Sweet Grass Baskets

Sweet grass baskets were being made in the Low Country of South Carolina as early as the 1690's. The skill actually came from West Africa with the slave trade. This type of basket had been made there around 1800 B.C. In fact, Baby Moses was likely put in the Nile River in this type of basket.

Instead of making a basket by weaving strips in and out, the sweet grass is fashioned into a coil. Long pine needles can be added to give a darker stripe. Palmetto leaves are torn into thin strips and used to lash the coils together by forcing it through the coils with a awl fashioned from a spoon. Bull rushes are often used to strengthen the basket, especially in the handles.

The first sweet grass baskets in America were used in the rice harvest. The picked rice was pounded with with a huge wooden mallet to break the hull and then tossed in large flat baskets to blow the hulls away. These "fanner" baskets evolved into other styles for plantation use as well. By the 1800's, sweet grass baskets had spread throughout Coastal South Carolina.

By the 20th century, however, this style of basket-making had almost died out. They were only made on a few remote farms, and these where hard to find. Then, some black artists in Mount Pleasant, outside Charleston, began making them to sell to visitors. In doing so, they kept the craft alive, taught future generations, and established it as an important economic outlet.

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