Plantations

It's not that I've run out of historic houses.  I don't think there's any way you can do that in this part of the world.  But I have started to branch out and get to some of the plantations.  First up was Boone, still a working plantation in that it has crops which are grown and sold.  The crops include pecans, although Hurricane Hugo did quite a number on their orchard.

This particular plantation emphasizes the Gullah Geechee culture.  I found out that Gullah is actually a corruption of Angola and Geechee is a variation on another word for a different area in West Africa. In the area of this plantation, the main crop was rice back then and these were the areas from which the best rice farmers came.   So this part of the world, along the Atlantic Coast from Georgia through the Carolinas became the Gullah-Geechee Corridor.  It's a language and a heritage.

I learned more about the Underground Railroad and its signs and signals.  It makes me proud that the farm in Old Brookville still has the black band around its chimneys to identify it as a safe house.  I loved listening to some of the old songs, too.

I also learned that Michelle Obama's great-great-grandfather (there may have been another great in there -- not sure) was a slave in this general area.  I realize that there are undoubtedly a great number of blacks in America who have similar family connections, but to hear a name that I recognize, especially the name of the First Lady.  That stopped me for a bit.  It's one of those times when you realize that we're talking history here, not fiction.  This was truly real.