Audio
Episode 3.2 - Watch Night (Freedom's Eve) in Gullah Geechee Communities
Transcript
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National Heritage Areas Podcast Episode 3.2: Watch Night (Freedom's Eve) in Gullah Geechee Communities
[Intro music – Instrumental]
Peter: Hello, this is Peter Samuel with the National Park Service. I’m the Program Manager for the National Heritage Areas Program in the Northeast Region. I’m here today with Jules Long, my Communications Coordinator. Hi, Jules.
Jules: Hi, Peter.
Peter: So, I’m really interested in this series and today’s episode on the Gullah Geechee. Maybe you can just tell me a little bit how you got going on that.
Jules: Yeah, so, a few years ago I was doing research on an abolitionist in Boston. And I found out there was a big party, or celebration, the night before the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect during the Civil War, January 1, 1863. And when I started this job with the National Heritage Areas Program, I heard about similar gatherings in a way that were happening down in the South in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. But these were the Gullah Geechee people. So at the time, in 1862-1863, these were people who were enslaved, and they heard about the Emancipation Proclamation and held church services. They call it a Watch Night or Freedom’s Eve. And I thought that was really interesting. That was something that happened in history, but it’s kind of something that has been continuing through the years, and it turns out that the heritage area down there has been working to bring back this history, remind people of it, and keep the Gullah Geechee people’s traditions alive during this celebration.
Peter: Yeah, that’s great. It’s pretty amazing history and I know there’s a lot of music associated with it and they’re connecting in with a lot of churches as part of that.
Jules: Yeah, a lot of cool stuff, and Heather will tell us all about that.
Peter: Well, terrific. I can’t wait to hear it and let’s get going.
[Music – Gospel hymn with choir. Vocals: “I am free / Praise the Lord / I’m free / I’m no longer bound / No chains holding me / My soul is resting / Counting the blessings / Praise the Lord”]
Jules: Hi, this is Jules Long with the National Heritage Areas Program. I am talking to Heather Hodges, the executive director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. We'll be talking a little bit about an initiative they've been working on: Watch Night, which ties into some interesting history. So Heather, welcome. Where is the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor?
Heather: The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor stretches from Pender County, North Carolina, to St. Johns County, Florida; from the Atlantic Ocean 30 miles inland. So all together it is 12,000 square miles of the Atlantic coastline.
Jules: That's pretty big, a pretty big area. Why is that a heritage area?
Heather: It is a National Heritage Area you know because it is believed that the Gullah Geechee people and their historic and cultural contributions are important American treasures. And so the corridor exists as a National Heritage Area to provide a platform to allow us to share this history heritage and culture with all Americans now who are the cool Iguchi people can you tell us a little bit about that the Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of the West Africans who were trafficked into the Low Country, primarily to work on rice plantations between 1750 and 1850. Enslaved Africans trafficked into the Low Country came from the rice growing region of West Africa so those are countries with the recognized today as Senegal, Liberia, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau—all cultures which had a long tradition of growing rice. And so when planter[s] here in the Low Country decided that they could commercially cultivate rice, when they went looking for enslaved Africans for their plantations, the people who were most in demand were those Africans who came from those places in West Africa where they already had a tradition of that form of agriculture. So the Gullah Geechee people are descended from those enslaved Africans, giving them a shared common heritage and ancestry. The other thing that is special, and that distinguishes the Gullah Geechee people from other African Americans, is that because of the conditions of their enslavement on rice plantations and later Sea Island cotton plantations, which were fairly isolated from the rest of the Low Country, they were able to maintain on these plantations and islands a lot of their West African cultural practices. So of all African Americans, the Gullah Geechee people carry the broadest and deepest set of West African cultural retentions. And those retentions manifest today in places like the Gullah Geechee language, which is a creole language spoken nowhere else in the world, that is replete with Africanisms in African words and traditional practices. Art and crafts, for example like coiled sweetgrass baskets that many people are familiar with—that is a craft that they brought with them from West Africa. Originally those baskets were used on the rice plantation, they were utilitarian farm implements. They’ve become more decorative now, but they still are rooted in the West African societies that the Gullah Geechee people's ancestors originally came from.
Jules: Now, we're going to jump back in time a little bit back to 1862. That year, that was in the middle of the American Civil War. It had begun about a year earlier when states and the South seceded from the United States to form the Confederacy and uphold slavery. What was going on in the South?
Heather: Remember where we are, or I am, sitting right now is in Charleston, South Carolina. South Carolina, among all of the states, were among the most aggressive in taking a position on secession. The first skirmishes of the Civil War actually happened not too far from where I'm sitting here on John's Island [South Carolina]. So South Carolina, Georgia—these were states that were in open rebellion from the very beginning of the Civil War. And in 1862—September of 1862—President Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It was a war measure. It was designed to try and get those states that were in open rebellion and did have enslaved people to give up the effort and to rejoin the Union. So in September, this Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. So by the time you get to December, everyone is well aware of the fact that there is a possibility that on January 1st, 1863, when this Proclamation was meant to go into legal effect, that the enslaved people in the Southern states still an open rebellion would be free. So there was a great deal of anticipation around what exactly would happen on January 1st.
Jules: So December 31st, the night before the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, what did that look like?
Heather: All across the country, not just in the Low Country, not just in the South, but in places like Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, black people, abolitionists, a wide range of people gathered together, a lot of them in churches, in praise houses and meeting halls, to stay up to midnight to celebrate what they anticipated would be the coming of freedom of people held in bondage. So the night over time has become known as Watch Night, but some people also refer to it as Freedom's Eve. It was a time when many people across this country, many Americans, gathered in churches and meeting places to await President Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. So the tradition of using the New Year's Eve service, the Watch Night service or the Freedom’s Eve service, as a prelude to the recognition and the celebration of Emancipation Day (or ‘Mancipation Da, as it's sometimes referred to in the South) was for a long time a significant holiday in our country, particularly in our Gullah Geechee communities.
Jules: So what is entailed in a Watch Night or Freedom’s Eve service? What happens?
Heather: So what we've learned, since we started doing this tradition, is that that experience in 2019 is greatly based on custom and practice and individual churches. But tradition holds that these services usually involve specific hymns that are sung, a traditional liturgy, a religious service and contemplation of what has passed, followed by testimonials, reconciliations, and resolutions for the coming years. So that typical New Year's Eve service, the kind of happens in a lot of churches across America. What's different about the Watch Night service is that while all this is happening, the Watchmen, who are usually elders in the community or deacons in the church, will begin counting down to New Year. So they will collectively let people know when midnight is near. And when midnight comes, at that time, in general practice the congregation would kneel in prayer or contemplation and to welcome the New Year, and also to collectively reflect how on January 1st, 1863, that New Year also meant a lot for freedom for their ancestors. But we're learning more about these traditions as we work with the different churches. They all will do something slightly different. At some services, they will turn out the lights at midnight for a moment of silence. At other services they will do historic reenactments. Some communities like Charleston [South Carolina] and Jacksonville [Florida] have community-based Emancipation Proclamation societies that will conduct separate worship services and programs actually on January 1st. And here in Charleston, they actually have an Emancipation Day parade on January 1st that's hosted by our Emancipation Proclamation Society. Because it was very difficult, as you may understand, for people who were enslaved in the city of Charleston to gather together on December 31st, 1862. So their celebrations were deferred until after the war ended. And so they had a parade in 1865, and that parade tradition has continued in Charleston. Currently they host the longest-running—continuously running Emancipation Day parade in the country.
Jules: Wow, that's really cool. Now you mentioned earlier that you're working with churches to help keep this Watch Night service vibrant—is that how you would describe the work that you're doing?
Heather: Yes, this is a tradition that unfortunately has faded over time in certain communities in certain congregations, so we are trying to reacquaint all our communities and all Americans with the tradition of using the Watch Night service to recollect and reflect on the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Jules: So you've been working with these churches. What are some of these specific things you've been doing with them?
Heather: The very specific assistance that we can give to them are materials that they can use and directly integrate into a Watch Night service, to start to reconnect to this history around the Emancipation Proclamation. For example, sample one of the most helpful things we found that people request is ways to bring Gullah Geechee cultural expressions into those services. So we can provide them with a list of hymns that we know were traditionally sung in the 19th century on Watch Night. We also have a Gullah translation of the Bible, so for those pastors and priests who want to quote passages from the Bible but do so in the Gullah language. Last year we purchased and mailed to all of our participating churches a copy of that. We also, for the first time in 2018, we collaborated with a church here in Charleston, Morris Brown AME, and one of our plantation sites, Magnolia Plantation, to host a Watch Night service that would be an opportunity for people who are still curious about what these services look like, to participate in one. And it went fantastic. We were overwhelmed by the response from the community and the number of people who showed up. It was a program that featured history talks. There were performances of traditional Gullah Geechee spiritual music by the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters from Darien, Georgia. There was of course a religious service. And we were honored that the descendants of some of the people who were formerly enslaved on Magnolia Plantation could join us, because they embody and represent a direct connection to the Gullah Geechee people who lived through Watch Night in December 1862, and whose descendants have preserved this tradition.
Jules: Yeah, that's incredible that they could be there. It’s always cool to have that connection with people descended from the people who were in those places where you're doing these things. Why do you think it's important to remember this history, and to keep the Watch Night service alive?
Heather: January 1st, 1863. We celebrate New Year's Eve every year in this country, but that year is incredibly important for our country. It meant the beginning of the end of centuries of bondage and suffering for millions of African Americans. And so we think that celebrating the Watch Night service, remembering the import of the Emancipation Proclamation, provides a platform for us all to share in that important history, and for everyone to learn more about slavery in the United States, and [about] these traditions that have taken root around the celebration of freedom and emancipation.
Jules: So if there are any churches that are interested in getting involved and also holding Watch Night services, how can they get in touch with you?
Heather: We welcome any church, any historic site, any heritage site, any National Heritage Area, that wants to help us tell this story or is currently engaged in helping Americans better understand this period of history, to reach out directly to me to figure out how we can get you involved. You can find my contact information on our website [www.visitgullahgeechee.com]. We realize that in the first instance what's usually required is to have me or someone from our office come out and share what you know about this tradition, and to help you figure out how you make it a part of your Watch Night church service or the interpretive work that you are doing in your sites. So it doesn't require anything more than giving me a call or sending me an email and letting us know that you want to learn more and that you want to be involved.
Jules: And that offer stands for anybody in the country or just people within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor?
Heather: Anybody in the world. We think this is important history. A lot of people tell different parts of the story of slavery in the United States, including people doing work in West Africa and the Caribbean around the transatlantic slave trade, and of course the ancestors of the Gullah Geechee people come from West Africa so it's part of their story as well. So no matter where you are in the world, if you want to help us tell this story, to celebrate this history, we encourage you—I encourage you—to reach out to me.
Jules: So this is not only a national story but a world story. Now, what other projects is the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, and the Commission that runs it and you're a part of, what are some of your initiatives that you are working on?
Heather: Our primary charge as a National Heritage Area is to help educate all Americans about the cultural and historic contributions of the Gullah Geechee people. And we do a lot of that work through public programs, community-based education programs about the Gullah Geechee people. Most of those programs occur here in the Corridor, and people can find out more information about them from our website [www.visitgullahgeechee.com]. We're also interested in and charged with helping to identify sites in the Corridor for historic preservation and documentation purposes. So the Watch Night and Emancipation Proclamation initiative actually falls into that work as well, because not only are we raising awareness about the tradition, we're also helping to try a better document. For example we commissioned three documentaries about this tradition so that we have some record what that tradition looks like now, and what people who are alive now can share with us about how they have experienced those traditions over the course of their lifetime. The other thing that we are charged with doing is helping to facilitate heritage tourism, those individuals who want to actually come into the corridor and visit sites where they can learn more about Gullah Geechee history and culture. That's another role that we play. People can visit our website to find information about where those sites are. We have an interactive story map: you can click on a particular site and information will pop up about how and why it's relevant to Gullah Geechee history and heritage. So all of our work is designed to create opportunities for people to better understand Gullah Geechee people in this country.
Jules: Yeah, that's great, that's really cool history that I don't think that everybody is aware of. I knew that I wasn't aware of the Gullah Geechee people before I started working this job and investigating this topic, so I think it's really great to have you working on that and be working with community partners to spread the story of the Gullah Geechee people.
Heather: Thank you.
Jules: Now, I heard something about a documentary you were working on. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Heather: We've actually commissioned three documentaries and people can see them right now. You can go to our YouTube channel for the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission and they're right there; you can stream them at any time. And in them we conduct interviews with members of the community. We talk about the Watch Night and Emancipation Proclamation tradition, as well as what that tradition has historically meant to the Gullah Geechee people. Because unfortunately not a lot has been documented about this tradition, so that is why we think it's important that as we seek to encourage people to help us preserve and sustain it, that we also help with the work of trying to document it as well to uncover what material may be out there about the tradition we don't know, and to encourage scholars to see it as a potential site of research so that we can better understand this important tradition.
Jules: Great. Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about the work that you're doing or about the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor?
Heather: People who are interested in helping us with our work or following along and figuring out how they can support us, or just staying informed about programs and projects like the Watch Night and Emancipation Proclamation initiative, are encouraged to follow us on social media, and also to visit our website [www.visitgullahgeechee.com] and subscribe to our monthly newsletter. In that newsletter, we send out updates about our work. We share information about the Gullah Geechee people, their culture and heritage, and if there are educational programs happening, either sponsored by us or by partners such as the National Park Service, other National Heritage Areas, or community groups. We share event information there as well, so it's a very useful way to get regular updates from us about all the work that's being done to help preserve and sustaining Gullah Geechee heritage.
Jules: Thank you so much, Heather, for being willing to talk to us today.
Heather: And thank you for having me.
[Music – Gospel hymn with choir and audience singing. Vocals: “Praise the Lord / I’m free / I’m no longer bound / No longer bound / No more chains holding / My soul is resting / Counting the blessings / Praise the Lord” ]
Peter: Jules, that was terrific. I really enjoyed that. I hope one day to get down to Charleston and participate in these events. Have you ever been able to get down to Charleston or Georgia or any of those places.
Jules: No, I’vve actually never been to the South.
Peter: Oh wow, we’ll have to put that on your list of things to do.
Jules: Yeah, I’d really like to.
Peter: So this is a great project that’s been supported by the National Park Service. The Park Service has been very involved n the Gullah GEechee heritage area. When they were designated by Congress, a federal commission was created to oversee the work. And as mentioned earlier, it goes through four states, so it’s quite a long Corridor. But it’s supported every year by an appropriation from Congress and it helps them to do great work throughout those four states.
Jules: Yeah, they do a lot of great things.
Peter: And also as mentioned by Heather, there are documentaries that people can see to get more information and you can see those on their YouTube site.
Jules: Yeah, there’s a lot of good stuff that the Commission has put out for the heritage area, for their website [www.visitgullahgeechee.com], on YouTube [Gullah Geechee Corridor], on Facebook [www.facebook.com/visitgullahgeechee/]. If you just search for Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor it will show up, or go to the website visitgullahgeechee.com – and that’s spelled G-U-L-L-A-H G-E-E-C-H-E-E.
Peter: Great. Alright, well thanks a lot, and see you next time.
Jules: Take care.
[Music – instrumental]
Jules: This episode was recorded at the National Park Service Northeast Regional Office in Philadelphia. We’d like to thank James Farrell for producing our theme song. The other music you here is the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters of Darien, Georgia. That’s from their performance at the Watch Night Service at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Thanks for listening.
Description
In Episode 3.2, Jules speaks with Heather Hodges from the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor about Watch Night, or Freedom’s Eve, church services first held by people in anticipation of the Emancipation Proclamation going into effect on January 1, 1863. Heather explains the significance of Watch Night services to the Gullah Geechee people, and she describes how the Corridor is working to revive the history of Watch Night and to preserve and sustain Gullah Geechee traditions.
Duration
23 minutes, 48 seconds
Credit
NPS Northeast Region
Date Created
05/20/2019
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