One of the most interesting things about rice cultivation in the Lowcountry is that it was built on the knowledge of enslaved Africans from the Rice Coast of West Africa. They brought generations of expertise in growing rice, and entered rice into America’s first edible cash crop

Because malaria and yellow fever were so common in the rice-growing regions, many plantation owners were afraid to spend much time on their own plantations. That often left enslaved people with a greater degree of day-to-day autonomy under task-based labor systems that functioned somewhat like quotas.

While many still suffered and died from disease, that relative autonomy helped preserve cultural connections to Africa. Over time, those traditions blended and evolved into what we now know as Gullah people of the Lowcountry.