Black Savannah, 1788–1864

Black Community Studies

by Whittington B. Johnson

Fourth in the University of Arkansas Press series in Black Community Studies, this examination of the black community of Savannah, Georgia, during the antebellum and the Civil War periods is a groundbreaker. It begins in 1788 with the founding of Savannah’s first black public institution, an independent church, and closes in 1864 with Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s capture of Savannah and the subsequent end to slavery.

Using a wide range of primary sources, including the little-used Southern Claims Case Files, and a vast number of secondary sources, Whittington Johnson gracefully elucidates the most important features of slave and free African-American life in this period. Johnson maintains that, unlike Charleston and New Orleans, Savannah had a comparatively small population of free blacks, containing only a slim majority of mulattoes and few large property owners, a demographic that greatly affected the contours of the black class structure. Among the most interesting groups that created Savannah’s community were “nominal slaves,” slaves in name only, who lived apart from their masters, seeking and finding their own employment. Black Savannah focuses upon efforts of African Americans, free and slave, who worked together to establish and maintain a variety of religious, social, and cultural institutions; to carve out niches in the larger economy; and to form cohesive families. The result was an autonomous black community in a key city of the Old South.

Genres: History

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book from the 80s and the writing and scholarship style are from that period. But it’s got fascinating stories and tables about the economic activity and property ownership and demographics of black men and women in Savannah from after the Revolution to just at the end of the Civil War. His argument that sets him apart is that Black Savannah wasn’t segregated by mixed race versus full African descent Voeltz between and enslaved. Instead because of the unique situation in Savannah of the institution of “nominal slavery”, there was a much more cohesive black community and little overt revolt or resistance in ways that worried whites. Mixed race people were a much smaller segment of the free population than in other southern cities. Johnson lays out the roles of the churches and their early roles in uniting the groups and promoting a strong literate Black/mixed race population.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my graduate thesis research. It is an excellent text which meaningfully considers the structures and institutions that defined the Black community in Savannah in the antebellum period. Its treatment of nominal slavery is especially revealing and foundational scholarship for understanding the city in the period. The book is almost 30 years old, so there are some superficial aspects which have dated - some terminology is slightly outdated, and the work critiques cultural assumptions which have evolved by today - but the core of the work remains effective, well-sourced, and highly useful. Anyone interested in the social organization of the city, especially it's Black community, should read this book. I specifically recommend it to my friend Stella and my coworker Kid.