Uncovering our African American

HistoryResearch Presentation by: Bianca WareFaculty Advisor: Ferne Caulker Bronson

The unknown What I previously knew about my history…

Slavery in the Southern states Harriet Tubman Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation

Proclamation Civil Rights Movement Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Discovering the Unknown

The Slave Trade (three stages) The forced loss of Identity

The enslaved Africans were not allowed to speak their own language, to keep up with their traditions, or practice their religion

How slaves kept in touch with who they are… Oral traditions passed down through generations

that are meant to trace them back to their people

A small population of African Americans completely isolated on the Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina up until recently

They have their own culture and language that survived for hundreds of years

Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner and Amelia Dawley Discovered the connection between the Gullah people and

the Mende Tribe in Sierra Leone: the funeral song passed down from generation to generation, from mother to daughter

The Ring Shout

The Gullah (Geechee) Culture

Going to Georgia Visiting Savannah, GA, the Sea Islands, and Charleston,

SC February 10 2013- February 18, 2013 The Plan…

Film shooting, tours of Savannah, GA, visit Sapelo Island, archival research in Savannah and Charleston, SC, interview Gullah individuals, and attend a black church service.

My anticipations of this journey Uncovering more history/learning more about the Gullah A journey of self-discovery?

Factories in Savannah

Handmade canal

The First African Baptist Church

Oldest black church in North America

Freedmen built entire church made out of African wood used to build the slave ships

Doors were painted red, means ‘Welcome!’

First African Baptist Church

The Bottle Tree Used to capture evil

spirits who are attracted to the colors

Hear music when the spirit is captured

Sapelo Island

Sapelo Island

Sapelo Island

The Indigo Plantation

The black church service

We went to visit a Baptist church in Darien, GA. I grew up going to a church service similar to

this one in Havre de Grace, MD. They conduct the service similarly

The Call and Response and the more recent version of the Ring Shout was present, which traces back to some African religions

The energy in the church was unlike what you experience in a Catholic mass

Thirst to know more… My life’s purpose:

Conduct my own research by visiting different countries to learn about their deaf culture and their sign language

Connect with other deaf dancers from around the world, communicate with them using their language

Develop the Ware Technique in dance (developed through the use of the foreign sign languages)

Open my International School of Dance for Deaf Dancers

Educate people about our history

Works cited Frazier, Herb. Singing for the Ancestors a Song

that made the Roundtrip to Africa. Ware, Bianca. History 313 Midterm Study

Guide. p.2. 2011. Ware, Bianca. Research notes. February 11

2013.