Co-producing Space Along the Sweetgrass Basket Makers’ Highway in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

The cover photograph for this issue of Southeastern Geographer places you on the roadside of Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant South Carolina. In the midst of suburban neighborhoods, shopping malls, and commuter traffic, African American men and women sell baskets made from sweetgrass, bulrush, palmetto fronds, and pine needles. These baskets have become a popular symbol in Charleston’s historical tourism industry because of their connection to West African coiled basketry, rice processing on lowcountry plantations, and their association with Gullah-Geechee culture (Rosengarten et al. 2008). Despite this importance, the craft has been undermined by development patterns that restrict access to raw materials, disrupt African American communities, and displace roadside basket stands (Proceedings 1988; Halfacre et al. 2010). The craft has persisted, however, which illustrates that land use and livelihood changes can be co-produced by a host of different social relationships (McCusker and Carr 2006). In this case, negotiations between the basket making community, government officials, and residents have created a variety of formal and informal agreements that save, as well as create, space for harvesting plants and selling baskets (Grabbatin et al. 2011).

Sweetgrass baskets have been displayed along Highway 17 since the 1930s, when African American women marketed these household crafts to tourists traveling to and from Charleston. The number of stands has grown over time, from 31 in 1949, ‘dozens’ in 1961, 75 in 1978, to 97 in 2007 (Derby 1980; Hart et al. 2004; Grabbatin et al. 2011). During this time, changes in infrastructure and roadside development have rearranged the distribution of stands. One of the longstanding protections for the basket stands was permission from the South Carolina Department of Transportation to use roadside easements (Grabbatin 2008). However, with construction underway to expand Highway 17 from 4 to 6 lanes, sidewalks and curbs are replacing grassy shoulders, and the number of stands fell to 85 in April 2012.

The basket stand you see in the cover photo is located on private property. It was built recently by the owner of Sweetgrass Hardware, located behind the live oaks in the background of this photo. A sign in the foreground reads, “Yeah, we’re still open. Don’t let the dump trucks and caution tape fool you. Shop Mount Pleasant.” The sign is not only true for the hardware store, but for Ethel Manigault who is greeting customers as they admire her baskets. Ethel insists that the construction has not affected her business because her stand sits just behind the black tarp fence, which marks the extent of the road widening. Further, through her relationship with Sweetgrass Hardware, she has secured the use of a paved driveway and parking lot if it becomes difficult for customers to use the roads’ shoulder.

Other basket makers have developed similar relationships with businesses like Boone Hall Farms, Jack’s Cosmic Dogs, Town Center, and Olive Branch AME Church. These social networks are crucial to basket makers, who are faced with marketing a product that takes days of tedious sewing to produce, requires raw materials that are difficult to find, and produces only supplemental income.

The success of these informal agreements remains essential, but in recent years, basket makers have sought formal recognition from the Town of Mount Pleasant. In 2006, they got it, when a 1.5 mile Sweetgrass Overlay District was established, protecting approximately 40 stands within the town’s limits (Findlay 2006). The ongoing construction extends beyond this district, but basket makers became involved in the planning process and won some concessions (Findlay 2009). Before breaking ground, the developer conducted a survey of the stands, promising to rebuild or relocate those affected by the widening. To date, 17 new stands have been built and the town has supported an initiative to offer tax incentives for building stands on private property, further expanding the relationship between basket makers and local business owners (Edgar 2012).

This emerging partnership with Mount Pleasant, paired with social networks along the highway, gives basket makers the ability to maintain a traditional craft in the context of land use change. The landscape is still shifting...