Gullah Tales: Little John

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A short film with the title Gullah Tales. It consists of a single reel of positive 16mm acetate film with variable-area optical sound. Set at around 1830, the film opens with a narrator describing the importance of the Sea Islands in the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia to African Americans, and the creole language and culture known as Gullah. In the opening scene, which depicts life on a plantation, a young girl runs around informing other children on the plantation that "Mama Nancy be telling stories." They join other children in a barn sitting at Mama Nancy's feet. A woman enters the room and chastises her children for joining the others before turning to Mama Nancy and saying, "Nancy, I know we'll never discourage you from telling tales, but must you preach lessons of immorality? Goodness knows we have enough trickery and theft on this plantation as it is...

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