The persistence of the African practice of rice cultivation at Mars Bluff is an excellent example of the strength of the African cultural heritage.

      The story of rice growing at Mars Bluff is also an excellent example of how the African and European heritages merged.   European Americans at Mars Bluff adopted the African custom of having rice as one of the staples of their diet.  They even had a saying that was very similar to a Sierra Leone saying, “Unless we have had rice for dinner, we don’t feel like we have eaten.”

      This is just one example of how African and European heritages merged at Mars Bluff to form what is called our Southern heritage.  Similar cultural mergers can be seen in manners, social customs, vocabulary, patterns of speech, cooking, farming practices, herbal lore, music, dance, spiritual values, and relation to the land.