. "It was difficult to deal with and part of how the culture has been degraded."
Rosalyn Browne, director of history and culture at Penn Center, agrees, adding the river access also impacted traditional baptism rites.
When she was 8, Browne was baptizedin the tiny creek by the Brick Baptist Church -- now the Ebeneezer Baptist Church -- on St. Helena Island.
"From the days of slavery, people were baptized in that creek," Browne said. "Most of my peers would have been baptized there. But today, there are only one or two churches that still perform river baptisms."
White-clad children would wade into the creek, singing traditional hymns. The ritual often lasted for hours, she said.
"There was a communal spirit," Browne said. "We miss that. ... I don't think you'll find anyone who doesn't want to preserve the river and its traditional uses."
