Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art

In this investigation of America's most enduring African-inspired art form, the Lowcountry basket becomes a prism through which to explore 300 years of American and African history. In scholarly essays and beautiful photographs, Grass Roots follows the coiled basket along its transformation on two continents from a simple farm tool once used for processing grain to a work of art and a central symbol of African and African American identity.

Foreword / Elsie McCabe
Acknowledgments / Dale Rosengarten and Enid Schildkrout
Contributors
Introduction / Theodore Rosengarten
1. African Origins: Ancestors and Analogues / Enid Schildkrout and Dale Rosengarten
2. They Understand Their Business Well: West Africans in Early South Carolina / Peter H. Wood
3. Rice in the New World / Judith A. Carney
4. By the Rivers of Babylon: The Lowcountry Basket in Slavery and Freedom / Dale Rosengarten
5. Carolina's Gold: Three Hundred Years of Rice and Recipes in Lowcountry Kitchens / Jessica B. Harris
6. Missions and Markets: Sea Island Basketry and the Sweetgrass Revolution / Dale Rosengarten
7. Necessity and Invention: The Art of Coiled Basketry in Southern Africa / Sandra Klopper
8. Documentary Images and Devotional Acts: Plantation Painting and Propaganda / John Michael Vlach
9. The Paradox of Preservation: Gullah Language, Culture, and Imagery / Fath Davis Ruffins
10. Islands Are Not Isolated: Reconsidering the Roots ot Gullah Distinctiveness / J. Lorand Matory
Endnotes
Board and Staff
Donors
Lenders
Photo Credits