If you ever drive down Highway 17 into Charleston, you’ll begin to notice, just north of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., the lineup of weathered-wood roadside stands displaying various-shaped woven baskets, hanging up for sale. Most of the time, the weavers are sitting right beside their wares working on their next creation and passersby have pulled their cars over to take a look.
The humble “sweetgrass basket” is a commodity in the Charleston tourism business. Now on the pricey side and bought by admirers to show off on their living room shelves, the basket was first a utilitarian object made by slaves on Southern rice plantations and used in processing rice and in carrying and storing food, tools and valuables.
“It was a ubiquitous part of plantation life,” said Janet Davidson, Ph.D., historian at the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science in Wilmington. “In the 20th century, the sweetgrass basket has become valued for its artistry and beauty.”
The Cape Fear Museum highlights the important history of coiled basketry in a current exhibit, Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art. The traveling exhibit, organized by the Museum for African Art in New York City, traces the coiled basket’s history from West Africa to early American rice plantations to modern day markets, and parallels its ongoing history in Africa. Featured are baskets from the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia, as well as diverse regions of Africa. Also on display are related objects including basket-making and agricultural tools, small sculptures, paintings and photographs. Visitors can also see short films, featuring basket makers demonstrating their techniques and telling their stories. The exhibit has been traveling around the country as part of NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
When African slaves were brought to America by white planters to cultivate rice, beginning in the 17th century, the slaves brought with them their basket-making skills. They crafted all kinds of baskets, including head-toting baskets and “fanner baskets,” used in a process called winnowing where rice was shaken and tossed so the hulls would fly away. “After emancipation and the end of slavery,” Davidson said, “African American craftsmen and women continued to create and use baskets, making them, in some people’s eyes, a symbol of African-American culture.”
Today, they are sought out by visitors to the Charleston area and, in addition to the roadside stands, can be bought along the streets of downtown Charleston, where basket makers enjoy showing tourists how the baskets are made.
Although the Cape Fear Museum exhibit focuses more on South Carolina and Georgia history, Davidson noted that the Lower Cape Fear Region of North Carolina was at the northern end of the plantation rice belt.
“Rice was grown in our part of the world as early as the 1730s and it became a bigger business in the 19th century,” Davidson said. “The local rice culture was flourishing just before the war — in 1859, Brunswick and New Hanover county rice plantations produced more than 9 million pounds of rice.”
Rice was grown at Orton and other plantations along the river, she said. “You can still see the remnants of the irrigation systems along the river.”
The Grass Roots exhibit explains that, in the United States, as the agrarian need for the baskets has disappeared, the craft continues because buyers appreciate them as works of art and important connections to history.
“In recent years, African-American crafts and African-American history has become a more widely valued part of the American experience,” Davidson said. “These lovely baskets provide a direct link back to Africa and they help illuminate the ways in which people of African descent have made valuable contributions to our American story.”
The baskets are made from local grasses and craftspeople today have learned the skill from their parents and grandparents. According to africanamericancharleston.com, tourism has helped to continue the craft, but changes in land ownership and use of land threaten the natural resources and even the communities where many of these people live.
Davidson said she hopes Grass Roots visitors will be able to make family connections to their own family treasures. “”By providing examples of the coiled basket, Grass Roots gives you a chance to reflect on what kinds of handmade objects you have come to value in your own lives and histories — things like quilts, old tools and other kinds of baskets often become our most treasured heirlooms.”
Go visit this interesting glimpse into our Southern and African roots. The exhibit ends March 16.
The Cape Fear Museum of History and Science, located at 814 Market St., is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. General admission is $7 for adults; $6 for students, senior citizens and military personnel; $4 for children 3-17; and free for children under 3 and museum members. New Hanover County residents’ “free day” is the first Sunday of each month.
For more information, visit www.capefearmuseum.com or call 910.798.4350. LOL
