Cecile and I checked into the Hyatt Hotel and are spending several days days visiting her sister Sherry and our nephew Brian who reside in the charming community of Mt Pleasant.
This morning Sherry drove us to the Boone Hall Plantation, that is listed on the Historic Register of Historic Places. Hollywood Movies: "The Notebook," "North South," & "Queen were filmed there." We entered a 3/4 mile dirt road bounded by a canopy of enormous and majestic live oaks. We passed by small brick buildings before seeing and touring the mansion. The brick buildings are former slave cabins, preserved for insight into Black American history. In fact, February happens to be Black History Month. Admission to the plantation includes the Gullah Theater, compliments of Sherry.
One of highlights of the day, even more than the tour of the Mansion, was Ms. Veronica Gaillard, our designated story teller, a true descendant of the Gullah people whose roots date back to West Africa. She presented the history of this culture, sang and spoke about the “spirituals" that had code words telling the otherwise carefully-watched enslaved people that an imminent escape for freedom was about to occur, or that it was cancelled. Veronica was at times educational, at times entertaining and at times.., very moving and emotional, sharing uplifting spiritual messages of love and understanding of how through overcoming the hardships of the past have brought them to a better place today.
One of the songs Veronica sang with such heart and soul when she just walked out of the cabin to greet us was “Wading in the Water.”
