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Trembling Earth: A Cultural History Of The Okefenokee Swamp
This innovative history of the Okefenokee Swamp reveals it as a place where harsh realities clashed with optimism, shaping the borderland culture of southern Georgia and northern Florida for over two hundred years. From the formation of the Georgia colony in 1732 to the end of the Great Depression, the Okefenokee Swamp was a site of conflict between divergent local communities. Coining the term “ecolocalism” to describe how local cultures form out of ecosystems and in relation to other communities, Megan Kate Nelson offers a new view of the Okefenokee, its inhabitants, and its rich and telling record of thwarted ambitions, unintended consequences, and unresolved questions.
The Okefenokee is simultaneously terrestrial and aquatic, beautiful and terrifying, fertile and barren. This peculiar ecology created discord as human groups attempted to overlay firm lines of race, gender, and class on an area of inherent ambiguity and blurred margins. Rice planters, slaves, fugitive slaves, Seminoles, surveyors, timber barons, Swampers, and scientists came to the swamp with dreams of wealth, freedom, and status that conflicted in varied and complex ways. Ecolocalism emerged out of these conflicts between communities within the Okefenokee and other borderland swamps.
Nelson narrates the fluctuations, disconnections, and confrontations embedded in the muck of the swamp and the mire of its disorderly history, and she reminds us that it is out of such places of intermingling and uncertainty that cultures are forged.
The Okefenokee is simultaneously terrestrial and aquatic, beautiful and terrifying, fertile and barren. This peculiar ecology created discord as human groups attempted to overlay firm lines of race, gender, and class on an area of inherent ambiguity and blurred margins. Rice planters, slaves, fugitive slaves, Seminoles, surveyors, timber barons, Swampers, and scientists came to the swamp with dreams of wealth, freedom, and status that conflicted in varied and complex ways. Ecolocalism emerged out of these conflicts between communities within the Okefenokee and other borderland swamps.
Nelson narrates the fluctuations, disconnections, and confrontations embedded in the muck of the swamp and the mire of its disorderly history, and she reminds us that it is out of such places of intermingling and uncertainty that cultures are forged.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
262 pages, Hardcover
First published April 4, 2005
2 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Megan Kate Nelson
10 books91 followersMEGAN KATE NELSON is a writer and historian living in Lincoln, Massachusetts. I have written about the Civil War, U.S. western history, and American culture for the New York Times, Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, The Atlantic, and TIME.
I have just published "Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America" (Scribner, 2022) to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park. My previous book, "The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West" (Scribner, 2020) won a 2017 NEH Public Scholar Award and was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History.
I earned my BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and my PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa.
I have just published "Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America" (Scribner, 2022) to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park. My previous book, "The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West" (Scribner, 2020) won a 2017 NEH Public Scholar Award and was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History.
I earned my BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and my PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 9, 2024
This book was an impulse buy at the state park gift shop in the Okefenokee. Had I realized I had previous read another book by this author (Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America) I would have not done so.
The book is divided into five chapters, covering five different users of the Okefenokee: African-Americans, Native Americans, developers (primarily a failed canal company and the lumber industry), Swampers i.e. white residents, and conservationists culminating in the establishment of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Woven into all of this is the author's thesis of "ecolocalism" i.e. how competing ideas of land use and value shape the development of local culture.
The first third of the book is very weak. The African-American chapter speaks almost entirely in generalities about the relation between slavery and swampland. There is very little specific to the Okefenokee. The Native Americans chapter isn't much better. There is one particularly interesting part about an expedition through the Okefenokee during the Second Seminole War, but most of the rest speaks in generalities of the Seminole uses of swampland. "Okefenokee hinterlands" is used very broadly in this chapter. These chapters represent attempted inclusiveness without the source material to support it. The result is too little butter scraped over too much bread.
The other three chapters are better. The part about logging is focused on one specific timber company to operate in the Okefenokee, albeit by far the largest. The Swampers goes in an unexpected direction at one point, largely dismissing negative perceptions of the local white residents because of early 1900s prejudices based on eugenics. The author also periodically revisits the subject of masculinity and how various activities in the swamp played into those ideals. The Okefenokee post-1940 is pretty much limited to a brief epilogue.
There are a few photos. The lone map, reprinted from a 1930s publication, seemed inadequate.
If I had to describe this book in one word it would be "frustrating." The author is a good speaker in some online presentations I've heard, and a decent writer and researcher. However, this book is more of a thesis paper than an attempt at a complete history, and feels heavy-handed at times.
I can see how this would appeal to some modern readers, but it's not for me.
The book is divided into five chapters, covering five different users of the Okefenokee: African-Americans, Native Americans, developers (primarily a failed canal company and the lumber industry), Swampers i.e. white residents, and conservationists culminating in the establishment of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Woven into all of this is the author's thesis of "ecolocalism" i.e. how competing ideas of land use and value shape the development of local culture.
The first third of the book is very weak. The African-American chapter speaks almost entirely in generalities about the relation between slavery and swampland. There is very little specific to the Okefenokee. The Native Americans chapter isn't much better. There is one particularly interesting part about an expedition through the Okefenokee during the Second Seminole War, but most of the rest speaks in generalities of the Seminole uses of swampland. "Okefenokee hinterlands" is used very broadly in this chapter. These chapters represent attempted inclusiveness without the source material to support it. The result is too little butter scraped over too much bread.
The other three chapters are better. The part about logging is focused on one specific timber company to operate in the Okefenokee, albeit by far the largest. The Swampers goes in an unexpected direction at one point, largely dismissing negative perceptions of the local white residents because of early 1900s prejudices based on eugenics. The author also periodically revisits the subject of masculinity and how various activities in the swamp played into those ideals. The Okefenokee post-1940 is pretty much limited to a brief epilogue.
There are a few photos. The lone map, reprinted from a 1930s publication, seemed inadequate.
If I had to describe this book in one word it would be "frustrating." The author is a good speaker in some online presentations I've heard, and a decent writer and researcher. However, this book is more of a thesis paper than an attempt at a complete history, and feels heavy-handed at times.
I can see how this would appeal to some modern readers, but it's not for me.
March 19, 2024
Interesting book (read it while at the Okefenokee) but its repetitive - almost as if it each chapter was cobbled together from multiple essays . Needed a gifted editor. Also confusingly and without explanation treats all the swamp from Georgia south as if it were one. It fails to weave a compelling story from the facts, though the facts would lend themselves to one. It overuses the word "hinterland" and a completely made up word "ecolocal" when she could have just written the perfectly adequate "local ecology". No other book like it though, that I know.
September 14, 2025
Slow. Full of conjecture. More of a theory of general early swamp use than specific to the Okefenokee. Repetitious. The words 'ecolocal' and 'hinterland' are repeated so many times that it is impossible to focus on any other text. If you visited the swamp and thought you wanted to find out more stories and ways of life before your next visit, move on from this one and look elsewhere.
August 5, 2025
I hadn't really ever read any kind of history of the swamp and this, while a little short, certainly provides. The only real knock, besides brevity, is the author's attempt to establish the concept of ecolocalism, which detracts a bit.
Want to read
July 25, 2019Purchased at the ranger station in the Okefenokee during a magical camping trip in 2019
March 13, 2024
A unique place.
February 23, 2016
Megan Kate Nelson, Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2005), 262 pages including notes, index, bibliography and a few photos.
The Okefenokee Swamp is huge bog located mostly in South Georgia, just above the Florida border. Today, much of it is a National Wildlife Refuge, but before it was protected in the 1930s, the swamp existed as an unknown barrier. Nelson calls it an "edge space." The name, "Okefenokee," comes out of a Native American term meaning "trembling earth." This name describes the floating peat islands inside the swamp. Since there is only a little "solid" high ground inside the swamp, it wasn't a settled area. Prior to European immigration, there were a few native communities existing along the edges of the swamp. The interior was only probed for hunting. This changed over time as the Spanish began to populate Florida and the British began to move into Georgia. The swamp and the native populations served as a buffer between British and later Americans in the north and the Spanish in the South. Native communities began to move into the swamp during the Seminole wars of the early 19th Century, using it geographical barrier to their advantage. Another group to find the interior of the swamp beneficial were runaway slaves. At first, Georgia didn't allow slavery. However, because Africans had some immunity to the diseases that affected Europeans, and the need for new areas to expand rice plantations which had dotted the coastal plains of the Carolinas, there was a push to employ slaves. Being close to Spanish Florida, some slaves would hide out in the swamp and then try to make their ways south. Interestingly, the last group to find refuge in the swamp were poor white men who were trying to avoid conscription in the Confederate army during the Civil War and crackers who lived under the radar in the swamp, living off the bounty of the land.
After the Civil War, serious attempts were made to "conquer" the swamp. The first was a failed attempt to drain the swamp through the St. Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean. It was with hopes that the rich ground could be utilized for farming. This attempt failed to understand the geography for most of the swamp actually drains through the Suwanee River into the Gulf of Mexico. After the bankruptcy of the dredging company, the swamp fell into the hands of northern timber companies who built "mud lines" (temporary railway spurs) which allowed them to harvest much of the cypress and pine within the swamp. During this time, another group began to make the swamp their home. These "crackers" or "swampers," both worked for and were often resisted the various dredging and timber companies who were attempting to change their environment. As the timber was being harvested, the interest in birdlife in the swamp increased as various surveys were made of the birds and waterfowl within the swamp leading to the land being transferred to the government in the 1930s.
Using a historicity which she labels "ecolocalism," Nelson tells the history of the swamp through the stories of competing groups who relate to the landscape in different ways. These groups include Native Americans, slaves, colonists, developers, swampers, scientists, naturalists and tourists. This book is a distillation of her dissertation and although it has been edited into its present form, it still maintains an academic distance from her subject. Only in an opening essay does she acknowledge having been into the swamp. This lack of a personal connect makes the book seem a little aloft. She does draw upon many of the groups stories which makes the book very readable.
I read this book because of my recent move to Georgia and a desire to understand a place I am setting out to explore. This book just scratches the surface. I am even more curious now about the Okefenokee.
The Okefenokee Swamp is huge bog located mostly in South Georgia, just above the Florida border. Today, much of it is a National Wildlife Refuge, but before it was protected in the 1930s, the swamp existed as an unknown barrier. Nelson calls it an "edge space." The name, "Okefenokee," comes out of a Native American term meaning "trembling earth." This name describes the floating peat islands inside the swamp. Since there is only a little "solid" high ground inside the swamp, it wasn't a settled area. Prior to European immigration, there were a few native communities existing along the edges of the swamp. The interior was only probed for hunting. This changed over time as the Spanish began to populate Florida and the British began to move into Georgia. The swamp and the native populations served as a buffer between British and later Americans in the north and the Spanish in the South. Native communities began to move into the swamp during the Seminole wars of the early 19th Century, using it geographical barrier to their advantage. Another group to find the interior of the swamp beneficial were runaway slaves. At first, Georgia didn't allow slavery. However, because Africans had some immunity to the diseases that affected Europeans, and the need for new areas to expand rice plantations which had dotted the coastal plains of the Carolinas, there was a push to employ slaves. Being close to Spanish Florida, some slaves would hide out in the swamp and then try to make their ways south. Interestingly, the last group to find refuge in the swamp were poor white men who were trying to avoid conscription in the Confederate army during the Civil War and crackers who lived under the radar in the swamp, living off the bounty of the land.
After the Civil War, serious attempts were made to "conquer" the swamp. The first was a failed attempt to drain the swamp through the St. Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean. It was with hopes that the rich ground could be utilized for farming. This attempt failed to understand the geography for most of the swamp actually drains through the Suwanee River into the Gulf of Mexico. After the bankruptcy of the dredging company, the swamp fell into the hands of northern timber companies who built "mud lines" (temporary railway spurs) which allowed them to harvest much of the cypress and pine within the swamp. During this time, another group began to make the swamp their home. These "crackers" or "swampers," both worked for and were often resisted the various dredging and timber companies who were attempting to change their environment. As the timber was being harvested, the interest in birdlife in the swamp increased as various surveys were made of the birds and waterfowl within the swamp leading to the land being transferred to the government in the 1930s.
Using a historicity which she labels "ecolocalism," Nelson tells the history of the swamp through the stories of competing groups who relate to the landscape in different ways. These groups include Native Americans, slaves, colonists, developers, swampers, scientists, naturalists and tourists. This book is a distillation of her dissertation and although it has been edited into its present form, it still maintains an academic distance from her subject. Only in an opening essay does she acknowledge having been into the swamp. This lack of a personal connect makes the book seem a little aloft. She does draw upon many of the groups stories which makes the book very readable.
I read this book because of my recent move to Georgia and a desire to understand a place I am setting out to explore. This book just scratches the surface. I am even more curious now about the Okefenokee.
July 28, 2010
Great book! The best part is that it was written by one of my brilliant college roommies!
May 22, 2013
Excellent book full of detail into how the swamp was looked at as an industrial opportunity but usually failed. Most interesting was the attempt to drain the swamp and use it for farm land.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews