Gullah Geeche (Marquetta Goodwine)

Gullah Geeche led by Marquetta Goodwine is a custom civilization by Octoski.

This mod requires Brave New World.

## Overview

### Gullah Geeche

The name "Gullah" may derive from Angola, where the people's ancestors were likely from. The name "Geechee", another common (emic) name for the Gullah people, may come from Kissi, an ethnicity living in the border area between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Some scholars have also suggested indigenous American origins for these words. The Spanish called the South Carolina and Georgia coastal region Guale after a Native American tribe. The name of the Ogeechee River, a prominent geographical feature in coastal Georgia, was derived from a Creek Indian word.

The Gullah people have been able to preserve much of their African cultural heritage because of geography, climate, and patterns of importation of enslaved Africans. Taken from the Western region of Africa in primarily the Krio and Mende populations of what is today Sierra Leone as slaves and transported to some areas of Brazil (including Bahia), the enlaved Gullah-Gheechee people were traded in what was then Charlestowne, South Carolina. According to British historian P.E.H. Hair, Gullah culture was formed as a creole culture in the colonies and United States from elements of many different African cultures who came together there. These included the Wolof, Mandinka, Fula, Baga, Susu, Limba, Temne, Mende, Vai, Kissi, Kpelle, etc. of the Rice Coast, and many from the Gold Coast, Calabar, Congo Republic, and Angola. Because of having acquired some immunity in their homeland, Africans were more resistant to these tropical fevers than the Europeans. As the rice industry was developed, planters continued to import African slaves. By about 1708, South Carolina had a black majority.  Coastal Georgia later developed a black majority after rice cultivation expanded there in the mid-18th century. Malaria and yellow fever became endemic. Fearing disease, many white planters left the Lowcountry during the rainy spring and summer months when fevers ran rampant. These had hundreds of laborers, with African traditions reinforced by new imports from the same regions. Over time, the Gullah people developed a creole culture in which elements of African languages, cultures, and community life were preserved to a high degree. Their culture developed in a distinct way, different from that of the enslaved African-Americans in states such as Virginia and North Carolina, where the enslaved lived in smaller groups, and had more sustained and frequent interactions with whites and British American culture.

When the U.S. Civil War began, the Union rushed to blockade Confederate shipping. White planters on the Sea Islands, fearing an invasion by the US naval forces, abandoned their plantations and fled to the mainland. When Union forces arrived on the Sea Islands in 1861, they found the Gullah people eager for their freedom, and eager as well to defend it. Many Gullahs served with distinction in the Union Army's First South Carolina Volunteers. The Sea Islands were the first place in the South where slaves were freed. Long before the War ended, Unitarian missionaries from Pennsylvania came down to start schools for the newly freed slaves. Penn Center, now a Gullah community organization on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, began as the very first school for freed slaves.

The Gullahs achieved another victory in 2006 when the U.S. Congress passed the "Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Act" that provides $10 million over 10 years for the preservation and interpretation of historic sites relating to Gullah culture. The Heritage Corridor will extend from southern North Carolina to northern Florida. The project will be administered by the US National Park Service with extensive consultation with the Gullah community. Gullahs have also reached out to West Africa. Gullah groups made three celebrated "homecomings" to Sierra Leone in 1989, 1997, and 2005. Sierra Leone is at the heart of the traditional rice-growing region of West Africa where many of the Gullahs' ancestors originated. Bunce Island, the British slave castle in Sierra Leone, sent many African captives to Charleston and Savannah during the mid- and late 18th century.

Over the years, the Gullahs have attracted many historians, linguists, folklorists, and anthropologists interested in their rich cultural heritage. Many academic books on that subject have been published. The Gullah have also become a symbol of cultural pride for blacks throughout the United States and a subject of general interest in the media. This has given rise to countless newspaper and magazine articles, documentary films, and children's books on Gullah culture, and to a number of popular novels set in the Gullah region. Gullah people now organize cultural festivals every year in towns up and down the Lowcountry. Hilton Head Island, for instance, hosts a "Gullah Celebration" in February. It includes "De Aarts ob We People" show; the "Ol’ Fashioned Gullah Breakfast"; "National Freedom Day," the "Gullah Film Fest", "A Taste of Gullah" food and entertainment, a "Celebration of Lowcountry Authors and Books," an "Arts, Crafts and Food Expo," and "De Gullah Playhouse". Beaufort hosts the oldest and the largest celebration, "The Original Gullah Festival" in May. The nearby Penn Center on St. Helena Island holds "Heritage Days" in November. Other Gullah festivals are celebrated on James Island, South Carolina and Sapelo Island, Georgia.

### Marquetta Goodwine

Marquetta L. Goodwine, who was elected Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, is a native of St. Helena Island, South Carolina. She is an author, preservationist, and performance artist. The Gullah/Geechee corridor begins in North Carolina and extends southward to Jacksonville, Florida, encompassing the Sea Islands and the Lowcountry. Goodwine is the founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. In 1999 she became the first Gullah to speak before the United Nations, giving testimony at an April 1 hearing of the Commission on Human Rights in Switzerland. She has since been invited to participate in the United Nations Forum on Minority Rights which was first established in 2008.

#### Dawn of Man

**Introduction**: How are you, welcome to the Sea Isles. I am Queen Quet, of the Gullah Geechee Nation.

   **Introduction**: It's nice to get a visiter here, you may call me Queen Quet.

**Introduction**: Hello there! I am Queen Quet, what a pleasure to make your acquaintence.

**Defeat**: We shall thrive.

**Defeat**: We will never back down.

**Defeat**: There shall be no resolution to this war until the last of us breathes.

## Unique Attributes

 **Sweetgrass Weaver** (Workshop)
 **Red Tail** (Fighter)
Requires 1 Oil. Aside from standard Fighter abilities, the Red Tail automatically starts with the Dogfight I promotion and increased range.