Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/120

 history was not entirely a Southern institution, for the majority of the slaves originally were brought over on Northern ships. To a great extent slavery was forced on Southern landowners.

Linda Joel had been born in the Carolina low country, that strange strip of rice-land where Gullah negroes flourish and give so much color to the annals of Colonial America. They were dragged originally from the West Coast of Africa, bringing with them many quaint African words which later became blended with early peasant English. The Gullah dialect of today is rich in metaphor, in folklore and native wit. Tobacco is 'tuh-backuh,' an angel is an 'ainjul' and destruction is 'strucksun.' The justly famous 'Uncle Remus' stories of Joel Chandler Harris had their source in this section. There is no book about the Gullah negroes that is more charming than 'The Black Border,' by Ambrose E. Gonzales, which is redolent with an abundance of warm native beauty.

The ancestors of Linda had been slaves.