Tag Archives: slavery
Queen’s Chronicle: Gullah/Geechee Cottonopolis Journey
As I kept searching for links, I knew that the major one would be textiles which in my mind was deduced to cotton. Well, I had no idea just what a connection to cotton I would find! As we left Scotland for Manchester, every city along the way had farms of sheep for wool, but in the midst of them would be mills and names of mill cities. I knew that all of these mills could not have been set up and all of these trains couldn’t be running to them just for wool. This had to be the “cotton pickin’ “ link that I have been searching for. Sure enough it was!
Queen’s Chronicle: I AM IAAM-Groundbreaking of the International Museum of African American History
A tear flowed down my eyes on the historic peninsula called “Charleston” or “Chucktown” that was once called “Charles Town.”
These tears were emitting from my soul for my ancestors as I explained to the mayor of this international city how things must go down.
No one in the room spoke, they all simply looked on and listened to what the ancestors had to say through me
As I told them how my feet burned every time I walked the streets of this city.
Unveiling Harriet Tubman’s Work in Beaufort, SC
Thankfully the Civil War and people leaving the north to head southward to help did strike a chord with Mother Moses Harriet Tubman which led her to Beaufort, SC. Thankfully she hit the right chord with the Gullah/Geechees along the Combahee River when she stood next to Colonel Montgomery as a soldier and helped to orchestrate the Combahee River Raid to free over 700 enslaved Gullah/Geechees from the rice fields along that river and get them to Beaufort, SC where the Union occupation was in place.
Middle Passage Month 2017: Commemoration and Preparation in the Gullah/Geechee Nation
“Those that do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” So, as a result, the unhealed wound of the Middle Passage that is in the DNA of people of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and of African Americans is festering and salt continues to be added to it as the world witnesses continued human rights violations against the children of the African Diaspora and the suffering and pain is exacerbated by those crying in the midst of the storms that are causing the water to fall from the sky like tears of the ancestors while the waters of the oceans and the seas rise and cover the land at these coastlines that were the disembarkation points of the Black gold/Black cargo that had been loaded on the same coast where the hurricanes continue to begin.
A Cultural Eclipse: Remembering the Slave Trade and Abolition by Queen Quet
Today marks the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition which has been recognized across the world since 1997 and becomes that much more significant during this International Decade of People of African Descent. As I paused to join with others around the world to remember our African ancestors that were kidnapped and enslaved as well as those African and Gullah/Geechee ancestors that fought back on the coast of the Motherland and the coast of what is now the Gullah/Geechee Nation, I was drawn into a reflection of how this week began…
Hollywood’s “Underground” in the Gullah/Geechee Nation
Many that come to St. Helena Island seek out two of their natives that are known around the world-Queen Quet and American Idol winner, Candice Glover. They will get a chance to see them on their screens from the comfort of their own homes shortly as these two get to proudly represent their ancestors on “Underground” which premieres on WGN on March 8th. They want everyone to RISE UP and tune in! E gwine be a time!
The Middle Passage, Gullah/Geechee, and SAV
Enslavement advertisements in Savannah marketed the “Black gold/Black cargo” to insure people were aware of the “superior attributes of African slaves from Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Angola, and New Calabar.” The “slave trade” on River Street in Savannah began as “intercolonial domestic trade” with enslaved Africans being brought from South Carolina to be sold into bondage or to be rented out to clear the land that would become Carolina gold rice and Sea Island cotton fields as well as to be built up to become the city of Savannah.
Middle Passage Month Comes in Like a Storm in the Gullah/Geechee Nation
Throughout the year, the leaders of the Gullah/Geechee Nation honor our ancestral legacy through libation ceremonies and the transference of cultural knowledge. In September of each year, we specifically focus our energy on the arrival of our African ancestors on the Sea Islands of the Gullah/Geechee Nation via the Middle Passage. September is “Middle Passage Month” in the Gullah/Geechee Nation. We tell the stories of the horrors of the crime against humanity that chattel slavery was and the strength and triumph of our Gullah/Geechee ancestors that survived this journey and then dripped their blood, sweat, and tears into this soil as the nurturing agent that brought forth a mighty people that continue to endure hardships and thrive and prosper like “the tree planted by the rivers of the waters.”
Mama Dem and de Land-De Gullah/Geechee Ooman Stand
Tune in to the opening of Gullah/Geechee Riddim Radio‘s annual “Women’s Herstory Celebration!” On this episode entitled, “Mama Dem and de Land-De Gullah/Geechee Ooman Stand” Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) discusses the roles that Gullah/Geechee women played in regard to land from the time of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade to the present …
“The Weeping Time” and De Gullah/Geechee Ooman
by Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) ©2014 All Rights Reserved. Do not reproduce without citation. As my ancestors walked out that morning, they had no words to say They were unsure why they all were being taken out that day. Marched away from a plantation that they had reshaped to be home …