Sweetgrass Baskets
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African Americans living along South Carolina’s coast carry on a 300-hundred-year-old tradition of making coiled grass baskets. Before the Civil War, enslaved West Africans made work baskets for use on rice plantations. Today's basket makers sew coils of sweetgrass together with strips of palmetto leaves. Other materials used to make modern baskets include pine needles and black rush (another marsh grass). |
See basket sewers in action:
- Basket stalls at the Charleston Market
- Market Street between Meeting and Concord Streets
Charleston, SC
Free
- Street vendors at The Four Corners of Law
- Intersection of Market and Broad Streets
Charleston, SC
Free
- Basket stalls along Route 17
- Mount Pleasant, SC
Free
- Meredith, A. (Producer), (1998). Baskets of gold: preserving African-American tradition. [Videorecording]. USA: Trident Productions, Inc..
See baskets at:
- Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
https://avery.cofc.edu/ - Free at the College of Charleston
Address:
125 Bull Street
Charleston, SC 29424
Phone: 843-953-7609
- Charleston International Airport
https://www.iflychs.com/ - Free
Address:
5500 International Blvd. #101
Charleston, SC 29418
Phone: 843-767-1100
- Charleston Visitor and Transportation Center
https://www.charlestoncvb.com/ - Free
- Address:
375 Meeting Street
Charleston, SC 29403
- Phone: 843-724-7474
- Toll free
- Phone: 1-800-774-0006
- Address:
- The Charleston Museum
https://www.charlestonmuseum.org/ - Admission fee
Address:
360 Meeting Street
Charleston, SC 29403
Phone: 803-722-2996
- Penn Center, Inc.
http://www.penncenter.com - Free
Address:
Martin Luther King Highway (Route 45)
St. Helena Island, SC 29920
Phone: 843-838-2474
- The South Carolina Museum
http://scmuseum.org/ - Admission fee
Address:
301 Gervais Street
Columbia, SC 29202
Phone: 803-898-4921
- South Carolina Aquarium
https://www.scaquarium.org/ - Admission Fee
Address:
100 Aquarium Wharf
Charleston, SC 29413
Phone: 843-720-1990
Where to Read More About It:
- Rosengarten, D., (1986). Row upon row: Sweet grass baskets of the South Carolina low country. Columbia: McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina Press.
- Cary, M.W., (1995). A sweet, sweet basket. Orangeburg: Sandlapper.
- Gullah Net
(South Carolina ETV (Knowitall.org))
- Cary, M.W., (1995). A sweet, sweet basket. Orangeburg: Sandlapper.
- Read about the history and culture of South Carolina Native Islanders and watch a video showing a sweetgrass basket maker. From the home page, click on Baskets in the yellow menu bar.
- https://www.knowitall.org/series/gullahnet
Last Modified: Tuesday November 12, 2019 3:57 PM