“C” is for Christensen, Abby Mandana Holmes (1852-1938)

“C” is for Christensen, Abby Mandana Holmes (1852-1938). Folklorist. Born in Westborough, Massachusetts in 1852, Christiansen moved to South Carolina with her abolitionist family in 1864. A pioneer in the field of African American folklore, she published her first story, “De Wolf, De Rabbit an’ de Tar Baby.” Her career as a collector of Gullah folklore culminated in her book Afro American Folklore as Told ‘Round Cabin Fires on the Sea Islands of South Carolina (1892). In 1891 Christiansen was a founding member of the South Carolina Equal Rights Association. In 1902 she opened the Port Royal Agricultural School, a boarding and day school for African American children located in rural Beaufort County. In 1914, Abbie Mandana Holmes Christensen, together with her daughter and other South Carolina club women, formed the South Carolina Equal Suffrage League.