Historic Savannah Foundation’s lecture series, “People, Places and Stories that Define Savannah,”  will feature lectures covering a wide range of speakers and topics. Each lecturer will give a presentation on a subject that falls within the realm of their expertise followed by a question-and-answer session.

Sallie Ann Robinson

Daufuskie Island: Preserving a Family Home & Protecting a Gullah Geechee Legacy

January 15 | 6:00 PM

HSF is delighted to welcome Sallie Ann Robinson as the January speaker for our lecture series, “The People, Stories, and Places that define Savannah.” Ms. Robinson will be presenting “Daufuskie Island: Preserving a Family Home & Protecting a Gullah Geechee Legacy” on Thursday, January 15 at 6:00 pm.

Daufuskie Island, located off the coast of South Carolina and only reachable by boat, has a rich Gullah Geechee history. Once home to a thriving Gullah community, today, few Gullah residents remain living on the island. Ms. Robinson is a sixth-generation Gullah native, who, upon returning to the island, realized the importance of restoring the ancestral home in which she was born and sharing the history of the community, which she also does daily via tours and culinary history programs.

The house, which sits off-the-beaten track on Daufuskie, was home to generations of her family. By preserving it, she intends to honor the home’s important stories, as well as share them with future generations. The home stands as a testament to the history of historically Black communities in the Lowcountry, and why it is important to protect this Gullah Geechee legacy.

This lecture will take place at the Murray C. Perlman and Wayne C. Spear Preservation Center, located at 323 E. Broughton Street. Admission is free for HSF members and $15 for non-members. Both members and non-members may reserve their spot by clicking the ticket link above. For more information about the lecture series, contact Kendall Graham at [email protected].

Sallie Ann Robinson

Chef and culinary historian Sallie Ann Robinson was born on August 4, 1958 on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina to Albertha Robinson Stafford and Alton Ward, Sr. She attended Mary Fields School on Daufuskie Island. Robinson was featured as the character Ethel in the 1972 memoir, The Water is Wide written by her teacher Pat Conroy. She was one of a handful of students to have Pat Conroy as a teacher, a man she says changed her and her classmates’ lives. She then moved to Savannah, Georgia, to attend Bartlett Middle School, but returned to South Carolina, where she graduated from Bluffton’s H.E. McCracken High School in 1975. 

She is the author of Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin’ Joe Butter Beans, Ol’ ’Fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites and Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon, and Night and coauthor of Daufuskie Island. She is a sixth-generation Gullah born on Daufuskie Island in South Carolina and has dedicated herself to chronicling and sharing Gullah recipes, dialect, and folklore. Her life and work have been showcased in National Geographic, Southern Living, Bon Appetit, Garden & Gun, and The South Magazine, among other publications. She has also appeared on the Food Network, the Travel Channel, and Georgia Public Broadcasting.

DON’T MISS OUR UPCOMING LECTURES & TOURS!

Mark your calendar and we hope to see you there!

Attendees are invited to a wine reception at 5:30 p.m. to meet & mingle with HSF members and staff. The discussion will start at 6 p.m.

We take a ‘lecture break’ in July and December.