McIntosh County Shouters

This week's focus is the unique Gullah-Geechee culture of the Georgia Coast, where traditions first brought from West Africa during the slave trade continue into the present. The African American congregation at New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Riceboro, Georgia, celebrates this heritage at their annual Old Timey Harvest Day. A highlight of the program is a musical presentation by the McIntosh County Shouters. Special thanks to the McIntosh County Shouters, New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, and to Art Rosenbaum and Smithsonian Folkways for the 1984 recording of “Religion So Sweet.” The Sounds of South Georgia is made possible with support from Valdosta State University, and from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

McIntosh County Shouters perform ring shouts at the Old Timey Harvest Day and New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Riceboro , 2003.

Photo by Laurie Kay Sommers,