Editing Gloucester County, Virginia (section)

===Guinea===
One area of Gloucester County is known as Guinea; it includes the unincorporated communities of Achilles, Maryus, Perrin, Severn, and Big Island. Located near [[Gloucester Point]], the area has been the center of the county's seafood industry. (The Atwell,Shackelford, Rowe, West, Jenkins, Green, Kellum, King and Belvin families are chief among those who have worked in the fishing industry here). Although the industry has declined, it remains a cultural core of the community. The fishermen are known locally as "Guineamen". They speak a distinct form of [[non-rhotic]], Southern English.

The name "Guinea" is of uncertain origin. Residents in this area have been referred to as "Guineamen" at least since 1730.<ref>{{cite web |title=Guinea History |url=http://www.guineaheritage.org/heritage/ |publisher=Guinea Heritage Association |access-date=November 12, 2022}}</ref>  As noted by George Dow in 1969, London physician [[George Pinckard]] referred to the master of a ship containing slaves from the [[Guinea]] coast as a "Guinea Man" in letters dating 1795.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dow |first1=George Francis |title=Slave Ships and Slaving |date=January 1, 2002 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-42111-7 |page=xxii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dwJB-iKPXsC&pg=PR22 |access-date=November 12, 2022 |language=en}}</ref>  It is likely this area was called Guinea after being used as a landing site for importation of slaves from that area. Another story, passed among the "Guineamen" is that people on the Guinea Neck were continuing to use golden [[Guinea (coin)|Guineas]] to pay for things up from about 1781–1860, the start of the [[American Civil War]].

At one time, the name was thought to have derived from the period of the American Revolutionary War. [[Loyalists]] quartered [[Hesse|Hessian]] [[mercenaries]] here who were attached to [[Cornwallis]]' army; they were paid one guinea per day. The Hessians were thought to have occupied lower Gloucester during the closing days of the Revolutionary War, or to have settled here after deserting the British. Cornwallis sent British troops and cavalry to [[Military occupation|occupy]] Gloucester in October 1781; Hessians may have been a part of that contingent due to Gloucester's strategic importance at the mouth of the York River.