- Directed by
- Moss, Gary, American
- Subject of
- Bennett, E. Katibo
- DeWeese, Martha
- Gagrinsky, Barbara
- Hunter, Christina
- Hunter, Janie
- Jackson, Cory
- Joyner, Charles, American, 1935 - 2016
- McDaniel, Stace
- McEvoy, Kelly
- McKinney, Kee
- McRay, James Bear
- Mincey, George
- Rainey, Glenn
- Rivers, Arthur
- Owned by
- D.C. Public Library, American, founded 1896
- Date
- 1988
- Medium
- acetate film
- Dimensions
- Duration: 20 min.
- Physical extent (film): 700 ft
- Caption
- This film was a part of the Washington D.C. Public Library's circulating 16mm film collection housed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Central Library. The collection is particularly noted for the wide variety of African American and African diaspora content.
- Description
- 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..." When the woman and her own children exit the building, Mama Nancy, in a distinctly Gullah accent, tells the remaining children a story about an enslaved man, John, who is a "good wrestler" and outwits his enslaver into manumitting him.
- Place used
- Washington, District of Columbia, United States, Sea Islands, North and Central America
- Place depicted
- South Carolina, United States, North and Central America
- Collection title
- DC Public Library Film Collection
- Classification
- Time-based Media - Moving Images
- Topic
- African diaspora
- Communities
- Emancipation
- Film
- Folklife
- Language
- Slavery
- U.S. History, 1815-1861
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2017.55.4.1a
- Restrictions & Rights
- Restrictions likely apply. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




