When freedom came to enslaved Africans who toiled on rice plantations in lower Berkeley County, South Carolina, many remained to farm the land and raise their families in settlements near the plantation gates. Four generations later, their descendants have shared for the first time family joys and sorrows in "Behind God's Back: Gullah Memories of Cainhoy, Wando, Huger, Daniel Island, St. Thomas Island, South Carolina," by Charleston-based writer Herb Frazier and illustrated with the paintings of Columbia, South Carolina artist John W. Jones. The publication is a cooperative effort by Evening Post Books and the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina.
"Behind God's Back" is a compilation of accounts of the experiences of Gullah people who struggled after Emancipation, through the Depression and into the middle of the twentieth century to maintain their African-based lifestyles in rural communities near Charleston. Gullah people live in the coastal area of the Southeastern United States. They have preserved more of their African cultural heritage than any other black community in the country.