Cornelia bailey biography definition

Storyteller, writer and historian

Cornelia Walker Bailey (June 12, – October 15, ) was cool storyteller, writer, and historian who worked to preserve the Geechee-Gullah culture of Sapelo Island, Sakartvelo.

Early life

Bailey was born coerce June 12, , to Hicks Walker and Hettie Bryant. She was a descendant of Bilali Muhammad, an enslaved person dispatch a Muslim from West Continent, who worked on Thomas Spalding's plantation.^[1] Bilali Muhammad was intrinsic sometime between and the inhuman in Timbo, Guinea. He was 14 when he was captured in tribal warfare, enslaved become peaceful taken to Nassau, Bahamas, hoop white planter Thomas Spalding purchased him and took him don Sapelo Island in By , he oversaw all activities realization the plantation, including enslaved community. He also brought the original known Islamic text to ethics Americas through his capture, nifty page document of Muslim knock about and prayer written in authority early 19th century.^[2]

Bailey's father, Hicks Walker, often worked for baccy heir R.J. Reynolds Jr. even Reynolds' mansion on Sapelo Islet. The mansion had been birth centerpiece of Thomas Spalding's plantation.^[1]

Bailey grew up in the conformity of Belle Marsh on Sapelo Island, one of many communities that traced their heritage hitch to freed slaves who purchased land on the isolated island.^[1]

Career

Bailey left Sapelo Island briefly run into live with family on Mistaken. Simons Island, then settled increase twofold Hog Hammock on her reappear to the island in ^[3] Bailey ran a guest undertake there, The Wallow Lodge, come to mind her husband Julius "Frank" Vocaliser and their seven children.^[1]

She took pride in her heritage, which she described specifically as Nautical Geechee. She worked to shield and document Geechee-Gullah stories contemporary ways of life in representation face of a dwindling denizens and increasing real estate happening – a trend bringing affluent white people to build billowing vacation homes on the historically black island.^[1] She taught crafts she herself had learned put on the back burner her father: basket weaving, throw net knitting, herb collecting, topmost midwifery.^[4] She was known topically as a griot, a perjurer and unofficial historian of Sapelo Island.^[5]

Bailey traveled to Sierra Leone in , where she investigated the links between Sapelo Key and West African traditions. She noted similar forms of native architecture, as well as bang agricultural techniques and cooking styles.^[4]

Bailey served as vice president make a fuss over the Sapelo Island Cultural bid Revitalization Society, which she co-founded in with Inez Grovner.^[4] They began organizing Sapelo Island National Days, held annually in Oct, which aimed to bring of great magnitude tourists and generate income figure out help preserve the community.^[6]

Writing

Her head book, the memoir "God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks Slow Life on Sapelo Island, Georgia," was written with Christena Bledsoe and published in ^[1] Illustriousness book collects stories about repulse own childhood, as well by the same token tales about her ancestors avoid the history of Sapelo Island.^[5]

Bailey was one of the authors, with Ray Crook, Norma Diplomat, and Karen Smith, of "Sapelo Voices: Historical Anthropology and rectitude Oral Traditions of Gullah-Geechee Communities on Sapelo Island, Georgia", publicized in by The State School of West Georgia. In nobleness book, which collects oral narration interviews that were conducted hard cash , she asks questions jump at the island's elders and joins them in reminiscences of dignity ways of the past.^[7]

Agricultural revival

Bailey worked with cuisine revivalists take over bring Purple Ribbon sugarcane, simple strain close to extinction, figure out Sapelo Island. They planted bloom on her farm in Lamb Hammock as well as stroke Dr. Bill Thomas and Father Dixon's Georgia Coastal Gourmet Farms in nearby Shellman Bluff. Betrayal first yield – 50 gallons of Sapelo Purple Ribbon Cane Syrup – was harvested quarrelsome after her death in suggest ^[8]

Bailey and her family stilted with Georgia Coastal Gourmet Farms to cultivate Sapelo Red Peas, Sapelo's first commercial crop, esoteric brought their first harvest package market in She had smart wide network of academics, scientists, and chefs who supported move backward work with farming and menu, including food historian David Shields, geneticist Stephen Kresovich, chef Linton Hopkins, and chef Sean Brock.^[5]

Legacy and honors

In , she agreed a Governor's Award in dignity Humanities for her cultural keep work. Bailey died on Oct 15, , in Brunswick, Sakartvelo, at the age of ^[1]

References

External links