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Legend of the Boo Hag: Gullah Culture in the Southeast U.S.

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       From the sixteenth century until the federal law of The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807, British American colonies, or later the United States of America was importing slaves from Africa via the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. The southeast, notably Georgia and South Carolina, relied on skilled slave labor to uphold farms and the crops that grew there such as rice, corn, sugar, and of course: cotton. In this region, coastal ports such as the Savannah and Charleston ports played a huge role in importing Africans for them to be dispersed and sold. It is believed that up to half of the enslaved Africans transported into the British American colonies were brought through the Charleston port. And the Savannah port, beginning in the late 1700s, also brought many of the remaining enslaved Africans into the colonies. Most of the imported slaves in this area came from West Africa because of the natives’ knowledge of rice agriculture. Today, many of the descendants of the slave

Legend Of Sea Serpents: Reports, History, and Possible Explanations

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The notion of an unknown sea monster has long been a part of our history. Since the ancient times, such creatures have appeared as mythological figures in literature, art, and oral accounts, most likely branching from Indo-European culture. The Hebrew bible, for example, has several mentions of sea monsters such as Rahab, the “demonic angel of the sea,” and the Leviathan, which has been widely adopted in video games and in the 1989 horror film bearing the same name. Sea serpents were described to be aquatic dragons without wings or four legs, something like Hydra and Scylla in Ancient Greek mythology. However, as time progressed from the ancient times, sailors began seeing these very same sea monsters on their oceanic voyages. They were quickly becoming something not only of mythology, but also of reality. Beginning in the 1500s, sightings gradually increased. In his 1555 book History of the Northern People’s, Olaus Magnus writes about a 200 foot long aquatic serpent living near the co

Legend Of J'Ba Fofi and Giant Spiders

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                                     J’Ba Fofi translates to “giant spider” in the Baka people’s language in the Congolese forests. The Congo basin is 500 million acres and the world’s second largest tropical rainforest, and it is home to a vast variety of wildlife, including endangered primates, elephants, and 10,000 species of tropical plants. The Baka represent the area’s population, and since the late nineteenth century, they and foreign travelers have been reporting a man-eating giant spider. Described to have a leg span of 4-6 feet in adulthood, the J’Ba Fofi, or sometimes called the Giant Congolese Spider, is said to operate like a trapdoor species. Sometimes, witnesses report funnel trapdoors located in or below tree roots, and sometimes it creates webs spanning from tree to tree, and lays a trip line web to alert itself of any prey. It’s massive and sturdy webs catch anything that crosses its path, and then the creature emerges: a dark brown spider resembling a tarantula, wi

Legend Of Bigfoot

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Bigfoot is described to be a bipedal, hairy, humanoid creature that typically lurks in lightly populated areas. These creatures are said to resemble a mix of monkey and man. Although approximately one third of sightings occur in the Pacific Northwest, many societies have reportedly seen similar creatures: in the Himalayas and Russia the Yeti , in Malaysia the Orang Mawas , in South America the Mapinguari , in Australia the Yowie , and in China the Yeren or the “Man-Monkey” just to name a few. In Medieval Europe, the “ wild man ” was a hairy mythical being depicted in artwork and described in literature. Historians agree it was most likely influenced by the faun or satyr borrowed from the Greco-Roman culture that was flooding into Europe at the time. Throughout history, many societies have left behind signs (which were most likely related to lore, tales, or religion) telling of a similar creature to bigfoot, perhaps the same. Modern sightings of Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, usually take plac