Daughters of the Dust

“It was a fitting celebration of the renewal of the old ways, and to Eula it was only right that her oldest daughter would be the one to bring them back.”

Since before birth, Elizabeth Peazant is marked as special, tasked with maintaining the old Gullah-Geechee traditions as Dawtuh Island changes under the influences of modernity. In her adult life, she fulfills this prophecy in many ways, for her dual interests of making charms for the people on the islands and teaching the children in the island’s only school represent a way of blending the old ways with the new.

“She had left Dawtuh Island twenty-four years ago, determined to wash the Geechee stain from herself and her children.”

In this quote, Dash articulates the deep resentment and anger that Haagar Peazant harbors for her heritage and family history. Haagar is ashamed of her heritage and seeks to erase it from herself and her descendants. Her shame stems from a mixture of internalized racism, prejudice, and trauma. Only by returning to Dawtuh Island in search of her lost family history does Amelia Varnes finally come to understand her grandmother’s reasons for leaving her community behind.

“Eli had maintained that the missionaries were asked to leave because they were making the colored children smart, and too many were crossing over to go to the colored high school on the mainland.”

This quotation comes fairly early in the novel and introduces the systemic racism that continues to oppress the people on the Sea Islands in many tangible ways. Keeping the Gullah-Geechee children ignorant of both their history and of life outside the islands makes it easier for the government to limit their prospects.