I volunteer many hours a week at Penn Center's Museum. Penn Center is what remains of Penn Normal Industrial Agricultural School, the very first school established in 1862 to educate the newly freed slaves. Penn school was established several months prior to the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. Penn Center is a repository of Black History, particularly of the Gullah people. When there is a lull (not very often) between visitors I have the opportunity to read many of the books written by scholars who have studied the area. I have a sense of what my foreparents endured as slave. To survive slavery they were very strong individuals, as a result my self esteem has been raised. I feel complete not only as a mother of two beautiful children, three grandchildren, and three great grandchildren, but as a human being...... I am indeed a Gullah/GeeChee woman.