The Gullah/Geechee "Corridor" used to extend from North Carolina's Cape Fear to Jacksonville, Florida, but it's gradually shrunk to the point where you can only find it in the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry. And today, visitors at upscale tourist destinations like Hilton Head might spend the entirety of their stay without ever realizing they're golfing right next door to something even more authentically African than when Dave Matthews played his last gig at the local Marriott.
Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition
Which presumably leads to no small amount of confusion for disembarking cruise ship passengers.
So who exactly are are the Gullah -- and furthermore, the Geechee? Well, those are just two ways of describing the same group of people: the descendants of former West African slaves who've lived since the bad old days in rural isolation, keeping the traditions of their ancestors alive to the point where they're "known for preserving more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African-American community in the United States."
Oh, and that lady in the image above? That's not just some random basket-carrying nobody from the bygone days. That's Queen Quet, the current Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation. She's pretty hot, as queens go. Just try not to get too weirded out when she breaks into song right in the middle of a conversation:
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