Sapelo Island

Images of America: Georgia

by Buddy Sullivan

The barrier islands of the south Atlantic coastline have for years held a deep attraction for all who have come into contact with them. Few, however, can compare with the mystique of Sapelo Island, Georgia. This unique semitropical paradise evokes a time long forgotten, when antebellum cotton plantations dominated her landscape, all worked by hundreds of black slaves, the descendants of whom have lived in quiet solitude on the island for generations. For more than 50 years of the twentieth century, two millionaires held sway on Sapelo, and it is their story, interwoven with that of the island's residents, that unfolds within the pages of this book. Almost 200 photographs provide testimony to the dynamic forces and energies implanted upon Sapelo by two men, Howard E. Coffin, a Detroit automotive pioneer, and Richard J. Reynolds Jr., heir to a huge North Carolina tobacco fortune. Beginning with a photographic essay about Sapelo's antebellum plantation owner, Thomas Spalding, Sapelo Island moves into the primary focus of the story, the years from 1912 to 1964, an era of grandeur that has left a rich photographic legacy.

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2000

Reviews

[Claudia Vieira · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book before visiting Sapelo Island so I could learn more about the history and cultures of the island. I have a friend who is a descendant of former slaves there, who were named Spalding after their plantation slave owner.

Buddy Sullivan lauds Spalding as having been kind to his slaves. How nice for them! The book talks more about the architecture of the buildings on the island than about the history and culture of the descendants of slaves who have lived there. Shameless white washing! Why bother writing about the island if you don't want to look at the history of the people who lived there?

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buddy Sullivan continues to share the documentary history of Sapelo, the UGA Marine Institute, and MacIntosh County, Georgia. Among the great Sapelo images here are more than a few panorama photos (as usual, in B&W) and that makes this above-average in this series. The printing, as usual, always seems to leave something to be desired, but the spread of panorama images across two page really works.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I realize this book only covers the history of the island while some millionaires owned it, and for that, I guess it tells the story fine, the pictures are nice. It leaves me wanting more of a history of the people who lived and worked there, before and during the time frame of the book. Oh well.