As an only child, Stephanie Anderson grew up with a large, close-knit, extended family in Pin Point, Georgia—a small Gullah Geechee community founded in 1896, eleven miles southeast of Savannah, in Chatham County. Ms. Anderson was raised and influenced by several strong, independent women. One of those women was her mother, who was a nurse and loved helping people in the community. Just like her mother, Ms. Anderson loved helping people; however, because of her fear of needles and blood, she became a teacher instead. She also loves preserving Pin Point’s traditions and oral histories that are rooted in commercial and recreational fishing, shrimping, and crabbing to share with future generations.

During her summers off from high school, Ms. Anderson worked in the Varn & Son Crab Factory along with both of her grandmothers. She quickly realized that picking crabs was not for her, but she recalls the experience and describes the working conditions, personality of pickers, and her duties. Growing up in Pin Point she recalls how certain family members, including her grandmother Mrs. Bertha “Berk” Anderson and grand uncle “Bacon”, shared or sold their catch for cheap to others in the community. Only a few of Pin Point’s fourth generation residents continue to fish and sell their catch and Ms. Anderson knows each of them. Their fishing efforts are combined every other year when the community comes together to have a seafood festival to reunite and remember the past and contributions of their ancestors.