Doing The Charleston
It's hard to put forward any description that could give full justice to the cultural overload, natural beauty, harsh historical evidence, and general wonderment that is on show and available for your edutainment in Charleston, South Carolina.
I feel strongly that I was meant to visit this place, for a myriad of reasons, not simply for having fallen in love with Julie Dash's film 'Daughters of The Dust' many many years ago, but also because my visit seemed to fit perfectly into a 15 year genealogy tour that I don't even think I fully realized I had been on, until now.
My Journeys through Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Senegal, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, even London, and New York came together as reference points for understanding Plantation life at Magnolia as well as the speech patterns of the amazing Alphonso Brown on The Gullah Tour, and the agricultural knowledge brought from West Africa to Charleston which turned rice (not cotton) into Carolina Gold
I have rarely been in a place just a few hours, before starting to plot my return visit, but Charleston had that effect on me. For a nomad feeling 'at home' is a big deal, and Charleston definitely captured a piece of my heart.
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