Voices of Our Ancestors

"Voices of Our Ancestors is a fascinating book and a must-read for anyone interested in South Carolina. Although Patricia Causey Nichols subtitles this gem 'Language Contact in Early South Carolina,' she could just have easily called it 'Out of Many One.' Colonial South Carolina was multicultural before the term was coined in the last century. With nine European ethnic groups, twenty-five West African ethnicities, and some forty-five Native American tribes, the colony was truly polyglot. In this delightful book we learn how what was an eighteenth-century babel became twenty-first century South Carolina's version of English. And we learn how our speech—like many other aspects of the Palmetto State—is different from that of our neighbors."—Walter Edgar, author of South Carolina: A History and editor of The South Carolina Encyclopedia

"In this beautifully written and brilliantly argued book Patricia Causey Nichols combines the best of history and linguistics in rich profiles of the many men and women—black, white, and red—who came together from a multitude of backgrounds to create a new culture in what would become South Carolina."—Charles Joyner, author of Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community

"Voices of Our Ancestors is the book for anyone who ever wondered why people in one part of South Carolina sound differently from people in another. Patricia Causey Nichols is part linguist and part sleuth as she takes us on a journey to learn how roots in European, African, and Native American language survive today in our speech. This is an important work for anyone interested in social development of the Palmetto State."—Aïda Rogers, editor of Sandlapper: The Magazine of South Carolina