The process of manufacturing such baskets is called "sewing," but it is actually a process of binding and coiling long strands of grass. In the wetlands, two kinds of grasses are used; "sweetgrass," and more recently, black rush, also known as "bullrush." Strips of oak wood, or palmetto fronds are used to bind together long bundles of grass, which are then coiled into a particular shape. Makeshift tools, such as broken-off spoons, flattened nails, or cow ribs are used for the coiling and binding process. Sometimes, colored grasses or pine needles are used in the show baskets, although the use of sweetgrass, bulrush, and palmetto is standard.
Today, the role of the men and boys is to gather the materials, the women do the weaving and market the baskets. Until recently, baskets were sold from family-operated roadside stands, but increasingly, they are sold at county fairs and cultural festivals. Many of the older women regarded basketmaking as a carefully guarded community secret, but many of the younger women give basketmaking seminars to people from outside of the communities. The women of an earlier generation were not always comfortable with the term "gullah", younger women tend to recognize its historical and cultural value.
Today, the baskets are for domestic and decorative purposes, rather than agricultural use, and there is a much wider variety of shapes than when baskets were used on the plantations. Some coil weaving produces wall decorations, ladies' hats, and men's caps. Although there are no fixed rules for terminology, certain shapes are often given specific names. Some of the named shapes are for placing utensils inside the baskets.
This is a modern fanner basket made in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, around 1972 by a member of the Manigault family of basket sewers. Fanner baskets were originally associated with the growth of rice as a cash crop in the Lowcountry coastal regions in the 1700s and 1800s. West Africans who knew how to cultivate the complicated rice plants were especially valued by slaveholders. These shallow baskets were made of coils of grass and used to remove the rice grains from the husks. Pounded grains of raw rice were placed in fanner baskets so that the rice could be tossed in the air or dropped from one basket into another. Through this process, the wind blew away the chaff and the rice would be ready for processing. The original fanner baskets were much larger. Some were more than three feet or more in diameter. These modern fanner baskets are much smaller, made to be decorative and are often used in homes as platters. The distinctive Lowcountry region of the Carolinas and Georgia and the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands culture are now part of the National Park Service as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
This coiled grass basket was collected in Morgantown, West Virginia. However, by the style, shape, and use of bulrush and other plants, curators know that this basket was probably made in the late 1800s or early 1900s somewhere in the Lowcountry (coastal) region of the Carolinas and Georgia or on the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands. The basket was probably carried to West Virginia. The Gullah or Geechee people who made baskets of this type both carried on traditions from African ancestors and incorporated innovations created by American-born ancestors. This small basket could have been used to carry many small items. The distinctive Lowcountry region of the Carolinas and Georgia and the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands culture are now part of the National Park Service as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
The Lowcountry (coastal) region of the Carolinas and Georgia and the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands were and continue to be home to a distinctive regional African American culture that is now recognized as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. By the 1680s, rice began to be grown on the coast. By the mid-1700s, rice became the dominant cash crop for the region. Plantation owners wanted enslaved people from West Africa who already knew the complicated process required for growing rice. The work of these enslaved Africans made the Carolina rice planters the richest planters in the American colonies. The distinctive cultures that West African people brought included the knowledge of how to make coiled grass baskets for a variety of uses. This bulrush work basket was made on Sapelo Island, Georgia, sometime between 1850 and 1900. On the Sea Islands, the primary crop was very soft and expensive cotton, known as “Sea Island Cotton.” Rice was grown only for local consumption along with potatoes and other vegetables.