When slavery was abolished in 1863, the Gullah Geechee people of the Sea Islands settled in the lands they once worked as slaves when plantation owners abandoned their property. They continued their traditions – making sea grass baskets, burying their dead by the shore, farming vegetables and fruits and living life simply. They created their own communities steeped in religion and African traditions. Having lived this way for decades, the Gullah Geechee are believed to be one of the most authentic African American communities in the United States. Now their culture is in danger of being consumed by golf courses, resorts and million-dollar homes. Many are losing their land due to skyrocketing property taxes and their their access to traditional hunting and fishing grounds have been cut off. Large corporate fishing operations strangle the independent Gullah Geechee shrimper and oysterman. The Gullah Geechee Coast extends for hundreds of miles between Cape Fear, N.C., and the St. Johns River in Florida. In 2004, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Gullah Geechee Coast one of the 11 most endangered placed in the United States. "Unless something is done to halt the destruction, [the] Gullah Geechee culture will be relegated to museums and history books, and our nation's unique cultural mosaic will lose one of its richest and most colorful pieces," states the National Trust Website.

The farmlands of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario are among the most productive in North America. Many of the farmers in these areas are different, but different by choice. They are Old Order Mennonites, sometimes called the “Plain People,” and they trace their heritage back hundreds of years. Old Order Mennonites dress plainly and reject modern technologies, living like their 19th-century forefathers. They put the disciplined church community, rather than individual religious experience, at the center of their Christian faith. Only an estimated 17,000 adult Old Order Mennonites exist today and the numbers are dwindling. Still, families continue to pass on their traditions to younger generations. James Rhodes and his wife, Mary Ethel, are just a couple of the dozens of Old Order Mennonites who call Dayton, Va., home. The Rhodes were born and raised in the small rural community, and now they are raising their nine children as Old Order Mennonites as well.