Overview

"This title presents oral histories of former slaves along the Carolina coast collected by a woman ahead of her time.""""Coming Through"""" marks the first publication of the interviews, stories, and folktales of former slaves living in the Waccamaw Neck region of South Carolina as collected as part of the WPA Federal Writers Project. Between 1936 and 1938, Chandler interviewed more than 100 individuals in All Saints Parish, a portion of Horry and Georgetown Counties located between the Waccamaw River and the Atlantic Ocean. Her subjects spoke freely with her on topics ranging from slave punishment to folk medicine, from conditions in the Jim Crow South to the exploits of Brer Rabbit.The subjects range in age from the 5-year-old Cato Singleton to 104-year-old Welcome Bees. These interviews form an intimate portrait of a fascinating subculture of the Carolina Coast and Sea Islands as shared with a woman who was able to move freely within this traditionally insular world. Chandler had no formal training as an oral historian or folklorist, yet the sophistication of her work as documented here anticipates developments in these fields of study a generation beforehand. Her detailed descriptions add social context to folktales and her careful and systematic renderings of the Gullah language have since been praised as foundational work by Creole linguists.The collection includes a foreword by Charles W. Joyner, Burroughs Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture at Coastal Carolina University; the editors' survey of the WPA project and of the nuances of Gullah language and culture; and, 15 photographs of the subjects taken by renowned photographer Bayard Wooten - many published here for the first time."

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9781570037214

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Reviews

"The speakers of the individual sections are story-tellers, and we receive their information as though we were listening to their stories. Coming Through comes much closer than the recordings of Gullah speech and song from this period I have heard to capturing what these people, so oppressed by poverty and ignorance, so isolated yet so proud of their traditions, must actually have sounded like. That this book exists at all is a marvel of meticulous and patient scholarship. I hope that many will indeed receive the wisdom, humor, beauty and inspiration of this book.... Coming Through speaks more eloquently to the true condition of black people in the Lowcountry between the War and the Second World War than any other book I have read. This is a book for 'dipping, ' like a collection of short stories in which one may comfortably read an offering at a single sitting. -- ""Charleston Mercury"""

The speakers of the individual sections are story-tellers, and we receive their information as though we were listening to their stories. Coming Through comes much closer than the recordings of Gullah speech and song from this period I have heard to capturing what these people, so oppressed by poverty and ignorance, so isolated yet so proud of their traditions, must actually have sounded like. That this book exists at all is a marvel of meticulous and patient scholarship. I hope that many will indeed receive the wisdom, humor, beauty and inspiration of this book.... Coming Through speaks more eloquently to the true condition of black people in the Lowcountry between the War and the Second World War than any other book I have read. This is a book for 'dipping, ' like a collection of short stories in which one may comfortably read an offering at a single sitting. -- Charleston Mercury

Author Information

Genevieve W. Chandler (1890-1980) moved to Murrells Inlet, South Carolina at the age of ten when her father purchased Wachesaw Plantation and the Hermitage. Her short stories were published in Scribner's, Mademoiselle, and Southwestern Review. Kincaid Mills is an investment manager, conservationist, and independent scholar living in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Daughter of Genevieve W. Chandler, Genevieve C. Peterkin is a local historian and environmental activist living in Murrells Inlet. She is the author of Heaven Is a Beautiful Place: A Memoir of the South Carolina Coast. Aaron McCollough is a professor of English at the University of Michigan and the author of three books of poetry, most recently Little Ease.

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