Stitch By Stitch, Row Upon Row

A Legacy of Sweetgrass Baskets by Mary Jackson, NEA National Heritage Fellow

When I was young, we didn’t have any such thing as summer camp in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. To keep me busy during the long hot days, my mother and grandmother taught me how to make baskets from local materials. Little did I know that making baskets would lead to a lifetime of creative work continuing this tradition.

The art of making baskets from sweet grass and palmetto leaves has deep roots in my family, stretching back centuries. The technique, coiling the grasses into circular shapes and sewing them together with palmetto, was brought to America by enslaved West Africans. Making baskets was a family affair, with the men and boys harvesting the materials and the women and girls shaping them into beautiful and functional vessels. Early baskets were used in the fields and around the home.

The part of South Carolina where I grew up and still live today became well known for its sweet grass baskets. Women, including my mother and grandmother, set up small stands along Route 17, a direct route from the north to Florida for vacationers. In Charleston, basket makers like my other grandmother sold their wares alongside the farmers’ vegetables at the city market.