Michelle Obama Read Online Free
Author: David Colbert
[mirror] in the morning."
The result of this separation was a special culture that came to be called Gullah. Its sources were the rice-producing regions of Africa, such as Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone. Slave traders called this the "rice coast." The Georgetown plantation owners strongly preferred slaves from this region. Many of these Africans were already resistant to malaria. They arrived in South Carolina with a knowledge of rice farming. Gullah is a mix of the cultures brought to America. For example, although the Gullah language is based on English, it borrows many of its words and much of its grammar from African languages.
At one time, Gullah culture could be found from North Carolina to Florida. Its heart, however, was in All Saints Parish. (It's still a strong presence in South Carolina and Georgia.) Historian Charles Joyner has called All Saints Parish "a seedbed of black culture in the United States." That also makes it a seedbed of American culture in general. Just one example: When kindergarten students learn the song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore," they're singing a Gullah hymn. This self-reliant community is where the American era of Michelle's family story begins.
On summer vacations, young Michelle and her family drove into Georgetown on a highway that became the city's Highmarket Street. This road once connected some of the rice plantations to the downtown port section of Georgetown. Cruising along, none of the Robinsons ever noticed an unmarked dirt side road, about five miles from downtown, that disappeared into a forest of large oak trees. This road led to Friendfield, the old rice plantation where Michelle's great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson, was a slave.
FRIENDFIELD
Friendfield still exists, though it's no longer a working rice farm. Now the overgrown paddies give it the look of a nature preserve. But many of the old canals dug by slaves remain. More astonishing, some of the old slave cabins are still there too. Small, simple buildings of plain boards, they now seem to be far removed from the owner's house. Once, however, these cabins were the most important buildings on the property, and the people who lived here knew that nothing got done at Friendfield unless they did it.
When Jim Robinson was born, around 1850, Friendfield was already a century old. James Withers, the son of the original owner, had just died a few years before. Born before the Revolutionary War, Withers had collected a huge fortune from the plantation. The rice harvested by the Friendfield slaves allowed him to buy land throughout the area and to make generous cash gifts to his family.
Withers built Friendfield's "big house," as the owners' mansions were called. It immediately became one of most admired homes in the state when it was built in 1818. The governor of South Carolina came to the celebration to mark its completion. Although it burned down to its foundations in 1926, it is still considered historically important. Photographs taken of the interiors before the fire appear in art books. (The house was later rebuilt using the original floor plan, then finished with decorations taken from a nearby house of the same era.)
There was nothing modest about the house, which was meant to display Withers's wealth. It could have stood as the model for Scarlett O'Hara's home in
Gone With the Wind.
The wrought-iron porch railings were intricate. A wide circular staircase ran from the entry room to the second and third floors. The ceilings in its large rooms were thirteen feet tall. The windows, also oversized, were covered by curtains of red velvet. The house had a large library, of course. Many if not most of the books would have been imported from Great Britain. The doorknobs were imported ceramic and sterling silver rather than local iron. The living room had a large marble fireplace and careful paneling.
From the time the house was first built, through Michelle's great-great-grandfather's life, and into the twentieth
The result of this separation was a special culture that came to be called Gullah. Its sources were the rice-producing regions of Africa, such as Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone. Slave traders called this the "rice coast." The Georgetown plantation owners strongly preferred slaves from this region. Many of these Africans were already resistant to malaria. They arrived in South Carolina with a knowledge of rice farming. Gullah is a mix of the cultures brought to America. For example, although the Gullah language is based on English, it borrows many of its words and much of its grammar from African languages.
At one time, Gullah culture could be found from North Carolina to Florida. Its heart, however, was in All Saints Parish. (It's still a strong presence in South Carolina and Georgia.) Historian Charles Joyner has called All Saints Parish "a seedbed of black culture in the United States." That also makes it a seedbed of American culture in general. Just one example: When kindergarten students learn the song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore," they're singing a Gullah hymn. This self-reliant community is where the American era of Michelle's family story begins.
On summer vacations, young Michelle and her family drove into Georgetown on a highway that became the city's Highmarket Street. This road once connected some of the rice plantations to the downtown port section of Georgetown. Cruising along, none of the Robinsons ever noticed an unmarked dirt side road, about five miles from downtown, that disappeared into a forest of large oak trees. This road led to Friendfield, the old rice plantation where Michelle's great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson, was a slave.
FRIENDFIELD
Friendfield still exists, though it's no longer a working rice farm. Now the overgrown paddies give it the look of a nature preserve. But many of the old canals dug by slaves remain. More astonishing, some of the old slave cabins are still there too. Small, simple buildings of plain boards, they now seem to be far removed from the owner's house. Once, however, these cabins were the most important buildings on the property, and the people who lived here knew that nothing got done at Friendfield unless they did it.
When Jim Robinson was born, around 1850, Friendfield was already a century old. James Withers, the son of the original owner, had just died a few years before. Born before the Revolutionary War, Withers had collected a huge fortune from the plantation. The rice harvested by the Friendfield slaves allowed him to buy land throughout the area and to make generous cash gifts to his family.
Withers built Friendfield's "big house," as the owners' mansions were called. It immediately became one of most admired homes in the state when it was built in 1818. The governor of South Carolina came to the celebration to mark its completion. Although it burned down to its foundations in 1926, it is still considered historically important. Photographs taken of the interiors before the fire appear in art books. (The house was later rebuilt using the original floor plan, then finished with decorations taken from a nearby house of the same era.)
There was nothing modest about the house, which was meant to display Withers's wealth. It could have stood as the model for Scarlett O'Hara's home in
Gone With the Wind.
The wrought-iron porch railings were intricate. A wide circular staircase ran from the entry room to the second and third floors. The ceilings in its large rooms were thirteen feet tall. The windows, also oversized, were covered by curtains of red velvet. The house had a large library, of course. Many if not most of the books would have been imported from Great Britain. The doorknobs were imported ceramic and sterling silver rather than local iron. The living room had a large marble fireplace and careful paneling.
From the time the house was first built, through Michelle's great-great-grandfather's life, and into the twentieth
Readers choose
Marianne Evans
Paula Graves
George D Shuman
Michael Baron
Yasmine Galenorn
Claudia Gray
Mary Kennedy
Bethany-Kris, London Miller
Tracy Clark
Alan F. Troop