Ambrose E. Gonzales

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Ambrose Elliott Gonzales (May 27, 1857 - July 11, 1926) was born in Paulo Parish, South Carolina. Gonzales was the son of General Ambrosio José Gonzales and Harriet Rutledge. His father was a Cuban revolutionary leader, who opposed oppressive Spanish rule. His mother was the daughter of the wealthy South Carolina rice planter, state senator and writer, William Elliott.

Gonzales and his brother Narciso Gener Gonzales (1858-1903) were the founders of the The State newspaper in South Carolina. Gonzales is well remembered in South Carolina today as a pioneering journalist and the writer of black dialect sketches on the Gullah people of the South Carolina and Georgia low country.

Gonzales grew up speaking the Gullah language with the slaves (and later freedmen) who worked on his family's rice plantations, and his knowledge of the language was considered extraordinary by other members of the low country planter class. After he published a few sketches in the Gullah language in his newspaper, public interest in his stories prompted him to author several books of Gullah dialect writings, including The Black Border (1922) and With Aesop Along the Black Border (1924). Gonzales won accolades as a publisher and journalist during his lifetime, but he was especially proud of his literary works based on the Gullah language.

Modern scholars have questioned the accuracy of Gonzales' representation of Gullah speech, but his books continue to be a valuable source of information on how the language was spoken in the 19th century. The frequent critical remarks Gonzales makes about the character of Gullah people in his books -- decidedly racist by modern standards -- take away, though, from the author's achievement.

Ambrose Gonzales has been inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame.

[edit] External links

[edit] Books by Ambrose E. Gonzales

  • (1922) "The Black Border: Gullah Stories of the Carolina Coast," Columbia, SC: The State Company.
  • (1924) "The Captain: Stories of the Black Border," Columbia, SC: The State Company.
  • (1924) "With Aesop Along the Black Border," Columbia, SC: The State Company.
  • (1924) "Laguerre: A Gascon of the Black Border," Columbia, SC: The State Company.[[Category:Gullah]
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