59:13
Some of my best friends uh are grand masters of the cool cut clan. How's that work? Yeah, it works fine. I know not to stay up there after the dark. You know what that mean? A noose around my neck. In the swamps of southern South Carolina are a culture and people like nowhere else. It's ghetto. Okay. It's a ghetto country. It's a ghetto. Main street is the only civilized thing you going to see. If you want to come around, come around.
This life of fake and this ain't no cornflake. This is how we do it. We out here. You get this southern atmosphere that you get in New York. You guys are northerners. You know, you don't speak a lot down south. We forget it all. It's called southern hospitality. That's what we do. At once country and hood, religious and violent, welcome and wary of outsiders. You can forget the country you're in because there's nowhere else like it. Look at Uncle Alfred over here cutting up. Cutting up gator.
He got a gator and [__] Smiling faces. Beautiful places. This place ain't all this crap. There be drugs, corruption. Remember that we came from savior, bro. Say what a crack doing here. Rock over my neighborhood. But we're funny people. If you want to see the deep south at its rawest and wildest, come with us to the swamps of South Carolina. They outspoken. That's what I like about the south. This journey ends up in a remote street among the Gulla people of St. Helena Island where it was made very clear we were not wanted.
Isn't it dangerous sometimes? Like you think we shouldn't be here. But to get there we drove for 50 miles starting here in Walterboro. What town are we in right now? Walterboro. Walter. Waltersboro, South Carolina. It's ghetto. Okay. It's a ghetto country. It's a ghetto. Main street is the only civilized thing you going to see. You don't normally hear the words ghetto and country together. If those are two kind of different things, ghetto country.
Ghetto country is ghetto. I mean, it's very poor. It's very country. But trees, animals running around. While you walk, you will see live animals like dears, rabbits. What do people do for fun around here? Get high. I'm not one of them people though. I stayed in my state. It's very There's a lot of drug addicts. So you got to be careful when somebody ask you for some money cuz they just going to get drugs. What kind of drugs are people doing around here? Crack cocaine for the most coke. Me I like part. We like everybody bother each other to be real. So you said you want to know the truth about Walter Burough.
Yeah. What's that? Smiling faces. Beautiful places. But it's really this place ain't all this crack to be. Good for the heat and where they at and in the water and the peace. You know it's warm. But the people we plagued, man. be plagued by a darkness. Drugs, corruption, police corruption, falsifying documents, lying, small town stuff, man. What do people do around here? Get drunk. Fondnicate, stuff like that. I'm one of the fighters of freedom and peace and love. I'm one of God's prophets. I'm the chosen one. They even accused me of being a pedophile, dude. So, for the last three years, they had
this cloud over me and March 2nd, they just dropped it. just dismissed the case. They didn't say it out loud. They whispered it. Dismissed. We asked someone here what it's like and they said it's ghetto country. Yeah, I just said that to you. I'm telling you how you can interpret it for the people to view it. They don't know what that means. So, I just explained it. Yeah, I know you noticed it poll. So, we making our documentary, but we on the documentary every day. You see the camera, the 360 camera, the gunshot sound recognition, the thing to hear us in there and secretly spy on us.
Listen to us right up there. That whole thing, that whole system. Yeah. If I shoot my gun right now, they'll pinpoint where it's in the area, approximate it and come right here. It's a square. They got us in a square, dude. Like a prison. One there, one there, and one here. We were here on a Sunday morning, and as we drove, we saw one packed church after another. So, we stopped into one. Thank you. If you come to Walter Burough, the best church in Walterboro St. Peters am church. What does it mean? What is religion?
What does faith mean to people in a community like this? Faith mean that when they come in on Sunday morning and they know that they excuse my friends and close your ears qu you know they catch hell all during the week and then on Sunday mornings they come to church to bring all their problems so they could release all that tension that they had during the week and just pray and thank God for delivering them through dangers seen and unseen. We all come for the same reason thanking God for what he has done for us where he has brought us from and where he's going to lead us. So we have they have that little thing called faith the south is known for hospitality you know and it's pretty cool really
pretty good but you know all a lot of these things are dying and if you don't have youth or someone coming to replace them they die you feel like that you feel like the southern hospitality it's the youth don't have the same no not the same values we can see you know the young lady even the girls man I mean it's unbelievable to see even the schools I mean you know you can see what's happening in schools you know the shooting and you know the police they're in inside the schools all day you know you got cops outside you know why you know when we were in school none of us old fashioned values can't discipline you know you got to blame the media especially music the stuff they listen to you know We came up on temptations and everything
like that. Now you will be so and you like okay we're sending the right message. What do you do about that? Got to be a star parent that all that starts at home. And see that's what has been destroyed the old family structure system. Like the little boy say you know the game is crooked but it's the only game in town. So, what do you do? Heading deeper into the swamps toward a final destination of St. Helena Island, which would prove one of the strangest places we'd ever visit. Wait a minute. That's why you invited us over here. I said, I'll tell you, Screo, you can get that out of your damn mind.
You never sell it. No. We passed through Yamasi, a town so surrounded by forests and swamps, it feels like part of nature. What do people do around here? Both for work and for fun? Fish, hunt, basically. That's about it. Serve God a higher power. Do un other as you wish them do unto you. Right. Thou shall not steal, but what if they trying to steal from me? Thou should not kill. What if they trying to kill me? Cold reality, but it's a real world out here.
You were born on this ground. Yeah. This small farm. We're the gulla aboriges. I like the olden ways. I like the southern ways. What's that? The southern ways is say you Caucasian, right? If you with me, a southern white boy, if you say he's with you, he's with you. Win, lose, or draw, he's still with you. Up north, oh yeah, I'm your friend. But then he stab you in the back. The thing about a southern friendship with a Caucasian man is they going to remain loyal. If they ain't gonna [__] with you, I ain't [__] with no [__] They ain't [__] with no [__] And they mean that. But if they [__] with you, they gonna be with you. If you
don't like me, they going to say, "I don't like you." They're not going to associate with you. They're not going to try. They're not going to smile in your face. They just going to keep it moving. That's what I like about the South. The truth is profound in their word. Where do you think people are more racist? The North or the South? North. It can't be racism if they say, "Okay, I'm a clue cut clan." Some of my best friends are grandmasters of the cool cut clan. Some of your best friends are. Yeah, some of my best friends. How's that work? Yeah, it works fine. I know not to stay up there after dark. You understand? Cuz I might be a strange fruit hanging from a tree.
You know what that mean? a noose around my neck. You guys seem to be doing a good job. It's good to document some of this stuff. You got a nice piece of land right here, man. You got the birds chirping. Yeah. Got the nice weather. You got the nice trees. You got space. Alligator in the pond. You got an alligator. Yeah. Back there in the pond. We be killing them. We be eating them, you know.
Yeah. I killed one right down the street there past that red truck. The next mailbox down. Give me one second. I'll go in the house and come out. I'll be right back. All right. This is the raccoon. I'm make a hat out of it. You're making a hat out of the [__] skin here. Yeah. This is the alligator high. You just got that. You shoot it in the head. Yeah. One shot to the head. Yeah. One shot. That way you don't damage the hide.
Smell. It smells like fish, right? Smells like a sea. Oh, it eats so good. Look at Uncle Alfred over here cutting up. Gator. He got a gator and [__] Daniel boom style. See after you dry this out. Yeah. His house. And you cure it up completely. Then you put it on a necklace. A lot of people in America have never seen a place like this. Gators coons. Different vibe. Yeah, that's a good deal. Spread the word around, man. Keep documenting.
100 years from now, they'd be looking at what you created. You did it. Nobody else did it. Even here in like the back woods of the back woods, you've got new developments coming in. I mean, the South Carolina growth doesn't stop no matter where you look. Where are we right now? We're right now we're in Yemen, South Carolina. That's how you pronounce it. Yamasi. Yami. But GPS says Yamasi. Well, it's very nice here. It's nice people here. We like to go fishing like on the water. Go fishing. Yeah. I'm sorry. Y'all make your name.
My name is Dartha Fishburn. I'm My hands are sweaty. Yeah. All right. I'm Max Frost. And we do this for real. This not for fake and this ain't no cornflake. And this is how we do it. We out of here. Now, as you see, we shot this video on a Sunday morning. And if you're anything like me, Sunday mornings can be painful because of the night before. Well, at least they used to be until I found Ziotics, the sponsor of today's video. Ziotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted
into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration, that's the blame for rough days after drinking. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Now, I actually just had my bachelor party in South Carolina. And on Sunday, the morning after, I woke up and shot a video in Asheville and then this whole South Carolina series. Without Zbiotics, it would not have been possible. If you too want to drink pre-alcohol before you go out and wake up ready for whatever Sunday brings, head to ziotics.com/roka newsws and use the code roa news at checkout for 15% off. Again, that's roa
news for 15% off. You can find the link in the description below. Now, back to South Carolina. So, there are white people here. The town's about 40% white. Yet, like in the last town we went to, the white people won't talk on camera. We did just talk to this one white person here and they said this side of town's white country bumpkin life. That side of town's black, the ghetto. They said be very careful if you're going over there. So, just to be clear, there are a lot of white people who live here that may not be represented in the conversations we're having cuz they won't go on camera.
Here, too. All the churches were packed. Hi, nice to meet you, Max. We got to get a sense of what it's like around here. It's It's nice. You guys going to stay for refreshments? I've never been here before. Oh. Oh, so you getting a southern charm. Southern charms. Southern. So everything is a dry and slow. You guys are northerners. You know, they don't speak a lot. They don't you know, but down south we get it all cuz we want you to come back.
Yeah. Missians, they look out for each other. Yeah. Food trucks. Oh, I wish y'all could stay and get some food. Yeah. I mean, driving through today on Sunday, we notice every single parking lot, the church is just packed up. Yeah. Why do you think Why is religion and faith so important to people in this part of the country? They love Jesus. They love the Lord. The Bible says train up a child in the way that they should go. And when they get older, they will not depart from it. It was those moral values. It was just those great teachings that, you know, our uh old pastors that taught us and we still going in that same traditional way.
Just got to call it real quick. We spoke to this one white woman before and she's like, "Oh, if you go over there, you gota be careful." So, we come over here. What do we encounter? Simply put, the friendliest, most welcoming people we have ever encountered. I've been to churches all over the country. I have never experienced something like this. LISTEN, I FOLLOW Y'ALL. SO, LOOK. OH, YOU SEEN US? YEAH. YEAH, I SEE Y'ALL. THAT WAS I'M TELLING YOU, MAN. That's right.
Hey, subscribe to Rocket News, man. You going to find out a lot of things. You guys are good, man. I watch them all the time. on Saturdays. Yes, sir. From here, we set off to St. Helena Island. On the way, we glimpsed a different world, the beautiful and wealthy tourist town of Bufort, where the movie Forest Gump was shot. WHY ARE YOU RUNNING? Are you doing this for world peace? Are you doing this for the home? I just felt like running. Passing the mansions and tourists here was like seeing a different world. And then it was gone as we crossed onto St.
Helena Island. Hey yo, Lamont. I'mma see if he good with it. Oh, that'd be great. Yeah. Isn't it dangerous? Sometimes like you think we should be here. My opinion dumb. So, we should get out of here. Could we like just like two minutes? Could we just ask you like what's it like around here? I mean, it's beautiful. I mean, everybody nice. Sometimes young kids get out of hand. If it was none of them around, then that would have been it. But yeah, weird.
All right, Mario. Well, thanks, man. That was one of the weirder experiences we've ever had. This guy first agreed to talk and then there were some guys out behind us and they yelled something over. Then he took out his phone. Then he said, "You guys, you guys better get out of here. It's not safe." Then another man came up, an older guy, and he said, "Best y'all leave." So, we got in the car and now we left. But it's like a rural island community, and yet the vibe is like bad city neighborhood. It's It's strange. St. Helena is extremely isolated. Unlike other islands on South Carolina's coast like Hilton Head or Kiwa, it has barely been developed. The people have been here for generations, tracing their
lineage back to freed slaves who received the land after the civil war when plantations were divied up. They're mainly Gulla people who've preserved a unique dialect and culture since being brought as slaves. For all these reasons, it feels extremely remote and people who were told can be wary of outsiders. So yeah, St. Helena Island. What's it like around here? A lot of wildlife, woods, a lot of family. Family. Everyone on the island's close. Yeah. Like everyone knows everyone. You can't go one place without knowing somebody. But what kind of wildlife?
Beers. Raccoon. Yeah. A lot of like straight dogs and stuff, too. A lot of straight dogs. We have to run from them. Yeah. Yeah. They don't be tamed. It's kind of like a country. We like ride dirt bikes and stuff here, too. Dirt bikes, four-wheelers. We like races sometimes. Cars. Yeah, it's fun living on the island. I love it. How is it different being here from other parts of California and all that? Oh, or just even like the mainland.
The people, man. Can I be passionate with you? The people like you see a lot of white people. I can I say that I have a lot of white friends. So, you got to stop and say, "Hey man, how you doing today, Mr. Craig?" or whatever. That's appreciative. Is that fair to say? Yeah. Right. And that you going to get that everywhere here on the island. There's no have no animosity against anybody. Do you think that's true? Do you think that's true for most people here or do you think most people have 90% of the people here? Yes, sir.
90%. Yeah. Remember that we came from Savior, bro. Everybody run here is like it's like what a cracker doing here rock my neighborhood. You know what I'm saying? But we're friendly people. I'm glad you stopped by and said, "Hey, Craig, I'm so and so." That makes sense. Yeah. Right. That comes from my heart. So, like, has your family been here since the slave days? Yes, sir. They probably give ran to my family and they give it to me and that's why it's so important to me. That's why land is so important here.
You ever heard about the Pine Island golf course thing we fighting? We went to war with no court the other day and it's horrible but we have to protect what we got. So they're trying to put in a golf course on Pine Island. Yes sir. And y'all don't want that. The rich are taking over the island. We just want to live humble. That make sense? Like your land here like you've had this for generations. my parents and grand. Yes, sir. But you think right now people are trying to come and buy up this land and kick you all off? I know that. I know that's true. I got family and friends. That's all they need. You see this is Hey, Rock. After the Civil War, the land on the
island, we got what we call uh heir's property and they put on heirs property. He's property is where you don't have a deed for your land. that was done when people said, "Well, all the black people could have got a deed for their property, but you couldn't get a deed because you didn't have a lawyer, a white lawyer." So, can I ask this question? What happened to all four acres in a mule? Y'all didn't get it. Well, so you promised we had 40 acres in rule, correct? I never saw the mule. That's what the government promised.
Government promised. Yeah. What happened? So after the Civil War, at some point the land was divied up and given to the black families here, but you guys didn't get the deeds. We didn't get the deeds. We didn't have lawyers that would sign deeds over and that's how we end up into heirs property, but someone would make it in a way saying that um the black people weren't smart to go ahead and get deeds, but you didn't have white lawyers that's going to say, "Whoa, we going to sign a deed over to these black people." Do you agree with him that you've got the white people coming in trying to buy up the land?
Oh, that's what happens. I had a guy who invited me and him over to dinner one day and he said, "This 8 acres of land over here, you know, on such and such property." And I was like, "Wait a minute. That's why you invited us over here. You can get that out of your damn mind." And I remember my great grandmother said, "If I sell this land, what are my great grandchildren going to have to live at?" And I would never give that up. Only way I'll give it up is inside a casket. Was Hilton Head like here? Was it all Was it Gulligi? Yes. Descendants. Yes. Yes, sir. So, Hilton Head was just like this. Yes. And now Hilton Head is massive resort island.
Yes, sir. We saw the takeover of Hilton Head. Then it was a big no. We're not going to let St. Helena get like Hilton Head. Land that I live on was in my family since the Civil War. And I don't have any plan to give it up. I don't have any plan to give it up. Whether on the island or the mainland, this region of South Carolina felt raw. From the man keeping gators in the pond to the posturch lunches and dirt roads, few parts of America have maintained such a unique identity and exist in such wild nature. We set out to understand these swamps and what we found is that their culture and people are as real as the nature is wild.
Thank you for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, make sure to subscribe. This is the final video from South Carolina, but next up, we have a series coming from Louisiana. If you like this, you're going to love that. Smash that subscribe button, and thank you so much for watching.
