Bunny Rodrigues
Vermelle “Bunny” Smoth Rodrigues, our mother, would be 88 today. She was the driving force behind the Gullah Museum of Georgetown. We continue her work to tell the story of the Gullah Geechee people and how we shaped America. This is one of several long interviews she did.
youtu.be/U6rlzkfSZDc?...
Becca, Do you have a link for the piece you did on Smalls? Please share!
Sources:
www.theatlantic.com/national/arc...
www.nps.gov/articles/000...
www.nps.gov/people/rober...
www.pbs.org/wnet/african...
youtu.be/A4Jqp3REwrw?...
youtu.be/IW6EQ7QkCC8?...
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what...
Learn how Smalls became a nationally known war hero, desegregated public transportation in Philadelphia, helped create America’s public school system, and became a U.S. congressman. Thank you to the historians, researchers, and writers, whose work is compiled in this thread.
Smalls turned the Planter over to the Union Navy, along with its onboard cargo of artillery and explosives intended for a Confederate fort. In December 1863, Smalls became the first black captain of a vessel in the service of the United States.
The Union captain readied the ship’s guns to fire on the steamer. The Planter’s crew hurried to raise a white bedsheet up the mast to signal surrender. The Planter pulled alongside the Union vessel and the captains greeted each other. Smalls, the rest of the crew, and their families were free.
With liberty almost in their grasp, the crew now faced the threat of U.S. cannons. Unaware of the freedom-seekers’ heist, the acting Captain of the USS Onward assumed the Planter was a Confederate threat attacking his ship.
As they got closer to the fort, Smalls gave the proper signal to the fort’s sentry and was allowed to pass. With freedom in their sights, the crew of the made their way towards the U.S. Naval blockade at full steam.
The Planter slipped past forts & a patrol boat. Smalls called down for more speed as the vessel neared their biggest challenge—the crossfire kill box created by Fort Sumter and the Fort Moultrie. At around 4:15 a.m. the vessel approached Fort Sumter. To say the crew was nervous is an understatement.
The rest of the crew manned the boilers and served as deck hands while the women and children remained out of sight below deck. The crew were quite familiar with Charleston Harbor, as well as the Confederate harbor’s defenses—including the signals needed to pass the forts without raising any alarm.
With 16 freedom seekers—men, women, and children—the Planter headed out to the channel under the cover of the morning fog. Smalls disguised himself as the boat’s captain, putting on his coat and straw hat. Abram Allston, an enslaved boatman, manned the wheel.
Here’s how historians say it went down: Smalls eased the vessel away from the pier and into the harbor. The night air was still, and he could smell the sea life as the steamship churned up the brackish water and turned southeast.
Although it was only ten miles from the Charleston wharfs to the blockade, the perilous route to freedom would send them past several heavily armed fortifications and batteries, any of which capable of sinking the steamer if their heist was uncovered.
The plan: Steal the vessel out from under the noses of the Confederates, pick up waiting family members, sail it around mines and torpedoes and out of heavily fortified Charleston Harbor without getting caught, and head to the Union blockade and then freedom.
Smalls, age 23, shortly after he piloted the Planter to freedom.
Smalls and other members of the Planter’s crew
Smalls
In early May 13, 1862, the enslaved Gullah Geechee crew of the military transport the CSS Planter—Robert Smalls, John Small, Alfred Gourdine, and Abraham Jackson, Gabriel Turner, David Jones, Jack Gibs—began a series of secret meetings that would lead to one of the most daring escapes in history.
We are pleased to share the good news that the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission has chosen a new leader—Djuanna Brockington!
Learn more from this article on “The ape insult: a short history of a racist idea.” theconversation.com/the-ape-insu...
And those who want to other and demean us have never stopped. These dehumanizing associations were used to justify brutal treatmen and murder, such as lynching, and continue to fuel racist violence and systemic prejudice today.
Last night, it was used to distract from the E-files.
Let’s get into why ⚪️’s became depicting people of African descent as monkeys. The origin is rooted in a centuries-old, systematic effort to dehumanize Black people, dating back to early European colonial to justify slavery, colonialism, and white supremacy.
FREE EVENT: SINO Speakers Series: Safeguarding Our United States History, Saturday, Feb 21, 2026, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM, 150 Meeting St, Charleston, SC 29401.
THIS EVENT WILL ALSO BE LIVE STREAMED AT www.youtube.com/@CircularChu...
RECORDING MAY BE WATCHED LATER AT www.youtube.com/@CircularChu...
As always, thank you to the researchers, historians, and writers whose work is compiled in this thread. Sources:
www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/818...
www.ccpl.org/charleston-t...
ujamaaseeds.com/products/ben...
The heirloom version of African sesame seeds are richer and nuttier in flavor compared to modern commercial seeds. Today, the legacy of benne seeds endures in the wafers, the thin, crispy, sweet or sometimes savory cookies in the photo at the top of this thread.
The word “benne” is used, with a variety of spellings, in the Wolof, Mande, Mandingo, and Bambara languages of West Africa. Then, as now, Africans used benne in a variety of ways, as a food, as a medicine (the leaves), and as a cultural object.
Benne seeds are relatively easy to grown in South Carolina. They are high in protein and oil. They were a vital source of sustenance used to thicken soups and pressed for cooking oil, which was an alternative to imported olive oil during the Colonial period.
Plantation owners used food as a deprivation tool for control, dependence, & dehumanization. This helped ensure that the enslaved lacked the energy to rebel or try to escape to freedom. The ancestors gardened, foraged, fished, & hunted for food that was shared with the community.
They had to do this to survive the brutality of the sugarcane & rice fields. Plantation owners gave enslaved people low-quality, meager rations (like cornmeal and fatback), primarily for profit maximization, treating them as economic assets to be maintained at minimal cost.
Enslaved Africans from South Carolina and the Caribbean brought the sesame seeds with them in the 17th and early 18th centuries, planting them in their own personal gardens where ever they found themselves.
Photo of benne wafers
Botanists may debate where sesame seeds originated from, but we know that the plant has been cultivated in Africa for millennia. Sesame seeds were brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans like the ancestors of the #Gullah #Geechee. #Senegal #Mali #Mauritania #HiddenHistory
The Gullah word of the day is—Sanyd Claw!
The Gullah word of the day is—Sanyd Claw!
Pull quote
They can remove names and historical incidents from federal entities. They can remove MLK Day and Juneteenth from National Parks Fee-Free Days. Black folk are unbowed and unbothered. We have been through this before—and still we rise. That and the internet is forever.