Sweetgrass Basket Making: 300-Year-Old Gullah Art Tradition

On John's Island, South Carolina, you can still watch Gullah Geechee basket makers at work. They coil sweetgrass, sea grass, and bulrush into shapes that have changed little since the 1700s. But these baskets are more than craft — they're evidence of survival.

West African Origins

Sweetgrass basket making originated among West African peoples in what is now Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. Enslaved people brought this technique to the Carolina Lowcountry, where they were forced to work in rice fields. The baskets became tools of survival — used for winnowing rice, carrying goods, and daily life.

The Materials

• Sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata) — Collected from salt marshes, valued for vanilla-like scent
• Sea grass (Spartina) — Harvested from tidal areas
• Bulrush — Provides structural integrity
• Raffia — Used for binding and decoration

The Technique

The coiling technique — wrapping and sewing strands around a central core — is remarkably consistent across West African traditions. Master basket makers can create hundreds of coils in a single session, their hands moving with practiced ease. A single show basket can take 3 weeks to complete.

From Survival to Art

By the 19th century, sweetgrass baskets were being sold to tourists and collectors. They became a source of income for families who had been stripped of everything else. Today, these baskets hang in museums worldwide — from the Smithsonian to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But for Gullah Geechee communities, they remain living connections to ancestry.

When you hold a sweetgrass basket, you're holding something that survived slavery, Jim Crow, economic hardship, and cultural erasure. That's not just craft. That's testimony.

Learn More

The Cultural Heritage Collection documents every Gullah Geechee tradition — basket making, ring shouts, storytelling, cooking, spiritual practices. Each volume is available separately or as part of the Complete Box Set.

Get Heritage Collection Vol 1 — $14.99