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Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Herman Bell Interview with Jim Milligan, Christiana Milligan, and Nettie Whaley #20161, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Acquisitions information unknown (Acc. 20201008.1).

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Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Anne Wells, Meredith Kite, October 2020

Encoded by: Anne Wells, October 2020

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Archival processing of the Herman Bell Interview with Jim Milligan, Christiana Milligan, and Nettie Whaley was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American proverbs--South Carolina.
• African Americans--South Carolina--Folklore.
• African Americans--South Carolina--Interviews.
• Bell, Herman, 1933-
• Edisto Island (S.C.)--Social life and customs
• Folklore--South Carolina.
• Gullahs--Folklore.
• Gullahs--Sea Islands--History.
• Gullahs--Social life and customs.
• Milligan, Christiana.
• Milligan, Jim.
• Sea Islands Creole dialect.
• South Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Storytelling--South Carolina.
• Tales--South Carolina.
• Whaley, Nettie.

• Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes #30025

Herman Bell (1933-) is a white professor, Nubian languages researcher, and author. He received his M.Litt. in Ancient Egyptian and Coptic from the University of Oxford in 1962, his M.A. in Linguistics: African Languages and History from Northwestern University in 1966, and his Ph.D. in Linguistics: Nubian Languages and Geographical Names from Northwestern University in 1968. Bell was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1968 to 1972. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and the Dean of Graduate Studies at Azad University IR in Oxford.

Biographical information found in Bell's curriculum vitae.

Open reel audio recording of an interview conducted in Gullah, a Sea Island Creole dialect, with Jim Milligan, Christiana Milligan, and Nettie Whaley, all African American residents of Edisto Island, S.C., about life on Edisto Island. Topics discussed include the local environment, effects of the Civil War, houses, food, fishing, and schools. Also included are Brer Rabbit and Brer Cooter stories, proverbs, and animal tales. Recorded by Herman Bell, a white University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty member in the Department of Linguistics, during the summer of 1967, probably at Milligan's home on Edisto Island, S.C. The collection also contains supporting documentation prepared by former Southern Folklife Collection staff. Documentation consists of tape logs, which include information about the collector and informants and descriptions of content.

• Audiotape (FT-1200)
• Field Notes (Folder 532), Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes #30025